Had to reinstall Thunderbird -- how can I recover the previous contents of the "Local Folders"?
Had to reinstall Windows 10 after a crash. Then had to reinstall Thunderbird. I had been archiving my saved emails in the Local Folders within Thunderbird, but those contents are no longer accessible after the reinstallation. I would like to recover those saved emails. I would appreciate help.
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Did you backup the profile folder before reinstalling Windows? Did the reset create a copy of the AppData folder? Search your computer for Local Folders (may have to allow viewing of hidden files and folders), and then reply for instructions on how to restore them.
The default location is:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\8charstring.default\Mail\Local Folders
I too have had to reinstall windows 10. I have religiously backed up profiles (in my case from I:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles) to my external HDD, as reccomended somewhere or other. Having reinstalled Tbird to my I:\ volume, using the custom installation route, I find I can only access current content of one email a/c (before it had two) and cannot find anyway to restore historic content from the information available. I'm either asking the wrong question or am not understanding the information. Despite following the instructions for setting up a profile (I accepted 'default) starting Tb asked me to set up an existing a/c and did not collect the old profile information. There seems to be no way to drop (or transfer) my backed up profiles that allows me to recover my (considerable) history. Anybody able to direct me to a child's guide to recovery? Should I uninstall Thunderbird and then start afresh? Sorry if I'm dozy, but I'm also desperate not to loose vital history.
TB has lost the location of the old profile, probably because the new profiles.ini points to a profile folder with a different name. You could try using Profile Manager to 'create' a profile that points to the old profile folder, or edit profiles.ini with a text editor.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_a_profile_that_suddenly_disappeared
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird
In future, backup the C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird folder as it is much easier to restore.
Thanks for a quick response, sfhowes. I had originally tried using profile manager, without apparent success. However, prompted by you, I addressed this again and eventually solved it by selecting one of three 8char.default files until I got the desired result. I'll now take your advice and backup the whole TB folder from I:\ to avoid any future problems. Many thanks.