A restart of my computer resulted in the emptying of my inbox. How can I get my messages back?
Windows 10 prompted a restart to scan my hard disk. Upon the restart, and opening Thunderbird, my Inbox was empty. It now only contains the three new messages I have received since the restart. How can I recover all of my old messages?
All Replies (16)
To add more information about my problem, I can see old messages when I enter something in the search field. This causes me to think this is a message viewing issue, as opposed to actual lost messages....
Have you removed your profile and added it back? Tools | Account Settings | Account Actions
I have not. I am able to receive new messages. After seeing some other discussion of similar problems, I am hesitant to take too drastic an action until the probability of success is fairly high. What will profile deletion/replacement accomplish? Will I lose the messages I just received?
Oh. I forgot. My Inbox subfolders are fine. It is just the Inbox messages I cannot see.
No, you will not lose any messages at all. Everything will reside on your main provider's server. Thunderbird is only a window through which you access the back end.
Yeah, I still believe your issue might be rectified if you remove and add your profile.
Unfortunately, I believe once the messages are downloaded to my PC, the host server no longer has the messages. My recollection is that they are deleted, to avoid consuming space. If deleting my profile and re-adding it will not hurt anything any worse than it is now, I guess there is no harm. I simply do not want to ruin my chances for getting the messages back....I read where some folks did just that.
Modified by comtrancon
When you set up your email, did you use IMAP or POP? What you said might be true IF it is POP. If it is POP, do not delete your account. Go to Tools | Account Settings, click Server Settings on the left and tell me what it says for Server Type and Server Settings.
Who do you have your emails with? Is it someone like Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail? Or is it with your local Internet Service Provider?
I routinely remove my account completely from Thunderbird and re-add it and all my mails magically return.
I use a POP mail server. The "Leave messages on server" checkbox is unchecked. The "Check for messages at startup," "Check for new messages every..." and "Automatically download new messages" checkboxes are checked. What else do ya need? I use the local ISP who hosts our company website.
Modified by comtrancon
Did windows 10 suggest it needed to scan your computer disk because it had errors?
I think your mail are simply gone. But there are residual bits in the global search index. if what I am assuming then clicking the search result will not display the mail. The following will allow a new search index to be built.
On the toolbar 
> Help > Troubleshooting Information
Click the show profile button in Troubleshooting Information Close Thunderbird In the file window that opened, delete the file global- messages-db.sqlite Restart Thunderbird.
The search will be rubbish until the file fully regenerates, which could take a whole day if you have 10 or 20Gb of mail. You can monitor the status of that using the Activity Manager.
If the searched mail do appear when ou click on them in the search results, right click the folder, select properties and then the reapir button to rebuild the database used to show emails in the user interface.
Matt, your are correct. I got the Windows 10 message it wanted to scan the hard drive and restart. That is when the Inbox got dumped. Is the procedure above about getting the messages back, or are they truly trashed? I cannot get the messages found by searching, if I click on them....just a blank...
Modified by comtrancon
If they exist, you will be able to see the whole message when you open it from your search and option two should make them reappear.
IF they do not open you can still try it but I doubt it will find anything as the disk repair windows ran probably trashed the inbox file.
The deleting of the index is just so it has a clean start and does not give you bum steer.
Thank you very much.
Matt, I just discovered I can see most of my messages when I search on a term. However, the repair did not bring them back into the Inbox. Any other thoughts?
you search and see a paragraph. But when you double click to open that message does it appear?
It appears I can see the whole message, but I have not yet determined if the attachments are available.
hang on is this windows search... completely different kettle of fish.