Email moved from Outbox to Drafts has disappeared - where to?
I have laptop that only connects to the internet a few times per day. I had an email sitting in the Outbox ready to send. I wanted to add something to it, so I dragged it to the Drafts folder. After a few seconds it appeared in the list view of the Drafts folder. I double-clicked it to open it but it disappeared. I can't see it in drafts. It's no longer in the Outbox. Where would it be?
All Replies (3)
Has this procedure worked for you in the past?
I view both Drafts and Outbox as special folders, managed by Thunderbird and it wouldn't have occurred to me to drag and drop into either of them. So I don't know what it does when you do this. I'd use Edit As New to work on an existing message, then take care to delete the older version.
Use the Global Search to see if it can be found anywhere in the message store.
Global search doesn't reveal anything, unfortunately.
I don't see what is so special about Drafts and Outbox. They are folders. If they are not, ThunderBird should not present them as folders. If dragging and dropping is not going to work, ThunderBird should not allow dragging and dropping to work.
It should not be up to the user to develop a special sixth sense (aka experience).
Try this.
Make hidden folders visible: open a Windows Explorer window and choose "Organize → Folder and Search Options → Folder Options → View (tab) → Show hidden files and folders". More info;
In Thunderbird
- Help > Troubleshooting Information
- click on 'show Folder' button
- a new window will open showing Profile folder.
- Close Thunderbird now - this is important.
- click on 'Mail' folder
- click on 'Local Folders'
- Open 'Unsent Messages' file (not .msf) using Notepad.
- Scroll down and look for the email. It will start with lines like this:
From - Fri Jan 02 16:46:34 2015 X-Mozilla-Status: 0809
- Change the X-Mozilla-Status: 0809 to say 0800
- Save the file and then close the file.
- Then delete the 'Unsent Messages.msf' file.
Restart Thunderbird. Look in 'Outbox'. You should see the email.
To open and edit. Right click on email and choose 'Edit as new message' You can then save as a Draft and continue working.
Modified by Toad-Hall