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Just refreshed Windows 8 and had to reinstall Thunderbird as a result. I now can't find any of the old emails !!

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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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Once I refreshed Windows 8 I lost a lot of my programs. I needed to reinstall Thunderbird which I did without any trouble. However, I discovered that all the emails that were previously stored in Thunderbird have disappeared. A lot of these were important. Are they stored somewhere on the PC where I can access them and/or were do they go when they are archived ?

Once I refreshed Windows 8 I lost a lot of my programs. I needed to reinstall Thunderbird which I did without any trouble. However, I discovered that all the emails that were previously stored in Thunderbird have disappeared. A lot of these were important. Are they stored somewhere on the PC where I can access them and/or were do they go when they are archived ?

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re: refreshed Windows 8 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc

Refreshing your PC reinstalls Windows and keeps your personal files and settings. It also keeps the applications that came with your PC and the apps you've installed from the Windows Store.

Resetting your PC reinstalls Windows but deletes your files, settings and applications – excluding the applications that came with your PC.

Restoring your PC is a way to undo recent system changes you’ve made.

If you 'refreshed' then Thunderbird should not have been uninstalled nor should any of your documents, files etc have been lost.

The Thunderbird Profile folders are hidden files, so you need to make hidden files and folders visible:

This link will tell you where the profile folders are located:

If you 'reset' Windows, then it likely that you will not find any Profiles in the folder described in link above as this method deletes all programs, files and documents that do not come with Windows OS.

If you had an imap mail account, the emails are stored on the server, so you can create a new existing mail account and reconnect with the server to see emails.

If you had a Pop mail account then you would need to use a backup. Any emails left on the server will be downloaded again when you create a new pop mail account.