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Cant retrieve emails from backed up profile

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  • Last reply by david

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Hi

I recently did a fresh install on my computer and had backed up my Thunderbird profile folder however after reinstalling and placing the backed up profile files into the profiles directory I cant see any of my folders or saved emails.

Hi I recently did a fresh install on my computer and had backed up my Thunderbird profile folder however after reinstalling and placing the backed up profile files into the profiles directory I cant see any of my folders or saved emails.

All Replies (3)

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Please share the steps you took to back up the profile and I'll try to assist from there. Thank you.

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Hi David

Just prior to formatting I copied the Profiles folder from the Thunderbird folder in AppData to a separate drive. After formatting and reinstalling I initially tried just putting the data from the backup folder into the new profiles folder without any success. I then tried creating a new profile and copying the info from the backup folder into the new profile folder again with no success.

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My guess is that you copied the profile while Thunderbird was running, which creates a corrupt profile. However, the message folders can be saved (e.g., inbox, inbox.msf) by copying them to Mail\Local folders of a new profile. The addressbook (abook.sqlite) can also be salvaged.