Retrieving a freeserve account
I deleted my Freeserve account from Thunderbird and unfortunately all my folders and emails went with it. I have read the help topic "Recovering deleted mail accounts" and can confirm that I have found that the mail for the removed account still exists. I then tried to create a new e-mail account using the same email address and server settings as the account I deleted. Initially Thunderbird said that it could not recognise the account but on about the fifth attempt it seemed to recognise the account but then said that either the password or username was wrong. The password was certainly correct but I have no precise record of the username on the freeserve account. I have tried various options with no success.
I am wondering whether all this is not being recognised because Freeserve no longer exists. Is there any other way that I can retrieve this account if I have got the username wrong?
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Create a subfolder under Local Folders. Close Thunderbird, find your profile and locate the subfolder you just made. (It will have an sbd extension.) Copy the lost account's files into it.
Why are folk surprised that when they delete an account, its folders are deleted?
We have two computers. When I removed the account on my desktop all the folders were left - presumably because they were created as local folders. I assumed the same would happen when I removed the freeserve account on my wife's laptop but she had, presumably, created the folders in her profile? A warning would have been helpful.
In respect of getting the folders back: I seem to have lost the "Local Folders" heading on the laptop. When I create a new folder the icon is created in the left hand pane but no "sbd" file is created when I search for it in the directory - although an "msf" file is created.
I presumably need to get back my "Local Folders" capability so that the files are retained on the computer?
I am probably missing something very simple here!!
You could in theory add your lost folders to any POP-connected account, which will also have a range of folders under Mail in the Thunderbird profile.
Adding folders to IMAP-connected accounts simply doesn't work, because doing this omits the trigger needed for Thunderbird to recognize them as valid arrivals that need to be posted to the server. Instead, it compares the local folders with those on the server, and seeing the discrepancy, removes the local copy to maintain consistency with the server.
Current and recent versions of Thunderbird do indeed offer an option to remove the data associated with an account. You can never please everyone. Some users complain that they removed an account and the data was hidden but not removed (as you have found). Others complain that they removed an account and, well, the account was removed (and were relieved to find the data was hidden, not deleted.)
As a detail niggle, "Local Folders" is an account (albeit a "special account") and is stored in your profile.
I still don't understand the ambiguity in "Remove account". When I remove an account I expect it to be removed and to not appear any more.
As to the lost Local Folders; have you at any time renamed it to something else? Some users decide it doesn't suit them and try to delete, repurpose or rename it, to the eternal confusion of those trying to help them.