It sounds as though your Gmail in Thunderbird was set up as a POP account rather than an IMAP account. POP accounts download from the Inbox, while IMAP accounts create a local "mirror" of the server where local replicas of your server-based folders are kept synchronized.

IMPORTANT: Do not delete the POP account! Stand by for suggestions.

If I had this problem, I would try creating a second connection to Gmail using IMAP, copy the mail from its current folder into the local replica Inbox, and have Thunderbird synchronize the missing mail back to the server. But I haven't tried it myself.

Hopefully a Thunderbird expert can explain the safest way to make the transition.

What is your return deadline?

Please make a backup of your Thunderbird profile folder. You can find it using the steps in this article: Profiles - Where Thunderbird stores your messages and other user data.

Thank you SO MUCH for such a quick reply.

This is what I mean about no WINDOWS 10 information:

"The location of the folder will vary according to the operating system (and whether or not you specified a non-default location when you created the profile)"

"C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\ folder, which depends on your Windows user account name"

On my to-be-returned Windows 10 (deadline of 01/03/16, but $433 CASH REFUND ASAP!), THERE IS NO SUCH PATH/NO "APPPDATA URL, WHATSOEVER.

And that TBIRD application HAS NO MENU BAR.

I activate Thunderbird.exe, it goes directly to my list of e-mail accounts, with tabs for Get Messages, Write, Chat, Get Address Book, Tag, Quick Filter, and Search.

I don't even see an "About" tab to tell you which version of TBird I'm using.

The AppData folder is hidden by default. You can use a shortcut to access it: type or paste the following into the Windows search bar (or into the Run dialog) and press Enter to search/run it (include the % signs):

%APPDATA%

But it's probably easier to set Windows to show hidden files and folders so you can actually see where you're going. This article has the steps: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hidden-files

Regarding the menu bar, like many Windows applications these days, you can display Thunderbird's menu bar temporarily by pressing and releasing the Alt key. With that showing, you may be able to display the bar permanently using a selection on the View menu (I don't have Thunderbird on this computer to check).

Again, thank you very much for taking your time to give me information and links.

FWIW, I am 65+ years old. My first computer was an XT (1985?), then a Millennium (that I stll have), then an XP that crashed and burned on December 8,2015.

In the business world, I was originally a licensed CPA/auditor.

I have an MBA from UCLA with dual majors in Marketing/Finance and Computer Information Systems.

In 4Q 2007 as an independent consultant, I was a Quality Assurance Analyst, System Tester, and Business Analyst at the Federal Reserve of Chicago .

My entire business career required that I keep "evidence" of any problems I found, so I constantly used the PrtScn button on every keyboard with or without CTRL/ALT buttons to get full screen shots or just the active window (error messages). Yet, Microsoft doesn't even include the PrtScn button in its keyboard shortcuts "article"?

Even the Windows 10 "Search" is a fiasco! WHY DOES A SINGLE SEARCH SHOWS RESULTS FOR WEB *AND* FILES . And the search results don't even allow *sorting* in any of the displayed columns?

What happened to CTRL-F (FIND to a left column to allow a combination of search for file names (including extensions) and/or words in a file?

With Windows 10, Microsoft violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, because I can't even read what I typed into the CTRL-F search-

I have been absolutely flabbergasted to realize that Google searches are required to figure out the "changes"(and, more often than not, it's *technical* sites, not Microsoft or Dell, that have ----the necessary information for the "older/regular" functions to work).

Regarding Thunderbird keeping its USER DATA in hidden files, I finally realized that I had selected to see Hidden Files on my "new" WIN10 computer, not my "old/to be returned" WIN 10 computer.

However, after that update although I *did* find AppData, I only seemed to find Mozilla/Firefox, not Mozilla/Thunderbird. I even added a shortcut to thunderbird.exe on the C drive, just like I had for Firefox. No luck.

Any additional help would be appreciated. However, I am now 99% positive that I will be forced into simply DELETING THUNDERBIRD ENTIRELY, and losing all of the several thousand e-mails downloaded/deleted from server by Thunderbird

IF ANYONE AT MOZILLA EVEN CARES, I WILL NOW ACTIVELY DISCOURAGE ANYONE T FROM EVER USING THUNDERBIRD (AND MOZILLA'S FIREFOX).

Read down past the Mozilla folder in the Roaming folder. Thunderbird should be at that same level and not nested inside the Mozilla folder.

C:\Users\your-username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

Is this another example of Windows operating systems having different Thunderbird locations?

WHAT WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEM ARE *YOU* USING?

BOTH of my Windows 10 computers have this path: C:\Users\your-username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla

Only Firefox and extensions subdirectories show in the Mozilla folder - NO THUNDERBIRD.

Funk4Crunk said

C:\Users\your-username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla

Only Firefox and extensions subdirectories show in the Mozilla folder

That's what I'm telling you, it's not in there. Look for this:

C:\Users\your-username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

There is no such subdirectory in EITHER WINDOWS 10 computer.

What operating system do *you* have? VISTA?

I used Thunderbird on Windows 7. I later upgraded that system to Windows 10 for testing, but it is no longer my main computer.

If your Thunderbird data folder is not in its default location, try searching for it.

Unfortunately, "try searching for it" is another failure in Windows 10.

As I mentioned related to the CTRL-F failure.

The "web or files" search gives me links to WEBSITES, not to my Thunderbird DIRECTORY.

It also "runs forever" with no indication as to how many results were found, with no ability to sort on object name or date.

Again, I appreciate your help (the ONLY HELP I have received).

I am now 99.9% certain that I will totally delete Thunderbird from *both* computers, and Firefox from the "to-be-returned" computer.

I just wish I had a computer that did the same functions as my crashed XP!:(

Have a good night (and a Happy New Year!)

I'm not sure why you keep harping on deleting Thunderbird. The goal is to find and restore your mail, and in the short run, to back up the data so you can return this computer without losing those messages. Can we focus on that?

I don't have Windows 10 handy, but according to this article, there's a button to limit the search results to "My Stuff": http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/getstarted-search-for-anything-cortana

If that doesn't work, what if you call up a Windows Explorer window (hold down the "Windows" key and press E), select the C:\Users path as a starting point, and then check for a search box to the upper right, like in Windows 7? That usually will search from there on down into the folder hierarchy.

Meanwhile, you may want to search for instructions to import from your Thunderbird mail files, assuming we find them, into Eudora.

There was supposed to have been a way to import Eudora e-mails into *Thunderbird*. Apparently, that was only an older version of Thunderbird.

And Eudora only works on Windows 10 WITH A "TRICK".

There is NO WAY I WILL GAMBLE MY 74 *gig* of Eudora e-mails that I JUST GOT WORKING ON CHRISTMAS EVE WITH FAST SEARCH INDEXING.

BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER!

Okay, then it's back to Plan A, which is to back up your Thunderbird data so you can return this computer. Then use Thunderbird or another program other than Eudora to restore your missing emails to your Gmail mailbox.

1. This whole thread has been about not knowing where the DATA TO BACKUP IS and

2. THUNDERBIRD CAN'T RESTORE WHAT IT DELETED FROM MY GMAIL WEBMAIL, BECAUSE IT DIDN'T STORE IT ON MY COMPUTER ***AT ALL***.

Hmm, I thought you said Thunderbird had the messages and you already forwarded 60 of them and had the thought of forwarding many more of them. Did I misread that? If that was true, it sounds as though Thunderbird did store the messages on your computer.

I know you don't want to open Thunderbird so it doesn't download more mail, but you could disconnect from the internet to make sure that doesn't happen. Does Thunderbird still show the missing messages? If that's all gone, you can give up now. But if they are still in there, it's just a matter of finding them and transitioning them to a safer location.

Just to be clear, *Thunderbird* did not create your problems as far as I can tell. And you've had good talent here trying to help you, so no one here has left you out to dry. Eudora on the other hand is gone, toast, fini, lost to the 4 winds.

And I can see why Windows 10 would be a shock to you - the leap from XP to 10 is huge.

> 2. THUNDERBIRD CAN'T RESTORE WHAT IT DELETED FROM MY GMAIL WEBMAIL, BECAUSE IT DIDN'T STORE IT ON MY COMPUTER ***AT ALL***.

I can't see how this could be true.