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Lost email folders several months ago, can you retrieve them?

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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My pc was restored and upon doing that, all my emails and saved emails in folders were lost. Is there any way to retrieve them?

My pc was restored and upon doing that, all my emails and saved emails in folders were lost. Is there any way to retrieve them?

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re :My pc was restored

What do you mean by 'restored'? some people use the word restored but actually mean something else.

If you mean the computer was restored to factory settings then it may have been reformatted and OS reinstalled, then everything on that computer was wiped.

If you mean you used the option to Refresh your PC without affecting your files, then the without affecting your files only refers to files that are in Windows folders like 'Documents' , it does not refer to files and folders created by programs that were not installed with the OS. I've read the info at this link and it does not make it clear enough. Whilst it says the programs will be uninstalled, it does not specifically say that files and folders stored in eg: Appdata > Roaming> Thunderbird will also be deleted.

If you 'Restored' to an earlier point in time. System Restore doesn’t change your personal files, but it might remove recently installed apps and drivers. So, it could have removed files in Appdata folder. It depends on the restore point.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc

So can you clarify what 'restored' means from your point of view.

What you can do is check to see what is in these places. check the Recycle Bin. If you have a folder on desktop called 'windows.old', check contents. check your Thunderbird Profiles folder to see if there is an additional profile folder name. check to see if your profiles have mail accounts that are not being shown in Thunderbird.

To quickly check in thunderbird: make hidden files and folders visible.

In Thunderbird Help > troubleshooting Information click on 'show fodler' button a new window opens showing the contents of your current profile.

Check for more profiles. Click on the directory 'Profiles' and look in the drop down. See image below. In my example there is only one profile called xxxxxxxx.default and I'm open on that profile. Note: Profile folder name is usually a load of letters and numbers followed by .default. Do you have more than one Profile folder? If yes, select the other profile and then click on 'Mail' folder. You will see a list of mail account folders including Local Folders. Are there any mail accounts listed?

If no, check to see if there are additional mail accounts you are not seeing. Click on 'Mail' folder. What do you see ? Please report back stating exactly what is there. Post an image if it helps to explain it easier.

If using Windows then your Thunderbird Profile folder should be here: C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>\