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After I restore Thunderbird backup using Mozilla Backup, none of my accounts show. I've verified they are in the backup, need to get mail up.

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I backed up my Thunderbird 24 using Mozilla Backup. I did this as I was going to change one of my accounts. After making changes, I decided to restore the backup I took. Restore appears to work and I've verified the profile is correct and the accounts with emails are in the mail folder. However, when I start Thunderbird, only the Local Folder appears, none of my email accounts show. I really need to get this working as I have very important data in the email. Thanks for your help.

I backed up my Thunderbird 24 using Mozilla Backup. I did this as I was going to change one of my accounts. After making changes, I decided to restore the backup I took. Restore appears to work and I've verified the profile is correct and the accounts with emails are in the mail folder. However, when I start Thunderbird, only the Local Folder appears, none of my email accounts show. I really need to get this working as I have very important data in the email. Thanks for your help.

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Did you change the path where the mail folder(s) are located?

And, ARE you using local folders in the TB GUI to store messages? Didn't get that clearly from your post.

Depending on what you actually did Re: changing accounts, & whether the backup was restored to the same (profile) path that the accounts (& the profiles.ini file) think they are in. If profile is now in a different path than before, you may have to edit the path in the profiles.ini file to reflect the correct path.

Also, sometimes after restoring or doing other work, the *.msf files in the email folders get corrupted or just confused. The .msf files are in the same folder as inbox, sent, etc. They're index files - not email storage files. (the mail storage files don't have extensions).

Often, when email that actually exists in the mail folders doesn't show in the accts, deleting only the *.msf files in each acct's mail storage folder will correct it. This is the simplest step to try, but again - it depends on actions leading to the issue.

They will be recreated when TB restarts & apparently can "correct" themselves, to display stored msgs again. Unless something about the actual storage files is corrupted.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disappearing_mail

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I also receive the attached message.

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Chosen Solution

Did you change the path where the mail folder(s) are located?

And, ARE you using local folders in the TB GUI to store messages? Didn't get that clearly from your post.

Depending on what you actually did Re: changing accounts, & whether the backup was restored to the same (profile) path that the accounts (& the profiles.ini file) think they are in. If profile is now in a different path than before, you may have to edit the path in the profiles.ini file to reflect the correct path.

Also, sometimes after restoring or doing other work, the *.msf files in the email folders get corrupted or just confused. The .msf files are in the same folder as inbox, sent, etc. They're index files - not email storage files. (the mail storage files don't have extensions).

Often, when email that actually exists in the mail folders doesn't show in the accts, deleting only the *.msf files in each acct's mail storage folder will correct it. This is the simplest step to try, but again - it depends on actions leading to the issue.

They will be recreated when TB restarts & apparently can "correct" themselves, to display stored msgs again. Unless something about the actual storage files is corrupted.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disappearing_mail

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Here's how I solved this problem. After what seemed like 10+ remove Thunderbird/reinstall Thunderbird/restore backup, I decided to open one of my email folders in the backup using Thunderbird. When I did, it opened a Thunderbird Write window. I then went to Tools-Account Settings, to my amazement, all my accounts showed in the Accounts Settings. I have no idea why, but now my Thunderbird is OK.