POP3 subfolder keeps disappearing - so I restore from backup and it disappears again.
Under Local Folders>Inbox I have lots of folders. One of them keeps vanishing. In the profile location when I drill down I can see Online orders.sbd and Online orders.msf but the file without the extension is missing. I can restore from a backup that is a few days old and it works for a while, but then it goes missing again. I've tried renaming the folder (it was Online orders, then aOnline orders and now bOnline orders), but it still vanishes. I don't know if the disappearances are timed with anything in particular.
Any ideas? There are 30 other folders that still work fine. That particular file is 187MB The file isn't in my trash. I've been using this file structure for years and years and it started disappearing about a month ago.
All Replies (2)
re :In the profile location when I drill down I can see Online orders.sbd and Online orders.msf but the file without the extension is missing.
That explains why you cannot see it. So you are correct. You should see:
- Online orders.sbd
- Online orders
- Online orders.msf
'Online Orders' no extension would be a top level folder and any of it's subfolders would be contained in the 'Online orders.sbd' folder. The Online orders.msf is just an index file used by Thunderbird - it contains no emails.
Please note: Thunderbird must not be running - so exit first. Access profile folders. copy paste the backup 'Online orders' no extension file back into the same folder that contains the 'Online orders.sbd' folder. Delete the 'Online orders.msf' file - it gets recreated when you start Thunderbird.
Files should not be auto deleted by anything, but that does not prevent some software especially Anti-Virus products trying to fix files and end up deleting the entire file because the AV cannot understand that an email is just a small part of the entire file, so it kills all of it.
Suggest you see if you have something scanning files eg: Anti-Virus Access Anti-virus and set the Thunderbird profile folder exempt from any scanning by anything.
Have you ever deleted any emails fromn 'Online orders' folder ? Have you ever moved emails from 'Online orders' folder into another folder or subfolder ? If you have answered yes to either or both of the above: Have you compacted the 'Online orders' folder to remove all those old deleted references to emails that no longer exist in 'Online orders' ? If no then do it as it may reduce that file size. Then create a new backup.
Thanks very much for the speedy response!
I haven't been deleting the .msf file when restoring from backup so I'll do that now.
I only have Windows Defender and built-in Windows Anti-Virus. The last few times I've noticed it scanning, it has reported no problems.
My backup software trawls through looking for updated files, but I don't have 2-way synchronisation turned on, so it shouldn't be deleting anything.
I don't as a rule delete emails from within folders, as I tend to drag them in manually once I've decided they are worth keeping. As you can tell this particular folder is full of online receipts and tracking info for online orders. Nor do I tend to move them out of that particular folder.
I've never compacted any 'current' folders, only archived ones. So I can try that too. It completed in a couple of seconds and said 16.3MB saved).
As a workaround for now I've created a new folder called 2023-online orders and I'm putting new emails in there. That way, the backup of the one that keeps deleting will always be up-to-date (just in case it's related to an email in there).