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How to Locate and Restore Lost Thunderbird Folders

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  • Last reply by Zenos

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My C: drive gave up the ghost so I replaced it. Dell tech had me generate a USB flash drive containing Windows 10 PRO. I install Windows on my C: drive. Then I restored the files contained in my last upload to MozyHome. One item that is missing are the many different file folders that grouped by emails together. I installed Thunderbird. I thought I had manually backed up my emails to a location that then would be uploaded in the next backup performed by MozyHome. But I don't remember exactly where that location is (my problem to correct.). If any of this information is saved to my D: drive (completely separate hard drive), then that data should still be there. I don't know the file extensions that Thunderbird uses. I also remember a little bit about the profile data that is saved to a file. But I don't know the label or extension to that file. I am going to take any and all assistance is reestablish my email system the way it was when the C: drive quit working properly. Thank you. (Attached is a snip of my present file structure. There should be about 100 additional folders.)

My C: drive gave up the ghost so I replaced it. Dell tech had me generate a USB flash drive containing Windows 10 PRO. I install Windows on my C: drive. Then I restored the files contained in my last upload to MozyHome. One item that is missing are the many different file folders that grouped by emails together. I installed Thunderbird. I thought I had manually backed up my emails to a location that then would be uploaded in the next backup performed by MozyHome. But I don't remember exactly where that location is (my problem to correct.). If any of this information is saved to my D: drive (completely separate hard drive), then that data should still be there. I don't know the file extensions that Thunderbird uses. I also remember a little bit about the profile data that is saved to a file. But I don't know the label or extension to that file. I am going to take any and all assistance is reestablish my email system the way it was when the C: drive quit working properly. Thank you. (Attached is a snip of my present file structure. There should be about 100 additional folders.)
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If you can search your backup, I'd look for a file named profiles.ini - this may well be in the same folder as the data stored, and if not, can be opened in a text editor where you'll be able to see the particular pathname used for your stored data.

Note that Thunderbird and Firefox use similar profile systems, so you may also have a profile and a profiles.ini file for Firefox, if you use it.

Note that by default, in Windows and Linux at least, all the profile matter is hidden by default. In a regular file system, you need to enable viewing of hidden files to be able to browse these folders and files. I am not sure if a backup would implement the "hidden" attribute, so this particular complication might not affect you.