Err.... Thunderbird does not store messages in individual files per email, unless you enable an experimental option. I assume you have not done that.

Also mail is archived by pressing A

Perhaps you could advice how YOU got to the temp folder, so I might understand, or try to.

Hi Matt,

I didn't do anything to cause the creation of the archive. I literally powered on the machine, went away, and when I returned, the archive had been created. I did not take any action to make this happen.

Your comment about pressing A to archive may lead me to a possible answer. It's possible one of my bigfooted cats stepped on the keyboard while I was away. But if so, how would only a certain number of messages be selected for the archive? Could they have really done this by simply pressing the A key?

The messages were sitting in a folder named "2015" within the archive. When I highlighted them all and attempted to transfer them back to the Inbox, that's when they all disappeared. I was only able to find them later in the Windows temp file.

HTH

GMS

Matt,

One more thought. I would try to replicate this action myself, but I am concerned it might make even more messages unreadable.

GMS

Are all the missing messages listed individually in the temp file? Normally Thunderbird stores them all in one large file.

IMPORTANT! As soon as you can, get these messages out of your Windows 'Temp' file, before some action causes the temp file to be 'flushed'. Place them in a new folder 'AAA' that you create outside of C:\Windows.

Now that the files are safe from accidental erasure... Let's try a very inelegant method to try to recover the mails.

Create a new folder 'BBB' in your Thunderbird 'Local Folders' - you will eventually put each recovered message there.

Rename an 'AAA' file from filename.txt to filename.eml Double click the renamed file. If the file is not corrupt, TB should be able to open it in a 'Read Window'.

Using the Read Window menu 'Message - Copy to...' your TB 'BBB' folder. ('Move to...' is greyed out.) Go to that TB folder and double-check that the message opens correctly. It is possible that attachments and images have become detached and cannot be recovered.

Repeat the 'rename' and 'copy' procedure for all the remaining messages.

Time consuming? Yes. But the messages are back in Thunderbird and you can place them in any other TB folders.

If it looks like several messages have been combined, they can be separated, It will take more work and you will have to create a descriptive filename,for each segment, using a simple text editor like Notepad.

You can delete the files in 'temp', 'AAA' and 'BBB' when you are satisfied that the messages are recovered.

TB38.2 Win10-PC

Hi gild,

Thanks so much for your reply. Unfortunately, I took another look at the files in the temp folder. They are *not* the messages themselves. They are log files in a text format, and they open with Notepad. So, they are no help.

If Windows placed the original messages somewhere on the C: drive, what file extension would they have? .msf?

Thunderbird stores all messages from a folder in one long continuous file. There is one 'mbox' file for each folder and this file bears the name of the folder without any extension. There is a separate file that bears the name of the same folder but has the '.msf' extension. It is possible that the messages are still in the Archive folder, or the Inbox, but are corrupt to the point that Thunderbird cannot find or display them

This article could give some hints about how to proceed. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders#Problems_when_compacting http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recover_messages_from_a_corrupt_folder

TB38.2 Win10-PC

added second link

After searching for message subjects based upon my outgoing messages during the missing timeframe, I finally found the missing incoming messages. They were in the InBox of my Eudora import. I must have put them there by mistake instead of the InBox for my main account. Dummy me.

While I am relieved to have found them, I still don't know how the Archive was created in the first place. But, I am going to give credit to some creative stepping from a cat. More than likely, they hit the right keys to make this happen. I suppose a Thunderbird programmer might know how this happened.

Thanks to all who tried to help.

GMS