inbox messages - newer now unreadable TB 3.1.20

[eager to learn]

I first copied my Inbox on my flash drive and then changed it's name from Copy of Inbox to InboxOld.

I then copied that file and pasted into my TB Profile email under Documents and Settings/User...

but it Never show sup up in TB on the left pane where I can see Inbox, Sent, Drafts - but no Inboxold is listed anywhere.

I'm not sure what's going wrong.

Thanks.

[DanRaisch]

Thunderbird doesn't automatically display files copied into the profile. That's why I posted the information on importing folders above.

[eager to learn]

I tend to be an e-mail hog. As of Saturday 5-17-2015 I had 40,238 messages in my Inbox.

I copied my entire TB profile folder over to a flash drive when all this craziness was happening and now that Inbox file on the flash drive appears as only 1,656 kb - not the 3-4 GB it should be so all those messages I was saving to read when I got a moment are apparently somehow all gone.

I won't trust TB again so if I create a monthly folder and drag only that month's messages in there if something goes wrong with my TB Inbox again will those emails in the monthly sub-folder under Inbox be protected or all folders under the Inbox folder affected?

Also, if I want to be sure I've saved those messages and I've created say a sub-folder under Inbox named 52015 (for the May messages) do I need to copy that over to a flash drive or must I also find a 52015.msf file as well?

I thought the .msf file is what enables you to read a file in TB, no?

Also, I've heard compressing a folder can be dangerous and you can lose messages. I was instructed to compress my Inbox every day so at night the last step I would take would be to close every program down, except TB, and then compress that Inbox.

Now, I'm thinking it might be safer to simply delete messages and then go into the Trash box and then open the Trash box and highlight all the mail in there and then choose Shift/Delete which actually deletes them but doesn't run the risk compacting does, no?

To date, I still don't see, when I click Get Messages, how many messages need to be downloaded and then watch them count off as they download like I did up to Sunday 5-17-2015.

How can that be fixed?

Thanks.

[DanRaisch]

1. Each folder in Thunderbird represents a file on the hard drive. That means that a folder named 52015 that appears in Thunderbird as a sub-folder of the Inbox folder exists on the hard drive as a file name 052015, with no file name extension. The folder Inbox exists on the hard drive as a separate file named Inbox, with no file name extension. Thus corruption in the file named Inbox will not automatically mean there will be corruption in the file named 52015.

2. If you actually have 40,238 messages in the Thunderbird Inbox folder that's a extremely risky situation. Storing messages in the Inbox of any POP type email account is a very bad practice. As the busiest area of the system, the Inbox is most at risk of data corruption and corresponding data loss. The more messages in the Inbox, the more messages at risk of loss. Creating an organization of folders, typically under Local Folders or as separate folders of the POP account, and moving all but the most recent messages from the Inbox to such a structure, will help to minimize risk of loss and improve performance.

3. Try to stop worrying about those .msf files. They do not contain the full message content and if they are lost Thunderbird will recreate them.

4. Compacting is not dangerous in and of itself. It is an important process in the good management of an email account, particularly a POP type account. The danger is that failure to regularly compact message folders along wih storing huge numbers of messages in a folder will result in file corruption which can result in messages being lost upon compacting. At an absolute minimum, the profile should be backed up before compacting folders with large numbers of messages and.ior any time problems arise with message folders.

5. It would still be necessary to compact the Trash folder if you use the process you describe above.

[eager to learn]

This is where things stand re: TB.

I copied my entire profile over to the flash drive by just dragging the folder over using Windows Explorer.

But, when I look on the flash drive the Inbox (not the Inbox.msf) is only 1,600+ kb - not the 3-4GB it should be.

I read the link but it's incredibly complicated and confusing.

It doesn't answer what happened to all my Inbox messages. There were only about 4-5 which didn't open that day. The rest did open but now they all seem to be gone just by dragging the profile folder over to a flash drive.

How can I recover those Inbox messages if the file is only 1,600 kbs now?

Regarding the future, is the better idea to create a monthly Inbox under *Local Folders* (so it's not part of Inbox) and name them InboxMay2015, SentMay2015 and then drag May's messages over to those respective boxes?

Since I shift/Delete every message I don't want I then see nothing in my Trash folder. So, why, then, would I need to compact my Trash folder if there's noting in it?

Do I need to compact the Sent folder as well? How about the Drafts folder?

If all I want to do is be be able to read, in TB, older Inbox messages, then can't I just drag the older Inbox of messages (e.g. InboxMay2015 and it's database locator = InboxMay2015.msf) over to the external hard drive?

Why would I need to copy over the entire Profile folder? Copying that whole Profile folder is a much larger file than just the older Inbox of messages plus it wouldn't corrupt the Inbox file like it did this time when I dragged the whole Profile folder over to the flash drive and now can't find all those Inbox messages.

I still don't see the number of messages to download when I click Get Mail nor does it count off each one as they download which was the case pre-5-18-2015.

Also, I still don't get an e-mail when you post even though I have that checked off on the forum.

Thanks for your help.

[DanRaisch]

How can I recover those Inbox messages if the file is only 1,600 kbs now?

You may not be able to. It's possible that the files were corrupt before you copied them to the flash drive and that Windows was only able to copy over a portion of the original file, but thought that it had all of it. That can happen when file corruption prevents reading the End of File marker in that data file.

As to how the files could have become corrupted, there's no way for us to know. If the system was every shut down with Thunderbird open, as in a power failure or in a system freeze that resulted in the power button being used, the open data files would not be written back to the hard drive, possibly resulting in corruption. Hardware problems, particularly bad sectors on a hard drive, can result in file corruption.

If all I want to do is be be able to read, in TB, older Inbox messages, then can't I just drag the older Inbox of messages (e.g. InboxMay2015 and it's database locator = InboxMay2015.msf) over to the external hard drive?

No, I've already answered that.

Thunderbird doesn't automatically display files copied into the profile. That's why I posted the information on importing folders above.

You would need to import the data from that message file (NOT the .msf file) using the ImportExportTools extension.

[eager to learn]

The system was never shut down with TB open. Every night the last task of the night was compacting the TB Inbox to avoid this precise problem. There were no power failures. TB has failed me. I have no hardware problems nor problems with any other of the software programs on the hard drive.

[DanRaisch]

You have the answer to your question about renaming files and copying them to the Thunderbird profile in my reply above. You can't just do that. You can use the ImportExportTools extension to bring message data from such files into the Thunderbird folders. And you don't need the .msf files to do that.

[eager to learn]

"You can use the ImportExportTools extension"

Except when I click to that link I receive this as an untrusted site -

This Connection is Untrusted

You have asked Firefox to connect securely to nic-nac-project.org, but we can't confirm that your connection is secure.

Normally, when you try to connect securely, sites will present trusted identification to prove that you are going to the right place. However, this site's identity can't be verified.

[DanRaisch]

Try this link -- https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/mboximport-en.html

[eager to learn]

Has this alternative site been vetted? After losing so many e-mails I'm understandably concerned about malware, etc.

Thank you.

[DanRaisch]

That's the site I use to get the extension.

[eager to learn]

I downloaded grepp 1.9.2 portable as linked here to a flash drive.

I then opened it and the search box appears. I chose another flash drive where my roughly 2 GB TB Inbox file is located and started the search of the folder the TB file is in since you can’t seem to just search a file.

3 times it said grepp stopped working but not why.

I then copied the TB Inbox file to my PC’s hard drive and repeated the search with grepp only with the TB file on the PC – same error message.

I installed Notepad++ but when I did the search Notepad ++ said the file was too large.

I then downloaded and installed Glogg to my hard drive which said it was installed but neither Windows Explorer nor under Programs in Start window of Windows 7 cold I find it anywhere. CCleaner lists it as and installed program but I can only find the .exe file, not the installed program to search the large TB Inbox file.

Any other programs which might work since grepp doesn’t seem to?

Thanks.

I have an old TB Inbox file which is 1, 953,590 KB.

I want to search it for a person’s name.

I’ve opened it in Word, WordPad, Notepad and Libre Office but all I get is the “Not responding” cycle.

What other program(s) should I consider using to open and search this large file?

Thanks.

[DanRaisch]

You might try the trial period version of UltraEdit. See this site -- https://www.ultraedit.com/company/blog/ ... gJTIfD_BwE

[tanstaafl]

I installed glogg and the windows start field couldn't find it (kept finding the setup program instead). It also didn't create a shortcut on my desktop. However, clicking on the windows start icon and scrolling through the list of applications I found it. I then right clicked on it and chose more -> pin to task bar. Its also awkward using it to navigate to the mbox file. But it displays the contents well, and very quickly.

https://www.ghacks.net/2018/02/22/how-t ... n-windows/