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folder structure not showing correctly

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  • Last reply by Matt

justwanttoUSEthisstuff
justwanttoUSEthisstuff
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Thunderbird 38.2.0, Windows 10.

I wanted to rename a folder ("Shopping", which contains vendor subfolders) to be all caps. Since idiot computers expect us to conform to their idea that upper and lowercase are the same, I used the usual trick of an intermediary... "Shopping" --> "SHOPPINGX" --> "SHOPPING". A bit later I went to file a shopping email in one of the "SHOPPING" subfolders and it doesn't have any subfolders at all! If I look into the profile I'm using with windows Explorer I find it has both a "Shopping.sdb" and a "SHOPPINGX.sdb" folder, both of which contain all the subfolders. It only has no-extension and .msf version of "SHOPPING". It also shows a "PHOTOGRAPHYX" folder which does not appear in the Thunderbird folder structure. This is possibly an earlier folder I renamed to uppercase that I did not realize had disappeared.

What's going on with folder renaming? How can the profile not match what I see in Thunderbird?

For some other folders I can see a no-extension filename and a filename with an .msf extension, but no .sdb extension. Are .sdb files only ones that have subfolders?

Where can I find what all the file extensions in the profile mean and contain? I've sure not found the magic search term to find this OBVIOUS bit of documentation.

What can I do to get Thunderbird to show all the folders and subfolders?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Thunderbird 38.2.0, Windows 10. I wanted to rename a folder ("Shopping", which contains vendor subfolders) to be all caps. Since idiot computers expect us to conform to their idea that upper and lowercase are the same, I used the usual trick of an intermediary... "Shopping" --> "SHOPPINGX" --> "SHOPPING". A bit later I went to file a shopping email in one of the "SHOPPING" subfolders and it doesn't have any subfolders at all! If I look into the profile I'm using with windows Explorer I find it has both a "Shopping.sdb" and a "SHOPPINGX.sdb" folder, both of which contain all the subfolders. It only has no-extension and .msf version of "SHOPPING". It also shows a "PHOTOGRAPHYX" folder which does not appear in the Thunderbird folder structure. This is possibly an earlier folder I renamed to uppercase that I did not realize had disappeared. What's going on with folder renaming? How can the profile not match what I see in Thunderbird? For some other folders I can see a no-extension filename and a filename with an .msf extension, but no .sdb extension. Are .sdb files only ones that have subfolders? Where can I find what all the file extensions in the profile mean and contain? I've sure not found the magic search term to find this OBVIOUS bit of documentation. What can I do to get Thunderbird to show all the folders and subfolders? Thanks for any suggestions!

All Replies (1)

Matt
Matt
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Lets juts correct something. Idiot Windows knows nothing of upper and lower case. UNIX,Linux and OSX do. They consider Shopping SHOPPING shopping and shoPPing as four different files.

Now you complicate that as some mail servers (IMAP) undestand case and others do not. Most do. Microsoft's do not. Seeing a trend here?

Are .sdb files only ones that have subfolders?

The are not files, they are folders. I would hope you can open that sdb folder and see the files that represent the sub folders.

Where can I find what all the file extensions in the profile mean and contain? I've sure not found the magic search term to find this OBVIOUS bit of documentation.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Files_and_folders_in_the_profile_-_Thunderbird While you might consider it obvious documentation. The average user would consider such information useless, to complex and irrelevant. My guess is you come from an earlier computing era when we had printed manuals and FTFM was something people actually did.

I can see a no-extension filename and a filename with an .msf extension

That is the MBOX file with your mail and it's accompanying index (MSF)