Right click, select properties and then repair.

Note that forces a reindex of the mail folder only

Hello, thanks for the info. I did what you listed and I now only have 72 messages in inbox. The original 4000 messages disappeared and I do not see them anywhere. Where should I look or do next?

Is there a way to undo and "repair" feature? All of my emails disappeared when I did the repair except for the past few days. How do I get these back?

Thank you

I think you need to talk to your repaired, not me.

The repair only rebuilds the index of mail. If they disappeared, that is because the messages are not there to be indexed

I assume you're using a POP account. Go to Help > Troubleshooting Information, then click on Open Containing Folder. That will open Windows Explorer in your Thunderbird profile. In the Mail folder, there will be a sub-folder named after the mail server for that account. Within that, you should find the files pertaining to your mail folders. (For example \hhvati19.default\Mail\pop.mail.yahoo.com\) Your mail folders are contained in UNIX mbox format. They are the files without extensions (Inbox, not Inbox.msf).

With Thunderbird closed, you can open those files in a text editor, like Notepad. By viewing the contents of the files, you should be able to confirm that you still have your messages. If you don't have them, then you're out of luck. Hopefully you have a backup. If you do have them, then open Thunderbird, and try moving the messages to another folder in Local Folders. You can then move them back.

HI Chris, thanks for the reply, we are getting closer. When I go to trouble shooting I did not find "containing folder". I did see "show folders" and clicking that I did get to a inbox that is 52.2 meg in size and did have a 8/11/14 date. I tried to open that using notepad & wordpad. They both opened but all was in computer code, no specific messages. I then tried thunderbird, this opened a new e mail that I would be writing and added the inbox as an attachment. I exited that message. I am not clear if I am supposed to see individual messages or just the inbox. I am not sure how to proceed next. Thanks for any additional info. Scott

The inbox file contains the message sources. In Thunderbird, if you select a message then press Ctrl-U, it will show you the message source. That's the same as what you should see in the inbox file using Notepad.

As always, make a backup of the file before opening it in a text editor. :)

Hi Chris, thanks for the note. I am not very clear on your instruction. I had 4,000 messages in my inbox, I could see title, date and sender but then I opened a message nothing would show up. I was told to do a repair, which I did and the 4,000 messages suddenly disapeared. I was told to check the inbox in a different area which I did and I found a file that is 52 meg in size. I am unable to do the ctrl U option as none of the 4,000 messages are located in thunderbird in the inbox. So, I am not sure how to proceed, I need to get the 4,000 messages back into my inbox and looking for input on how to do so. Thank you, Scott

By viewing the contents of the files, you should be able to confirm that you still have your messages. If you don't have them, then you're out of luck. Hopefully you have a backup.

Chris, I do not understand your note. The messages that disappeared are not in thunderbird so I can't select any of them to do the view option you mentioned. As I stated before I did find the file called inbox that is 52 meg in size but that is as far as I get, I don't know what to do at that point. Are we able to bring that file back into thunderbird? I do make backups once a week or so. If I was able to reload a backup, what happens to my current messages from the past few weeks? IS there someplace to move them first? I am not sure which way to go. Thank you, Scott

I think it would be better to restore a backup to a different place (eg. local folders), then move the messages from there to your current inbox.

1. In your local folders account, create a folder called inbox-backup, and click on it, so Thunderbird creates the inbox-backup and inbox-backup.msf file in your profile folder.
2. Close Thunderbird.
3. In your backup, rename your inbox file to inbox-backup and copy it over to the same folder you have inbox-backup in your current profile. You should be asked if you want to replace the existing file. Answer yes.
4. Open Thunderbird. Your backed up inbox should appear under local folders in the inbox-backup folder. You can then move the messages over using Thunderbird.

Hi Chris, it looks like the backup I wanted to use won't work. So I am back to other option you mentioned before I did the help, trouble shooting and found the inbox file in a folder called oldmail. My question is how do I copy or move that file into the inboxbackup folder without opening TB. I did click properties when I was in the oldmail folder and found it in a very long address. It was: mailbox:///C:/documents and setting/current user/application data/thunderbird/profiles/LJM5scow.default/mail/local folders/inbox.sbd/inboxbackup Does this help or what else should I try? Thanks again for your patience. Scott

install the import export tools into Thunderbird https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

point the tools to the file (it is an MBOX file) and ask the tools to import it.

Make sure you select a local folder in the folder pane on the left before you start so options are not disabled.

The method in my latest reply should work with any folder. So instead doing it with your old inbox, do it with the inboxbackup file.

Hello, something still not right. I did make the new folder called inboxbackup. I used the import feature and located the inbox file. It is about 80 meg in size. I imported it to the inboxbackup and it took a minute and it showed up. However when I opened it there are only 3 messages in the inbox. I also copied the inbox to a new folder and renamed it to inboxbackup and then imported it like above. Again, it loaded but when I opened it up there are only 3 messages from a few days ago. So I am at a loss on what to do next, I am sure the 3 messages are not 80 meg in size so don't understand how to find or get the balance of that file to open up correctly. Thanks again, Scott

It sounds like your inbox just hasn't been compacted. When you delete a message, it doesn't really get deleted from the folder. It gets marked as deleted. Thunderbird sees that marking, and knows not to display it. Compacting a folder will command Thunderbird to remove all messages from that folder that are marked as deleted.

That's not to say all the messages you want back are there (probably not). It's just a possible explanation why the file size is large.

Do you have any older backups?

Hi Chris, I empty the junk folder every week and also do the folder compact each week. Just checked the junk folder and it has 700 messages from the past few weeks since we got things started. I have not emptied it since we re started things. Aside from that when I was getting the blue screen I did see a option for recovery from an older version. I tried several of the dates shown but none would work. If I can figure out how to get back to that now I could try that again since the computer is now working. I am still puzzled that those 4,000 messages could be listed and with the click of the mouse they all disappear. I wonder is there is a way to undo that repair feature that I did a few weeks ago that made them all disappear? Otherwise I am not sure what to try next. Thanks, Scott

Lets determine if you have 'marked as deleted' emails.

Help > Troubleshooting information click on 'show folder' button

a new window opens

Close thunderbird now

click on 'Mail' folder click on mail account name look for Inbox not Inbox.msf Right click and open using Notepad.

Each email is listed one after the other. Each email will start with something like this:

From - Mon Aug 18 16:37:44 2014 X-Account-Key: account1 X-UIDL: AB5TfbwBAFnHU/IdTfC9wJEMkyM X-Mozilla-Status: 0009 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000

If the email has been 'marked as deleted' You will see this: X-Mozilla-Status: 0009

Do you see many emails where that line has 0009 as the number? You can use EDit > Find and X-Mozilla-Status to locate those lines.

Hello Todd, I followed your instructions ( I should note that I do not have a show folder button, I have open containing folder, but I think it took me to the same location. I opened the mail file inbox ( at 102 meg currently ) What I saw was a few messages and they were showing status 2, then had several pages of codes then some messages that are kind of spread out. then had several pages of codes, then more messages. From the messages I can see I did not see any status 0009. Not sure why they are all mixed up and spread out. What would the next step be? Thanks for your help. Scott

Hello Todd, did you see my reply from back on 8/20 ? I am wondering what I should do next? Thanks, Scott

If there was loads of 'marked as deleted' emails this would make the filesize large, but you would not see the emails. But looking in the actual file via profile Folders there would be loads of: X-Mozilla-Status: 0009 one for each email.

As there are no 0009 = marked as deleted emails, it would be reasonable to assume they been removed by a compact folder operation.

If the Inbox folder had some corruption and the folder was compacted. This could have caused the folder to lose emails. It is possible that TB could not identify the end of a 'marked as deleted' email and removed good emails.

Alternatively, if you had the blue screen crash at a time when the Inbox was in use, downloading, compacting etc , then maybe the crash itself effected the folder contents.

If it was compacting it might have created a Nstmp file. Do you see any folders called 'Nstmp' ?

If the Inbox was corrupted at the time of the crash, it may well not have updated the index file. If the index was not recreated at that time, it would have shown a list of loads of emails, but when you selected them, the email appears empty because it was not there. Reindexing would have gone through the Inbox file and updated it to show only emails that exist. Repairing the Index would not have had any effect on the emails themselves, it was just not showing the current list.

This would explain the scenario you have described.

What does this mean? If you do not have a backup or if the emails are no longer on the server then they are lost.

I was reading the information you posted regarding importing the Inbox into the new folder 'inboxbackup'. I'm not completely certain that you are actually importing the correct file. You say 'there are only 3 messages from a few days ago'. If this was an older Thunderbird Profile backup made prior to the blue screen crash, surely it would not have only 3 messages from a few days ago. It would not have any recent emails.

Do you have a backup which was created prior to the blue screen crash? This file will not be in your current Thunderbird Profile. You would have saved it in another location or ideally on an external drive.