The odd thing is the mbox file in archives folder of the profile is 184 mb but there are only around 35mb of emails actually showing in Thunderbird.

If I open the mbox file in notepad I can see the emails that show then there is a long section that is just strings of random text string and then a lot of blank file space.

I really hope these emails can be recovered.

You mention this is an IMAP mail account and the archive folder is saved locally. So please confirm, is the 'Archive' folder in the 'Local Folders' mail account ? I'm assuming this is the case, but would like confirmation.

Do you have an Anti-virus product in use or a product like CCleaner? Is AV allowed to scan Thunderbird files and folders on startup? Suggest you do not allow any AV or product like CCLeaner access to any Thunderbird file or folder.

Have you compacted any folders? If no then please do not compact anything at this point.

In the profile name folder under 'Local Folders', do you see any .mozmsgs folders or nstmp files. Also check in any of the archive.sbd folders.

This addon could be used to try and recover the messages in that archive folder. Note if this does not work with current version of Thunderbird, you may want to try an earlier version. https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/index-en.html#recDelMsg

To get earlier version eg: 52.9.1 Use the link below and choose preferered language, then download the thunderbird setup exe file. http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/52.9.1/win32/

Have you ever made a backup of your profile name folder ?

Hi thank you both for responding.

I'm not sure I understand is the archive folder in the "local Folders" Mail account. My archive folder is located with the following path "C:\Users\'user'\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\i9xkxwvt.default\Mail\mail.xxxxxxxx.com\Archives.sbd" Does that help. No third party antivirus or software installed.

I may or may not have compacted at some point. I can't recall when the last time would have been.

no .mozmsgs folders or nstmp files related to the email account I am having issues with. There is an nstmp file in another email account I use in thunderbird.

As far as backup, I have previous versions but only up to about a month ago.

I'll try that add-on.

The reason I asked about 'local folders' was because you mentioned IMAP. IMAP folders are synchronised to server folders and so cannot really be regarded as locally stored, hence why I asked about 'Local Folders' mail account. Intially you said: I am on Windows 7, Thunderbird 60.4.0,IMAP

But, now you say: i9xkxwvt.default\Mail\mail.xxxxxxxx.com\Archives.sbd

The 'Mail' folder only holds POP mail accounts and 'Local Folders'. So all folders will be considered local as emails are stored on your computer and the folders do not synchronise with server.

re :The emails are no longer on the server when I login online, which they shouldn't be as I have archived them. By default when you download to POP mail account, emails are auto deleted off the server. If you are using a POP mail account then you would have needed to use the setting 'Leave messages on server' in the Account Settings > Server Settings in order for anything to be on the server.

re :As far as backup, I have previous versions but only up to about a month ago. That backup is likely to have all or almost all of those emails from March 2018 to the end of the calendar year 2018. As you were archiving every three months most would be in the archives folders but some would still be in Inbox or whatever folder they were in originally.

You could use this addon: ImportExportTools to import those emails from old backup back into Thunderbird.

• https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

I'm a bit confused.

The email account is set up as IMAP and is under IMAPmail folder. So emails I see in Thunderbird inbox currently are also on the server when I log into the account online. However, when the archive was set up it was set to archive to the file posted above. So once the archive button is selected will it download off server and save locally.

Is this a problem? I never seemed to have an issue until now. I hope that makes sense

I tried the importexport tools and imported the mbox file from previous versions. Still the same, around 9 months of emails missing.

I downgraded to the Thunderbird you suggested and installed the "Recover deleted emails" add-on you suggested. Still no luck.

re :when the archive was set up it was set to archive to the file posted above.

So you would have need to select that 'Other' email address as a folder to store emails. Have you ever had that email address set up as a POP mail account ? I suppose what I'm trying to find out is this. What pop mail account are you storing them under? Does it have the same email address as the IMAP mail account or competely different email addesses?

Please post the following Info: In Thunderbird

• Help > Troubleshooting Information
• click on 'Copy text to clipboard' button
• In this forum question, right click in a 'Post a Reply' text box and select 'Paste'
• You can edit/remove all info on fonts and printers but please do not edit anything else as I need to check out what accounts are currently in Thunderbird.

re :I tried the importexport tools and imported the mbox file from previous versions.

Where are importing them into ? Are you trying to import them into 'Local Folders' mail account or the POP mail account which has the 'Archives' folder?

Hello,

I couldn't paste it all here. But have a shared link here on onedrive for the text file for the Thunderbird Troubleshoot data:

https://1drv.ms/t/s!Apcc6ImAG2IhvxdqAgYrtS3fitaN

As for your last post. When setting up archive I didn't choose a POP folder specifically. I just selected to save it locally in "Archives Folder On:" setting in "copies & Folders" setting of the IMAP account settings. I never specified a location. In the drop down there was the option that has the little icon of a monitor for local.

The account initially may have been set up as a POP but that was well over 2 years ago. So perhaps remnants of that account still existed in my profile and the archives chose to save it within there. As I said, I have been archiving this way for almost two years with no issues.

re :The account initially may have been set up as a POP but that was well over 2 years ago. So perhaps remnants of that account still existed in my profile

The info shows you are now only using imap, but clearly other accounts have been created in the past and subsequently removed as the account numbers show early numbers are missing. Yes. If you had created a pop account and later removed it in order to set up as an imap account, then the original pop account would still be lurking in the profile 'Mail' folder. This means you could regain access if required.

re :I just selected to save it locally in "Archives Folder On:" setting in "copies & Folders" setting of the IMAP account settings. I never specified a location. If you chose something that was not a folder in the imap account then you chose the location.

re: In the drop down there was the option that has the little icon of a monitor for local. That would be 'Local Folders' mail account. It is a special account automatically created by Thunderbird for storing emails not associated with any mail account or to be used as a 'Global Inbox' for pop mail accounts.

So..... Do you recall creating a POP mail account and setting it up to use a 'Global Inbox' ? This would mean the pop mail account would not show up as a separate mail account, but instead you would only see 'Local Folders' in the Folder Pane and all emails would go into 'Local Folders' Inbox.

re : The archive folder is saved locally. The archives are sorted by year. Today when looking for an archived email I couldn't find it. This implies you have been able to see the archive folders in Thunderbird and I'm presuming they were under the 'Local Folders' mail account ? Please confirm I'm correct.

Look in your Profile folders and post an image showing the contents of the 'Local Folders' folder - it is in the 'Mail' folder.

• i9xkxwvt.default\Mail\Local Folders

Thank You for responding. It sounds like the archive is set to save in the local folders however they don't show in the 'mail' folder as you suggest (see attached image)

I don't recall making a global inbox.

Instead they appear in i9xkxwvt.default\Mail\Mail.accountname.com\archives.sbd (see image 3 attached)

The 2018 file is there. But viewing it in Thunderbird ( by clicking the 2018 folder indicated in attached image) 9 months of emails are missing suddenly. Note the size.

Thanks again for your continued help.

re :I tried repairing the folders This was done on the original '2018' mbox file and failed to produce a good result.

re: The odd thing is the mbox file in archives folder of the profile is 184 mb that is 184000KB and that was the file you opened and looked at it's contents. But that file now shows ...'2018' size 328,601kb

re: I tried the importexport tools and imported the mbox file from previous versions. If you imported the mbox file called '2018' size 328,601kb......I'm assuming you overwrote the original '2018' mbox file

In the 'profile name' folder. Access: i9xkxwvt.default\Mail\Mail.accountname.com\archives.sbd Make sure Thunderbird is not running Delete the file called '2018.msf'.......this may be an index to the previous '2018' mbox file and not the current newly imported '2018' mbox file. start Thunderbird.

re: that is 184000KB and that was the file you opened and looked at it's contents. But that file now shows ...'2018' size 328,601kb

I referenced the incorrectly the 184,000kb. I was looking at 318,601k file. Even more true now to have an archive file that is 318,601 k and only have 43 emails show. I deleted the the 2018.msf file and re-indexed. Still no luck.

Any other ideas or help? It seems this may be a lost cause but a pretty serious issue to have emails just disappear.

Anyone?