This is a tricky one: restore folders and subfolders.[Linux]

[kalimerox]

Hi there, this is my first post in this forum.

I m a long time thunderbird user and always found a way to restore my mails etc, but this time its different. what i did:

I have a laptop with 2 linux distros. on distro 1 i have thunderbird running with a lot of local folders and subfolders with emails for different projects.

On distro 2 i wanted to access the local inbox of distro1 and set up thunderbird. During the setup i couldnt make the local folders visible. going back to distro one opening thunderbird all the local folders were gone and i cant find a way to see them again. it is very strange. I know this is very vague but any idea is very much apprecciated!! thank you

[tanstaafl]

If you use help -> troubleshooting information -> open folder to open your systems file explorer at the current profile does it still have a Mail\Local Folders child directory?

Check if any of the *.msf files are read-only. They shouldn't be. That can hide child directories.

Did you create any symlinks to try to make Local Folders in profile 1 visible in profile 2?

Go to edit -> account settings -> local folders -> local directory and see where it thinks "Local Folders" is stored. It should be at ..\Mail\Local Folders within your profile. If not then you have to decide whether to change the setting to where the mail folders actually are or move them to the expected location. Local Folders contains a "Unsent Messages." and "Unsent Messages.msf" file (displayed as Outbox in the folder pane in Thunderbird). Try searching for them if you don't know where the mail folders are stored. Usually nothing else in the profile has those filenames.

If none of this helps try running in safe mode (help -> restart with add-ons disabled) to see if your problem is a side effect of a an add-on that doesn't play nicely with the current version.

[kalimerox]

Thank you for your prompt answer!

If you use help -> troubleshooting information -> open folder to open your systems file explorer at the current profile does it still have a Mail\Local Folders child directory?

yes it is still there, though maybe in there there is something missing? i did a screenshot i ll attach when i found out how to do it

Check if any of the *.msf files are read-only. They shouldn't be. That can hide child directories.

yes, some where read only and some of the folders also. i changed it , but it didnt bring back the local folders

Did you create any symlinks to try to make Local Folders in profile 1 visible in profile 2?

I m not sure. but i think this is what i did wrong: i fired up thunderbird, dialed in my email infos, then i got asked about using a global inbox and i said yes and then i linked the local folders in -> account seetings --> local directory to the profile 2. i guess this messed up everything...?

Go to edit -> account settings -> local folders -> local directory and see where it thinks "Local Folders" is stored. It should be at ..\Mail\Local Folders within your profile. If not then you have to decide whether to change the setting to where the mail folders actually are or move them to the expected location. Local Folders contains a "Unsent Messages." and "Unsent Messages.msf" file (displayed as Outbox in the folder pane in Thunderbird). Try searching for them if you don't know where the mail folders are stored. Usually nothing else in the profile has those filenames.

thanks! yes i did that, no luck yet...

If none of this helps try running in safe mode (help -> restart with add-ons disabled) to see if your problem is a side effect of a an add-on that doesn't play nicely with the current version.

I tried that, no changes.

[LIMPET235]

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[tanstaafl]

I m not sure. but i think this is what i did wrong: i fired up thunderbird, dialed in my email infos, then i got asked about using a global inbox and i said yes and then i linked the local folders in -> account seetings --> local directory to the profile 2. i guess this messed up everything...?
How did you link Local Folders to the Local Folders directory in the other profile? Did you modify the "local directory" setting or .....?

Think about temporarily undoing both of those changes and verify that you can see Local Folders in the current profile. Then modify the local directory setting in the profile to use the corresponding Local Folders in the other profile. If that works okay, then try adding the global inbox setting. The problem might that the setting for the global inbox never got notified that the local directory was changed for Local Folders due to the order that you made the changes.