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Recover local folders after system crash?

larrydaleparker
larrydaleparker
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My Windows system crashed and would not restart. Had to re-install Windows 10 Home, which wiped out the applications. Then had to re-install Thunderbird and connect it to my gmail and yahoo email accounts. I need help to locate and recover the Local folders, which were holding my archived messages prior to the crash. Can you help?

My Windows system crashed and would not restart. Had to re-install Windows 10 Home, which wiped out the applications. Then had to re-install Thunderbird and connect it to my gmail and yahoo email accounts. I need help to locate and recover the Local folders, which were holding my archived messages prior to the crash. Can you help?

Chosen solution

Check this article for the default Thunderbird profile location. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

Does your missing data exist there?

Had to re-install Windows 10 Home, which wiped out the applications.

I'm not sure if that preserves anything from the original installation. You can check for a folder named

C:\Windows.old\Users\your-username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

If you do not immediately see AppData, make sure Windows shows hidden files and folders. To change that setting, see this article (hopefully it's similar in Windows 10): http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hidden-files

Does such a folder exist?

If none of the above works the only way would be to restore a backup of your Thunderbird profile you created prior to the incident.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (2)

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

Check this article for the default Thunderbird profile location. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

Does your missing data exist there?

Had to re-install Windows 10 Home, which wiped out the applications.

I'm not sure if that preserves anything from the original installation. You can check for a folder named

C:\Windows.old\Users\your-username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

If you do not immediately see AppData, make sure Windows shows hidden files and folders. To change that setting, see this article (hopefully it's similar in Windows 10): http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hidden-files

Does such a folder exist?

If none of the above works the only way would be to restore a backup of your Thunderbird profile you created prior to the incident.

Modified by christ1

larrydaleparker
larrydaleparker Question owner
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Thank you! christ1. I was able to restore the contents of my local folders after a couple of false starts.