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Had to reinstall Thunderbird and do not have all my saved e mail folders

  • 5 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by BSmitty

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I had many saved e mails in folders for rjtsr3@verizon.net as well as e mail folders from a prior e mail address, RJTSR@TAMPABAY.RR.COM. These were displayed on the left side of the screen and are not included in the reinstall. Also previously sent mail files/e mails do not appear. How do I get these?

I had many saved e mails in folders for rjtsr3@verizon.net as well as e mail folders from a prior e mail address, RJTSR@TAMPABAY.RR.COM. These were displayed on the left side of the screen and are not included in the reinstall. Also previously sent mail files/e mails do not appear. How do I get these?

All Replies (5)

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On my Mac, these are located: in my user library > Thunderbird > Profiles > an oddly named .default folder > Mail > Local Folders. All the folders I created to file various emails are there. The unfiled emails are in the profile under Imap Mail.

This may be a little different on a PC, but even so it may still be a profile issue. Hopefully, this profile still exists and you can add it to the new installation. If for some reason it was overwritten, I'm not sure if there is any recovery process for those in the local folders.

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Had to reinstall Thunderbird

Why?

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An update automatically uses your existing profile. When you reinstall, I believe the prior app and associated files, including your profile, may be deleted unless you make sure you have your profile backed up first. There may be an addon for that. There are also addons that allow you to export folders so you can keep backups of important emails you've filed. These can be imported later if you need to access them. I'm not a tech, but I've been using Thunderbird for many years and this has been my experience. I've lost some emails myself in this way. However, before giving up you may want to do a search on your computer. It is possible that your previous user profile and the Local Folders containing your sorted emails is there, somewhere.

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I believe the prior app and associated files, including your profile, may be deleted unless you make sure you have your profile backed up first.

The Thunderbird profile will not be deleted upon uninstalling Thunderbird, unless one deliberately checks the 'delete' profile' option.

What the OP really did we don't know. So everything is just speculation until the OP provides more details.

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True. Although sometimes, when a user is unfamiliar, things like accidentally checking "delete profile" do happen. I have encountered similar problems in the past and managed to rectify them by tracking down files that were seemingly gone, but actually still there. Yes, I am just speculating, but without more information that's all I have and I thought perhaps it might be helpful.