How to recover messages deleted via sync&storage settings

[mozurkewich]

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The Thunderbird profile(s) are here

/Users/<user_acct>/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/

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How do I navigate to that? I managed to stumble upon it, but I can reproduce the result.

[mozurkewich]

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They will bi in a directory in the profile called "Mail" and list a folder for each account like

Local Folders
pop.gmail.com
pop.gmail-1.com
pop.gmail-2.com
pop.gmail-3.com


and in each of those folders you will see the following types of files

Drafts
Drafts.msf
Inbox
Inbox.msf
msgFilterRules.dat
popstate.dat
Sent
Sent.msf
Trash
Trash.msf

which contain what you are looking for.

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OK, so how do I recover a message from a backup without overwriting the rest of the folder?

Incidentally, they are under LocalFolders with nothing odd in the msf file names. I mention this for others who might be trying to follow along.

[DanRaisch]

Thunderbird all of the messages in a given folder in a single file so it is not practical to try to recover a single file from a backup. What you can do is recover the file which contains the message but rename that file before restoring it the Thunderbird profile. In other words, if the containing folder was name Sent, recover that file from the backup to the Local Folders directory after renaming that file OldSent. Do that, of course, with TB closed and when you open TB you should have a new folder named OldSent under Local Folders. You can then move the message(s) required from that folder to whichever folder you want, later deleting the folder OldSent as redundant.

[mozurkewich]

Thunderbird all of the messages in a given folder in a single file so it is not practical to try to recover a single file from a backup. What you can do is recover the file which contains the message but rename that file before restoring it the Thunderbird profile. In other words, if the containing folder was name Sent, recover that file from the backup to the Local Folders directory after renaming that file OldSent. Do that, of course, with TB closed and when you open TB you should have a new folder named OldSent under Local Folders. You can then move the message(s) required from that folder to whichever folder you want, later deleting the folder OldSent as redundant.

Thank you. That makes it clear.

[DanRaisch]

You're welcome.