Emails disappeared!

[firefoxuse]

hello!

one of my accounts has been emptied, I don't see any emails! what can I do?

thanks!

[tanstaafl]

Don't panic. There is a good chance you can get them back. In the interim, don't let Thunderbird compact your folders in case something deleted those messages. Compacting physically removes the deleted message. I suggest you log into webmail using a browser and verify that the originals for that account (I'm assuming you're using POP and "server settings -> leave messages on server" was checked) still exist.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disappearing_mail . Its long, but that is because its pretty thorough.

If you are also missing some folders check the local directory setting at the bottom of the accounts server settings hasn't changed. If Thunderbird hiccups it can change where the account stores its messages (the local directory) and will create new empty folders for special folders such as the inbox and sent folder. See the KB article for more information.

[firefoxuse]

the mails are still on the server

please tell me 1, 2, 3 what to do, that webpage is hideously long

[tanstaafl]

You didn't provide me any information to narrow down which of those possibilities is most likely. Start with the "Common problems" section. If that doesn't help look in the "Account specific" section. That eliminates half of the article.

[firefoxuse]

I clicked the Repair button with no luck.
I think something is corrupted, but I run portable TB and I don't know which folders to look at.
What can I do?

[tanstaafl]

Did you look at the mbox file and check its size? That is the file that stores the messages for the folder. Its named after the folder, but with no file extension. i.e. "inbox." contains the messages for the inbox folder. "sent." contains the messages for the sent folder and so on. If the file is at least several MB the messages might still be there. Ignore the *.msf files (they're so-called index files, basically just a folder listing).

You could also open it with a text editor (NOT a word processor) and see if it has mail messages. If you do that it will be very user unfriendly since you will see tons of headers, HTML tags won't get processed, and you'll see big blocks of characters all run together when an attachment is stored. But you should be able to recognize enough to see if you have a lot of email messages still in that folder. Look for Subject: headers, they're easy to recognize.

"Help -> troubleshooting information -> open folder" opens windows explorer at the profile, with the normal version of Thunderbird. I suspect it does too with Portable Thunderbird, even though it stores the profile in a Data\profile subdirectory in the programs installation directory. The local directory setting at the bottom of each accounts server settings (next to a browse button) tell you where the accounts folders are stored.

[firefoxuse]

you are not clear enough

what file am I looking for? mbox? inbox. ? you include so much irrelevant information instead of clear steps!

[tanstaafl]

You're looking for the "inbox." file stored in the "local directory" for the account. That is typically a directory named after the mail server. If its a POP account they're all stored in the Mail subdirectory in the profile.

For example, I have a Gmail POP account whose local directory is at C:\Profiles\TB_old\Mail\pop.gmail.com. That directory contains a "inbox." file (the mbox file with the inbox folder's messages), inbox.msf"(a folder listing), popstate.dat (used to record what messages have been downloaded), msfFilterRules.dat (message filters), "Trash." (a mbox file storing the messages for the trash folder) and a "trash.msf" file (folder listing for the trash folder).