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How to recover deleted (but not purged) email from IMAP account

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  • Last reply by khw1502

khw1502
khw1502
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I am using Thunderbird 78.9.1 (64bit) on Windows 10. I accidently deleted all messages (more than 21,000) from my Inbox and did NOT have them go to Trash folder. The deleted messages are NOT on the ISP’s server anymore. Thunderbird tells me that messages I have deleted can be purged from disk and this will save 1.6 GB disk space, so the email messages are still on my PC.

The deleted messages are NOT shown in Thunderbird. X-Mozilla-Status is 0001 for all messages. I’ve changed it to 0000 but the messages are still not displayed.

Any suggestion on how I can see these messages in the INBOX again would be greatly appreciated.

I am using Thunderbird 78.9.1 (64bit) on Windows 10. I accidently deleted all messages (more than 21,000) from my Inbox and did NOT have them go to Trash folder. The deleted messages are NOT on the ISP’s server anymore. Thunderbird tells me that messages I have deleted can be purged from disk and this will save 1.6 GB disk space, so the email messages are still on my PC. The deleted messages are NOT shown in Thunderbird. X-Mozilla-Status is 0001 for all messages. I’ve changed it to 0000 but the messages are still not displayed. Any suggestion on how I can see these messages in the INBOX again would be greatly appreciated.

Chosen solution

After you changed the X-Status, did you delete the Inbox.msf index file, so that it was recreated when TB restarted? I would also copy the mbox file (omit the .msf file) to Mail/Local Folders in the profile so the Inbox doesn't sync with the (empty) server Inbox. Then restart TB and see if the folder shows under Local Folders in the Folder Pane.

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All Replies (2)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

After you changed the X-Status, did you delete the Inbox.msf index file, so that it was recreated when TB restarted? I would also copy the mbox file (omit the .msf file) to Mail/Local Folders in the profile so the Inbox doesn't sync with the (empty) server Inbox. Then restart TB and see if the folder shows under Local Folders in the Folder Pane.

khw1502
khw1502 Question owner
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Response from sfhowes solved the problem. Thank you for you help!