Help, deleted email account and lost it all

User Help for Mozilla Thunderbird
bestaudioguy
Posts: 12
Joined: April 6th, 2018, 5:08 pm

Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by bestaudioguy »

Hi,
I was having issues sending emails and during the process of switching to IMAP, I accidentally deleted the email account which took all my folders with it. So now I have nothing. I read on the boards of a way to point TB at the folder I found in my profiles. I opened it and it appears to have everything inside.
I just dont know how to direct TB to that file to access my folders. I should have backed it up first, but in my excitement to get emails working I made the mistake of deleting before I backed it up!
So now that I switched to IMAP from POP3 I need to find a way to get my folders and emails back!
HELP.
Anyone able to log into my PC and do it remotely??

THANKS!!!!
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by tanstaafl »

Don't panic. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_de ... l_accounts . If all you did was delete a POP account the files used to store it's mail are still there, they are just ignored. Worst case see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders for how to import the mail folders from the deleted POP account into the "Local Folders" special account. You can then move the messages to a IMAP account.

You can have both a POP and a IMAP account for the same email address by the way. So there is no need to delete the IMAP account in order to restore the deleted POP account.

Please don't ask for anybody to remotely login to your PC. That's against the rules as its too easily abused.
bestaudioguy
Posts: 12
Joined: April 6th, 2018, 5:08 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by bestaudioguy »

Thanks for the info. I did look at the directions but somehow get confused when trying and as you can see, I deleted an account by accident not knowing it was going to take out all my folders in the process.
I will look at the links and give it a try. I have located the folder where the info is, I just need to point TB at the file!
bestaudioguy
Posts: 12
Joined: April 6th, 2018, 5:08 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by bestaudioguy »

I need to be walked through this process. Do not want to make any mistakes in the process. It instructs me to create a new email address first? See even the first step has me!

Its probably really easy for most. I just need someone to hold my hand. I should have backed it up and this would be moot, but nothing having email working for a week had me pissed. Did what I had to do to get it working and in the process, messed it up.
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by tanstaafl »

"It instructs me to create a new email address first? "

No. I updated step 1 to say:

Start Thunderbird and create a new mail account, using the same email address and server settings as the account you deleted. You can do that by entering your name, email address and password in the new account wizard and pressing Continue. Do not use the "Get a new account" button as that is just a pitch to sell you a (new) email address/domain by gandhi.
bestaudioguy
Posts: 12
Joined: April 6th, 2018, 5:08 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by bestaudioguy »

Well, created the new email using the same email as the old account as instructed. It worked and created the account, but now if I click on the server settings I get, "An account with this name already exists. Please enter a different account name." I had already created an IMAP account using the same email I'm trying to recover. I did choose POP on the set up to make sure it could find the file with the folders, but I got the message saying I need to use a different account name. Any way around this?
bestaudioguy
Posts: 12
Joined: April 6th, 2018, 5:08 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by bestaudioguy »

Looks like I might need to create a new email first, bring in the folders then convert to IMAP???
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by tanstaafl »

What is the harm in changing the account name? That is simply a short descriptive string used to help you identify the account, and is not used in describing how to connect to the mail server . Add a _old or POP suffix for example to the account name.

You can change the account name later on if you want to. Its not cast in stone to whatever value you choose in the new account wizard. However, my impression was that the only reason you were trying to recreate the deleted POP account was because it had the only copy of some messages. If that is true once you get access to the old messages move or copy them to folders in the IMAP account, verify that you can read them, and then you no longer have any need for the POP account.
bestaudioguy
Posts: 12
Joined: April 6th, 2018, 5:08 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by bestaudioguy »

Thanks for all the help.
So let me see if I get this
1. Create a new email using an _old suffix. When I do this it tries to find the server. When it cant, I should be able to manually put the info in? Then I need to point this new email? or will it just work to find the files? This is where I get confused. Again, I'm not a programmer, just a business owner trying to get the folders back.
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by tanstaafl »

When you add the POP account again using the new account wizard it will try to find the necessary configuration information and use it. If it doesn't (because your email provider isn't in the remote database) then you need to manually configure it (what mail server, port etc.). Once it adds the account you will need to modify the local directory setting (it specifies specify where the mail folders are stored) to use the directory where the mail folders were originally stored.

If that is too complicated I suggest you just find where the old mail folders are stored and import them into "Local Folders" per http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders

Regardless of which path you take the first thing you need to do is to find the old mail folders. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_fol ... il_folders for how to do that.
bestaudioguy
Posts: 12
Joined: April 6th, 2018, 5:08 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by bestaudioguy »

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GwfS9ww3fOhI3DUJ3

Here is a pic showing my first step. Created an email using a .pop suffix. I know it shows IMAP instead of POP3, which I did change

Thanks
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by tanstaafl »

Those settings look wrong. I would not expect any mail server name to start with a period for example. I am skeptical about the .pop suffix, I would expect your domain name to end in .com or .net. Just to be clear it was the account name, not the server name, that I was suggesting that you add a pop suffix to.

I recommend that you do not depend upon auto-detect as it works poorly, specify the port, normal password and ssl/tls or starttls instead.
bestaudioguy
Posts: 12
Joined: April 6th, 2018, 5:08 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by bestaudioguy »

I already have a .com email being used to get my mail. This account is IMAP. I was attempting to create a new account as you suggested using a different email address.
So instead I should use the same email as is for the account? My same .com email. Let me show you another screenshot of the current email set up.
I guess my question is if I set up the exact same email account, but as a POP3 account, will the same emails come in from the server, giving me duplicate emails? I think I tried this and the emails would show up to whichever one polled first.
So if I do set up the same email account, but as a POP3 it should find the folders??
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FV5JdEhqtK9zwqXr2
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by tanstaafl »

When you add the POP account it will not know what messages have been downloaded before and will try to download a copy of everything. Whether that creates duplicates or not depends upon how you used to manage the former POP account. But any "duplicates" are just extra copies in another directory tree, they are not intermingled with what you had previously downloaded. A POP account won't find multiple folders on the mail server, the only remote folder it knows about is the inbox. It also initially won't use your old folders on the hard disk. That is why you need to change the local directory setting to the old directory after creating the account.

All that I can get from the screen shot (since it doesn't show the server settings) is that you apparently have a IMAP account (due to the synchronization & storage menu item) and a Local Folders account.

I suggest you just import the folders per http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders instead. You're having too many problems trying to restore a previously deleted account.
bestaudioguy
Posts: 12
Joined: April 6th, 2018, 5:08 pm

Re: Help, deleted email account and lost it all

Post by bestaudioguy »

OK I think I'm really close to getting this done. Please look at the screenshots. I was able to get the import/export extension loaded and visible after reboot.
Next I found the profile using the tool, but having trouble finding any mbox files. I do however see all my folders listed that were removed. YEAH!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/iXSEfvE3LYeTgUBm1 profile directory
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8ACX8DGC4ika6O443
https://photos.app.goo.gl/toHLXUqt7G84Jbsm1 shows all the subfolders I was looking for
Post Reply