Accessing old emails in backup profile. OSX 10.11.6

[dogmarsh31]

I am using TB 45.8.0 with IMAP and Gmail. Macbook Pro with OSX 10.11.6 El Capitan.

I have copied an old profile from 2010 which just may have an important email that I am trying to recover. When I select the 2010 profile using Profile Manager, TB opens with no emails showing. I am asked to create an account using my email address. Surely, if I create an IMAP account, all that will happen is all my emails currently stored on the gmail server will be downloaded to TB - therefore it will be identical to my current profile? Should I create a Pop3 account?

When I access the profile, through Finder, and look at All Mail, I can read the emails (plus formatting data etc) without a problem. However, with probably 10,000+ emails there, I need a way to read and search them all. I have already identified emails on the 2010 profile that are no longer in my current profile, so that makes me hopeful that my target email may still be there.

My question is: How do I get TB to read the All Mail folder in the 2010 profile?

[DanRaisch]

You may not be able to as what Finder is locating may be indexes of data that was stored locally for use when no Internet access was available. Still, see if this works for you.

Close Thunderbird. Navigate to the location of that old profile and look for a file with the name "All Mail" with no file name extension. There may be two files with that name, one with the extension .msf and one with no extension. You want the latter. Rename that file to "AllMailOld" and copy it into the new Thunderbird profile under the "Local Folders" directory structure. Launch Thunderbird and see if the messages can be accessed from a folder named "AllMailOld" under the Local Folders structure of Thunderbird.

[dogmarsh31]

Thanks for the help, Dan. I found 2 Local Folders, and I had no success in the first one, but when I tried Local Folders-1, it was Bingo! There they were. Sadly, the email that I had hoped was there, wasn't! Oh well, it was worth the try. Thank you for your speedy response.

[DanRaisch]

You're welcome. Note that the file you need might not be under Local Folders. It could be in a sub-directory of the IMAP account itself. Look for a sub-directory with the name \ImapMail\imap.gmail.com (or perhaps IMAPMail\imap.google.com). The desired file "AllMail" may be there.

[dogmarsh31]

Thanks again, but still no luck. It would appear to be the same folder, with only 753 emails in it. I have looked through all the other folders and have tried all the likely ones. Looks like this avenue of exploration has now closed! Thanks again. Pat.

[DanRaisch]

Sorry that didn't work out.