Retrieve sent virginmedia.com emails after change from POP to IMAP
Hi one and all,
Changed all my email accounts from POP to IMAP either deleting POP accounts before creating the IMAP or after! Unsure which accounts did in which order! Guess though this does not matter, right?
Anyway most of the sent emails were retrieved in this process. But one of my virginmedia.com accounts lost almost all sent emails except one! Now I assume that somewhere on my HD copies of those sent emails are archived in some format. If so, how do I retrieve these sent emails from that particular account and open them back in Thunderbird? Otherwise is there some other way to retrieve these sent emails?
Thanks from, EyeQuestOn (Ian in Brighton, Sussex, UK)
All Replies (1)
POP mail accounts store emails in Thunderbird profile folders. Usually, pop mail accounts download from server Inbox and delete copy off server unless the option to 'Leave messages on server' is selected.
IMAP sees a remote view of the folders on the server. You subscribe to se folders. Headers are downloaded and when you selected to see email, it is retrieved from server and stored in a temp cache to facilitate viewing. If you want a copy in Thunderbird then you would need to synchronise folders for offine use. Anything you delete in thunderbird will get deleted off server and equally anything deleted off server either via webmail or another device accessing webmail or via imap will also delete in Thunderbird. The folders are in effect one and the same.
Usually, you do not delete the pop mail account as it has all previously downloaded emails and all the sent, drafts, template emails and the only copy is in Thunderbird unless you made backups.
One option: You could have moved all the emails from all the pop mail account folders into newly created folders in 'Local Folders' before deleting the pop mail accounts and then created imap mail accounts.
In your situaton it sounds like you chose to delete pop mail accounts containing all your emails before moving eg: 'Sent' emails to a suitable location so you could still access them.
In Thunderbird, when you 'Remove' a pop mail account, it keeps the folders and files in your profile name folder, just in case of remove error.
Download this addon extension: ImportExportTools
In order to install a downloaded extension, please do the following:
- Click the menu button
and choose Add-ons.
- Drag your downloaded XPI file to the Add-ons Manager tab and drop it.
or
- Click the menu button and choose Add-ons.
- Click the gear icon at the top-right corner to the left of the search box and select Install Add-on From File…
- Locate the XPI file you downloaded and click Open.
- You may need to restart Thunderbird when prompted.
For more detailed instructions and information about installing add-ons, see Installing an Add-on in Thunderbird.
Then make hidden files and folders visible:
To import the 'Sent' file:
- Right click on 'Local Folders' mail account in left Folder pane.
- select: 'ImportExporttools' > 'Import mbox file'
- select: 'Import directly one or more mbox files'
- click on OK
Your profle name folder will be located here:
- C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>\ Mail\pop mail account name
Locate the 'Sent' (no extension) mbox file in your profile name folder pop mail account folder and click on 'Open'.
This should get a copy of those sent emails into 'Local Folders'.