HELP! Deleted important folder - how to pull from laptop?

[love10001212]

Help!!!!! Somehow, messed things up and not sure how to fix this -

I have TB installed on 2 iphones, 1 laptop, 1 desktop. 7 total accounts. The account in question is my business email account through Zoho. I have the standard folders (inbox, sent etc) and ONE manually created folder SAVED, with 6 or 7 subfolders in that.

Had some issues on my desktop so had to refresh windows and with that had to put a fresh copy of TB on. Started from scratch, imported each name, and then copied over my address book - all worked fine.

However - that one SAVED folder is now completely missing everywhere that's internet connected (all but the laptop) - somehow it just completely got deleted.

Went to my laptop, and immediately disconnected from the internet to preserve that TB. Opened it and am viewing offline, and the folder IS there with all subfolders intact - but in the trash folder! Sigh. I have copied the entire imap folder from the laptop to my external hard drive and to a usb stick, and when offline - I can see the emails after importing them into the profile folder on the desktop - obviously, the minute I go online they get overridden.

So my question is - how do I copy/import that entire saved folder back into my email account without it being overridden by the server?

Thank you all!!!

[tanstaafl]

I suggest the very first thing you do is backup your entire profile on the laptop.

You should be able to just drag and drop the "saved" folder from the trash folder to some parent folder with a different name (than the deleted folder). I deleted a "test" folder in Local Folders for example. It shows up in Local Folders\Trash. I just dragged and dropped it back to the inbox, and it created the "test" folder as a child of the inbox folder.

You didn't explicitly say so but it sounds like the trash folder is in a IMAP account, and that you're worried you will lose the offline folder when you go online because the remote and offline folders will sync. Disconnecting the laptop from the Internet should be sufficient to temporarily prevent syncing , but I suggest you also use file -> offline -> work offline to both tell Thunderbird not to make any network connections, and that it should display the offline folders, rather than the corresponding remote folders.

Dragging and dropping the saved folder tree to "Local Folders" would be your best bet. The contents of Local Folders are unaffected by any syncing when you resume working online. Once you're configured to work online again (file -> offline -> work online) I suggest you drag and drop it to a different folder in the IMAP account. That should keep the original, while copying it to the IMAP account. The reason for choosing a different parent folder is to avoid any possible complications from syncing.

If you're worried, instead create the same directory tree in the IMAP account (under a different parent folder) and manually copy the messages for each folder in Local Folders\saved to the corresponding folder in the IMAP account.

[love10001212]

Thank you for the reply! I have the profile folder saved safely.

However - I cannot do anything but view when the laptop is not connected. It's both offline via physical wifi button and the work offline feature within TB. I'm unable to drag or copy anything -- I am trying both an actual drag and the right click / copy to feature. I can view everything but I can't actually do anything. Correct - I am scared that the second I go online it will just wipe out the folder like it did everywhere else

[tanstaafl]

You could just copy the saved.sbd directory tree in your IMAP account to ..\Mail\Local Folders in your profile. I assume it would be in the trash.sbd directory in your IMAP account. Help -> troubleshooting information -> open folder should open windows explorer at your profile. When you start Thunderbrid it should discover and use it.

However, if you're not comfortable doing that or can't find saved.sbd download the ImportExportTools add-on from https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/ using a different computer, copy that *.xpi file to your laptop, install it, and then use it to import the saved folder tree. Worst case, use it to import the trash folder instead. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders for how to download and install that add-on.

[love10001212]

CRAP. None of this worked. Copied the trash.sbd into mail/local folders, and when I restarted, nothing appeared in local at all except an empty saved folder (this is on the connected desktop) I'm letting the rest of the inbox download now (the activity log on the desktop says "bringing the folder up to date" - for inbox and sent, which appear to both be fine) but I am assuming the missing folder would have already popped up in local/trash by now if it was going to?

Tried to install the extension to the laptop and TB said "the add on could not be installed because it appears to be corrupt" !!!!

[tanstaafl]

If you're online then you might as well use the search field at the upper right corner of the in tools -> add-ons -> extensions pane to search for and install ImportExportTools within Thunderbird instead of downloading it using a browser......

Check that when you copied trash.sbd you copied the entire tree (other *.sbd directories, and any mbox files)

[love10001212]

I am not online on the laptop yet, only the desktop

I copied the entire sbd folder -- don't see any mbox files but I see all the sub folders and all the corresponding msf files. The Mail/Local folders on the desktop now are 100% identical to the imap/trash/saved on the laptop now, but when the desktop is connected - it does not add anything

UPDATE - I got the previous version of import export to install on the laptop! I have the options box up now but not exactly sure of the steps to take?

[tanstaafl]

Did you read http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders ? You're essentially at the "find the mail folders" step.

[love10001212]

Yes, but totally confused -- I see the saved.sbd folder with all inside it, but it's not too clear on exactly what options I should choose to export when on TB using the extension - some of this doesn't match what I'm seeing and some is for POP etc. I understand that on the other end I have to import to local then drag, since I'm using imap, but I'm not there yet lol.

I am guessing I need to highlight the saved folder on the laptop, right click, select importexport tools -- but then what?

Thank you!!

[tanstaafl]

See the find the mail folders section in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders

[love10001212]

Is that section referring to the single Trash file inside imap / folder name -- NOT the saved.sbd folder? I do see that single Trash file with no msf extention. But I'm still confused as to what to do now - I can locate these files within the profile folder, but what options on the actual extension do I need to take? I have read this page a bout 10 times and can't figure it out ;(

Am I copying that one trash file onto a usb, then moving to my connected desktop, and using the import extension to import that one single file? If so - is it "ImportExport tools --- import mbox file" - then navigate and select?

[tanstaafl]

You can do everything on your laptop, with no USB drive involved.

tools -> importexporttools -> "select a directory where searching the mbox files to import (also in subdirectories)" and when given a window to select the directory, select trash.sbd in your IMAP account.

You're doing this on the laptop, which supposedly has the only copy of the missing folders. You're trying to import it into Local Folders. Once its in Local Folders you can drag and drop the "saved" folder tree to the IMAP account. Once in the IMAP account all of your devices (desktop, laptop, smartphone etc.) that have that IMAP account should see the saved folder tree the next time they run.

[love10001212]

Ahhh ok I got it - let me try this. Should I make a new subfolder on the laptop under local like "missing folder" and then highlight that before I go to tools/importexport etc etc? There is already a trash folder there - wasn't sure if it was better to create an actual new folder or not

[tanstaafl]

The add-on should automatically create a subdirectory (that it will use as a parent folder) for you to avoid naming conflicts , but its not a bad idea to create one and highlight it.

Its safe to experiment with how you use ImportExportTools. It never deletes the original when importing, and if you mess up you can either try again or delete what it imported and try again.

I'm going to be gone for a couple of hours. I'll check how you're doing when I get back.

[love10001212]

Is it supposed to show immediately? I did the above, selected trash.sbd from imap, and nothing popped up in local folders

Do I need to connect now? Or should I already be seeing it

thank you