Missing Folders

[MozUsr999]

I've tried searching the forum, but the search engine keeps ignoring the word folder.

I had a number of custom folders where I was storing emails from several accounts. Suddenly they have all disappeared. When I search for one of the emails using the sender name, it will come up, along with a lot of other stuff I don't understand. Nothing I click on helps at all. Doesnt show me where the folder is, doesnt take me there.

Thanks for any help.

[tanstaafl]

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disappearing_mail

POP or IMAP account?
Are you missing all of your custom folders? If so one possibility is that something caused the "local directory" setting at the bottom of the accounts server settings to change. That specifies where the account stores it folders. If that happened Thunderbird would automatically re-create empty new versions of all of the special folders (inbox, drafts, templates, sent). The old folders would still exist but would be ignored as they are in a different directory tree. Browse your profile to see if you can find the missing folders. If so, you can change the local directory setting back to the old value. That will cause you to lose access to the newest inbox. However, you could import mail from it per http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders .

[MozUsr999]

tanstaafl, Thanks

The lost folders were not under local, but rather were all in a sub folder named TRIALS, under the inbox of an email account. There is apparently a NEW sub folder named TRIALS there now, and it is empty.

1) All custom folders gone, several levels deep.
2) All were in a single custom folder named TRIALS
3) I have found the old folder named TRIALS, in my profile. (I call it here: Level 1 custom folder)
4) The Level 2 sub folders under TRIALS seem to all be there, with correct names.
5) The Level 3 sub folders seem to be there, but have weird names, and show no contents.
6) But when clicking on Level 2 sub folders, I can see in Explorer, both the Level 3 sub folders, and some .msf files, which always have the same base name.
Hope this makes sense.

I DID just change 10 email accounts from POP to IMAP. I don't think the loss happened until a few days later. When I did the IMAP change, I had copied all my emails in the system to a folder, & then copied them back to the individual accounts, after they were created as IMAP (Which worked fine).

Also, I had consolidated and moved the above lost folders shortly before they disappeared, to a different email account. I believe the loss happened AFTER I shut down, and that I didn't notice it a day or two later. Maybe, maybe not.

I have experienced similar behavior before, when searching my emails, and seeing emails listed that are no longer in my system. (or are they?)

Anyway, I don't understand how to "change the local directory setting back to the old value". Can you elaborate?

Thank you!

[tanstaafl]

"I don't understand how to "change the local directory setting back to the old value". Can you elaborate?"

Find the old local directory. Its usually named after the mail server. For example, if you had a Gmail POP account you'd look for ..\Mail\pop.gmail.com . Use the browse button in the accounts server settings to change the local directory to that directory.

However, if your lost folders were in a trials directory (under the inbox of an email account) that doesn't sound like a "local directory". A local directory specifies where an account keeps all of its files. It sounds like "trials" is just a custom folder you created in another account that has several other custom folders. Whats unclear is why its missing. Is it because its in the wrong account or because for some reason those folders aren't displayed in the other account? If the latter, check that the *.msf files for the parent folder is not marked read-only. That can hide child folders.

[MozUsr999]

tanstaafl,

I found some of the stuff you mentioned, and this whole thing seems to be REALLY screwed up. There are TONS of files there, that haven't been used for years & years. And I understand little of what you are trying to help me with. I am going to have an impossible time trying to clean this all up.

1-What about just uninstalling the whole thing, and reinstalling.
2-I would like to SAVE the current 10 email accounts, and their settings, so I don't have to recreate them.
3-All email accounts are downloaded daily, from my website.
4-I know how to either export the messages I have, so I won't have to worry about anything currently in those accounts.

I just don't understand digging around in the user files.

Advice? Thanks.