As a follow-up: Thunderbird is using the correct Local Directory, as it is creating an INBOX-1.msf file in it. Not sure why it is ignoring the existing INBOX.msf file, and all of the other email folders in the Local Directory.

This may not be related to Flatpak. Thunderbird 102.8.0 (64-bit).

It keeps creating new versions of the empty inbox file: INBOX-1.msf, INBOX-2.msf, etc...

Any thoughts or help on how to get Thunderbird working again will be very much appreciated!

Continuing on my lonely quest to get my email restored from this Thunderbird's issue...

I removed all of the .msf files I could find.

This was in two places:

1. The Local Directory, in the local file system, which Thunderbird has labeled as: /run/flatpak/doc/8cad13c1/bobg-remote
2. And in my home directory: /home/bobg/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/.thunderbird/bobg.default

Three results to note:

1. Thunderbird did not restore my Inbox or any of the other mail folders.
2. It did recreate an empty INBOX.msf file
3. On restart it continued creating more inbox files: INBOX-1.msf, INBOX-2.msf

This is odd.

I believe flatpak uses: ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/.thunderbird/<profile name>

So if you previously had thunderbird in the default location, I presume it would be here: Profile folders are located here: ~/.thunderbird/<Profile name>/

So, I would assume you copy the .thunderbird folder from the default location and paste it into the flatpak location : ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/ Thus creating : ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/.thunderbird/<profile name> You would need to replace the files, so using the original copy.

Start Thunderbird and check Local Directory: Account Settings/Server Settings/Message Storage/Local Directory: If POP ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/.thunderbird/<profile name>/Mail/mail.accname.com if IMAP: ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/.thunderbird/<profile name>/ImapMail/imap.accname.com

Also check the 'Local Folders' account Local directory ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/.thunderbird/<profile name>/Mail/Local Folders

Alternative: choose to not use flatpak and instead get a download from the official location:

• https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/all/

Installing Thunderbird on Linux:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/installing-thunderbird-linux

Thank you @Toad-Hall

Yes, I did move my profile over to the new location and thunderbird has all of my settings. Not an issue there.

I keep my remote mail over in /opt. For example: /opt/thunderbird/bobg-remote So Account Settings/Server Settings/Message Storage/Local Directory points over there, and that is where Thunderbird is creating the INBOX-N.msf files, so I know that it is set correctly.

I don't use Local Folders, but is set similarly to /opt/thunderbird/bobg-local

Of course, flatpack rewrites those, as described above.

I will uninstall the flatpack thunderbird and go with a direct installation, and see how that goes.

Thanks for the help!

I took the advice of @Toad-Hall and uninstalled the flatpak version of thunderbird, then installed the version available as an rpm via dnf/yum and that worked. Life is good.