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How can I recover a series of old emails stored on my computer in thunderbird

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by Zenos

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I see the folder in AppData Profiles etc. there is an INBOX folder with 2 gb of data, is there a way to open that folder to see if the emails I need are inside? I recently changed the email set up from POP to IMAP and I think this is when the emails may have been lost. I am looking on the computer that the emails were written on. I really need the emails, I hope they are recoverable.

I see the folder in AppData Profiles etc. there is an INBOX folder with 2 gb of data, is there a way to open that folder to see if the emails I need are inside? I recently changed the email set up from POP to IMAP and I think this is when the emails may have been lost. I am looking on the computer that the emails were written on. I really need the emails, I hope they are recoverable.

All Replies (3)

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Use this add-on:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

to import the mbox files.

For future reference, always add a new account rather than changing an existing one.

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Hi, Can you give me a little more detail on how to do this. If I download the add on, - then do I use the add on to open the file? or do I need to use the add on to find and then open the file with the emails in it.

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The only thing I can think of to make use of your "Inbox" file is to import it into Thunderbird. Whilst some of its contents may be visible if you open it in a text editor, much of its content will only make sense to an email program. Hence importing it into Thunderbird seems to be the most appropriate way forward.

The add-on will help you do that. Install the add-on. Then select your Local Folders account, look in Tools, or right-click, and look for the options to import mailbox files and their subfolders.