what is the folder name?

Calvary and the sub-folder is Library.

After my last couple of forays into missing folders. IS there a black triangle beside the parent of the missing folder that when clicked will show the children of that folder.

Unfortunately, no.

Something to try:

1. Find & open your Thunderbird Profile folder: Thunderbird menu: Help: Troubleshooting Information (If you cannot see the Thunderbird menu, press the Alt key or F10 key on your keyboard to show the menu) Under "Application Basics", beside "Profile Folder", click the "Show Profile" button. This will open a Windows Explorer window showing the contents of your Thunderbird Profile folder.

2. Keep this Windows Explorer open, and quit Thunderbird.

3. Navigating in your Thunderbird Profile folder in Windows Explorer, open the folder called "Mail", then the folder called "Local Folders" under it.

4. In the "Local Folders" folder, you will find: (a) A folder called "Calvary.sbd", (b) A file with no file extension called "Calvary", and (c) A file called "Calvary.msf". Hopefully you know what a file extension is. In the case of (c), the file extension is ".msf".

5. Delete the file "Calvary.msf", and leave the other files and folders alone. This ".msf" file contains an index Thunderbird uses to know what is in the "Calvary" file.

6. Start Thunderbird. It will rebuild the index for your "Calvary" folder.

Hopefully this will fix the problem. Please reply back here the result.

Hi Bruce, This is probably the result of past restores by techs trying to deal with Thunderbird who don't know it. It went astray at step 3:Not in Local Folders, but in Mail: had both Local Folders and Mail.lois-sez.com and within the latter Inbox.sbd with both Calvary and Calvary.msf. Sent the .msf file to my recycle bin. Opened Thunderbird and Calvary appeared under Inbox, but it was empty. I deleted it and retrieved .msf from the Recycle Bin. It's now in Mail.lois-sez.com's Inbox.sbd with 2 KB size, but I don't see it when I start Thunderbird. Frankly I'd love to combine the 2 sets of files under both Local Folders and the old Outlook Express. There's other garbage along the sidebar from some of those attempts, but Calvary isn't to be seen. Haven't yet attempted a new search. Just hope I haven't lost it.

A short warning. Search uses an index of all mail and if you get to a point where the search finds the mail, but will not open it. You have already arrived at the mail being lost to Thunderbird. Probably permanently.

I agree with Matt. You have permanently lost the e-mail that was under the "Calvary" folder.

There is still a remote chance you might be able to recover that "Library" folder that was/is under "Calvary".

Quit Thunderbird.

It is/was on the hard drive in the folder "Calvary.sbd". You should see both files "Library" and "Library.msf". Delete the .msf file, and move the other file to under "Local Folders".

Whatever else happens, make backups from now on.As a computer technician, I always say: "If it is important, back it up", and "If you don't back it up, then expect to lose it."

I subscribe to Carbonite. Might there be a way to retrieve it still?

LoiS-sez said

I subscribe to Carbonite. Might there be a way to retrieve it still?

Excellent! My answer is probably.

I am not familiar with every backup solution out there, local or cloud, and I am not willing to learn about every one of them and how they work.

It's up to you to figure out how to use Carbonite to recover your backed-up files, if you don't already know. Learn quick, because the longer you wait, the more likely older backups (that might contain the e-mail files you are missing), will be purged!

You will want to find the backups for your Thunderbird Profile folder. By now, you should be familiar with the location of that folder.

If you can, extract from the backup just the two files you are looking for. That being the "Calvary" file with no file extension, and the "History" file with no extension. These are the files that actually contain the e-mails for those Thunderbird folders. The .msf files will be of no use, and it will actually be better to have Thunderbird recreate them.

Copy those two files from the backup to somewhere on your computer, but not your Profile folder. We want multiple copies on your computer in case things go wrong, and you need to try again.

AVOID overwriting the current files in your Thunderbird Profile with the backup. If necessary, recover the entire backup of the folder to another location on your hard drive.

Rename these two files you recovered from the backup to "CalvaryBackup" and "HistoryBackup". With Thunderbird not running, copy (not move), them to your Thunderbird Profile folder under Mail\Local Folders.

Then start Thunderbird. Hopefully those files contain all the e-mails you want, and Thunderbird will create index files for them.

Once recovered, you can rename and move those two folders within Thunderbird to where you want to keep them permanently.

Bruce, Thank you! This is something that shows the Local Folders at a time when I can still correct it. I know myself well enough I use auto"magic" backup. I'd never get it done otherwise.