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Missing emails

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  • Last reply by Graeme

Graeme
Graeme
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I have just completed transferring Thunderbird from Windows 10 (32 bit) to Windows 11 (64 bit). Running 115 on both machines. The transfer went well but ..... In my profile in the sub folder Mail, I ended up with 3 folders - Local Folders, XXXX.com (XXXX is the incoming sever name) and XXXX-1.com. This happened purely by chance with the XXXX-1 file containing all the data and folders off the old PC and the XXXX containing the emails from my internet provider from the time my old PC had died until the transfer.

I renamed the XXXX-1 file and opened it in Thunderbird - all the emails were there.

Seperately I did the same with the XXXX file - no emails appeared in Thunderbird.

If I click on the XXXX file then click on Inbox and open it with Notepad, I can all the new emails. The XXXX file inbox does not contain any of the old emails.

I have tried everything to open the XXXX file in Thunderbird (incluing renaming and cut/paste) all to no avail. And, of course, the emails were deleted off from my internet provider by Thunderbird when they were downloaded!

Can anyone suggest a way I can retrieve the emails off the XXXX file?

I have just completed transferring Thunderbird from Windows 10 (32 bit) to Windows 11 (64 bit). Running 115 on both machines. The transfer went well but ..... In my profile in the sub folder Mail, I ended up with 3 folders - Local Folders, XXXX.com (XXXX is the incoming sever name) and XXXX-1.com. This happened purely by chance with the XXXX-1 file containing all the data and folders off the old PC and the XXXX containing the emails from my internet provider from the time my old PC had died until the transfer. I renamed the XXXX-1 file and opened it in Thunderbird - all the emails were there. Seperately I did the same with the XXXX file - no emails appeared in Thunderbird. If I click on the XXXX file then click on Inbox and open it with Notepad, I can all the new emails. The XXXX file inbox does not contain any of the old emails. I have tried everything to open the XXXX file in Thunderbird (incluing renaming and cut/paste) all to no avail. And, of course, the emails were deleted off from my internet provider by Thunderbird when they were downloaded! Can anyone suggest a way I can retrieve the emails off the XXXX file?

Chosen solution

The first thing to check is that the X-Mozilla-Status: is not set to 8 in the message headers. That is the deleted pending compact status and will not show in Thunderbird.

Having said that. If you use your text editor to replace all X-Mozilla-Status: 0008 with X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 and save the changed the status will revert to new and they will appear in Thunderbird.

What is displayed is however controlled by the MSF file that is stored with the mail data, so delete the corresponding MSF file to ensurethunderbird does a fresh scan of the file. This is a rather rough and ready implementation of the right click on the folder, select properties and click the repair button you will see here everywhere to rebuild the user interface index.

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Matt
Matt
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Chosen Solution

The first thing to check is that the X-Mozilla-Status: is not set to 8 in the message headers. That is the deleted pending compact status and will not show in Thunderbird.

Having said that. If you use your text editor to replace all X-Mozilla-Status: 0008 with X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 and save the changed the status will revert to new and they will appear in Thunderbird.

What is displayed is however controlled by the MSF file that is stored with the mail data, so delete the corresponding MSF file to ensurethunderbird does a fresh scan of the file. This is a rather rough and ready implementation of the right click on the folder, select properties and click the repair button you will see here everywhere to rebuild the user interface index.

Graeme
Graeme Question owner
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Thanks Matt - brilliant! The status on all the emails was 0009. So I changed that back to 0001 and deleted the .msf file and up came all the emails. I then set up Thudebird on a different PC and sent the emails that I needed to the original PC's inbox - all good.

Modified by Graeme