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How do I open individual emails found by a desktop search program?

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

RBlanc
RBlanc
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My Agent Ransack desktop search found a search string (that is present in 2-3 emails) in 3 places under the Thunderbird\Profiles\ directory:

  1. 1:

C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dl523di9.default\Mail\Local Folders\My Folders.sbd\Local Folders.sbd\{myfoldername1}.sbd\{myfoldername2}.sbd\{myfoldername3}.mozmsgs\7104A0968566AE479E8F100BE66A8D6F01197DC068%40mail3.Rockford.edu.wdseml

NOTE -- The above address OPENS that message in Thunderbird BUT it shows it in plain text with no formatting, hyperlinks, etc. , i.e. if it had an image and other html stuff, I'm sure it wouldn't display -- quite useless to me.

  1. 2

C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dl523di9.default\Mail\Local Folders\My Folders.sbd\Local Folders.sbd\!Sent Items With the Hits panel showing:

C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dl523di9.default\Mail\Local Folders\My Folders.sbd\Local Folders.sbd\!Sent Items 151,074 KB File 2016-06-25 3:55:09 PM 2016-06-17 5:38:08 PM 2016-06-25 4:01:00 PM 1 1747557

That last number probably the location of the message in the file.

NOTE -- The above address does NOT open in Thunderbird. (Sure it's a compacted string of emails but how do I get the individual messages sound in this search?)

  1. 3

C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dl523di9.default\global-messages-db.sqlite (299,520.00 KB, 2016-06-25 6:03:14 PM)

Showing TWO separate hits from that file, one at location 755409 and a second at 4537727

NOTE -- The above address does NOT open in Thunderbird. (Sure it's a compacted string of emails but how do I get the individual messages sound in this search?)

Agent ransack will display the paragraph in which the hit occurs, but not the headers and not he whole message. So how do I reach the original file directly? I often search for strings that occur in my numerous text, .PDF, .HTM files , etc., as well as email messages and I want to go through them all without having to switch programs and redo the search in order to get the emails? This worked fine when all messages were in .eml format previous to my switch to Thunderbird, but you probably have a way to do this I missed.

I noticed an option under Options > Advanced "Message Store Type for new Accounts" offering "File per message" -- I checked it but I didn't know about it before installing my main email account and importing my old Local Folders (from Windows Live Mail) using ImportExportTools. If i Imported those folders again, would the new Local Folders now be stored "File per message"?

Thanks for your help.

RBlanc

My Agent Ransack desktop search found a search string (that is present in 2-3 emails) in 3 places under the Thunderbird\Profiles\ directory: #1: C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dl523di9.default\Mail\Local Folders\My Folders.sbd\Local Folders.sbd\{myfoldername1}.sbd\{myfoldername2}.sbd\{myfoldername3}.mozmsgs\7104A0968566AE479E8F100BE66A8D6F01197DC068%40mail3.Rockford.edu.wdseml NOTE -- The above address OPENS that message in Thunderbird BUT it shows it in plain text with no formatting, hyperlinks, etc. , i.e. if it had an image and other html stuff, I'm sure it wouldn't display -- quite useless to me. #2 C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dl523di9.default\Mail\Local Folders\My Folders.sbd\Local Folders.sbd\!Sent Items With the Hits panel showing: C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dl523di9.default\Mail\Local Folders\My Folders.sbd\Local Folders.sbd\!Sent Items 151,074 KB File 2016-06-25 3:55:09 PM 2016-06-17 5:38:08 PM 2016-06-25 4:01:00 PM 1 1747557 That last number probably the location of the message in the file. NOTE -- The above address does NOT open in Thunderbird. (Sure it's a compacted string of emails but how do I get the individual messages sound in this search?) #3 C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dl523di9.default\global-messages-db.sqlite (299,520.00 KB, 2016-06-25 6:03:14 PM) Showing TWO separate hits from that file, one at location 755409 and a second at 4537727 NOTE -- The above address does NOT open in Thunderbird. (Sure it's a compacted string of emails but how do I get the individual messages sound in this search?) Agent ransack will display the paragraph in which the hit occurs, but not the headers and not he whole message. So how do I reach the original file directly? I often search for strings that occur in my numerous text, .PDF, .HTM files , etc., as well as email messages and I want to go through them all without having to switch programs and redo the search in order to get the emails? This worked fine when all messages were in .eml format previous to my switch to Thunderbird, but you probably have a way to do this I missed. I noticed an option under Options > Advanced "Message Store Type for new Accounts" offering "File per message" -- I checked it but I didn't know about it before installing my main email account and importing my old Local Folders (from Windows Live Mail) using ImportExportTools. If i Imported those folders again, would the new Local Folders now be stored "File per message"? Thanks for your help. RBlanc

All Replies (3)

Matt
Matt
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See that mozmsg stuff. That is the space wasting text files that allow windows dumb search to search mails. Thunderbird does not use them for anything.

As the wdseml files contain no attachments and no HTML what you see is what you get, a plain text nothing really.

Personally I turn of the windows search option. Save the Gigabytes of space the text files consume. In my case there were hundreds of thousands of them, and use Thunderbird's own search.

So unless you have a program that can understand Mbox files and display individual emails, your Ransack is just turning up a load of useless hits to indexes and other data that is totally without value in viewing the actual mail. Thunderbird is not designed to support any sort of external search of it's data files.

1.1 Useless Windows search data. 1.2 .a The actual mail store file in mbox format. (all mail for the folder "Sent Items" including deleted uncompacted items. 1.2.b the MSF index Thunderbird uses into the mbox file in MORK format. 1.3 Thunderbird's own global index file in SQLITE format.

I noticed an option under Options > Advanced "Message Store Type for new Accounts" offering "File per message"

See I noticed an option under Options > Advanced "Message Store Type for new Accounts" offering "File per message"

Probably not a good idea at this time. But testers that do not mind loosing some mail from time to time are welcome.

RBlanc
RBlanc Question owner
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Thanks for the info and advice, Matt.

What I have done is grabbed all my old .eml files from a backup of my previous Windows Live Mail folders prior to my switch to Thunderbird with the Windows 10 "upgrade" (i.e. latr 1999 to June 16, 2016) and placed them in an Email Archive folder in my Documents directory. When found on a desktop search these open in their original form.

Now, can I periodically export my saved emails from TB into the .eml format by any chance?

Thanks -- and I'll get rid of that File per message check.

RBlanc

Zenos
Zenos
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File|Save As|Text or maybe just drag-and-drop will save messages as eml files. The ImportExportTools add-on helps you do it in bulk.

Apart from the issues described by Matt, mbox and maildir stores are hard to search because the filenames have no extensions and hence no discernible "type" to use as a mask when setting up a search. I guess with maildir you could limit the search to the current folder, but then you'd be hardly any better off than using Thunderbird's own search tools, since you have to choose which folder to search.

I have used Wingrep when desperate and when I'm not too sure of the exact spelling of the word or the formulation of the text I'm seeking. But it's slow and inefficient because it's hard to limit the search to just the likely files. You should be able to find similar utilities for other OSes, and on a Mac or Linux, there is almost always going to be a command line version of grep.