I tried to transfer messages from IMAP folder to local folder, and now they're gone from both.
Please help. To facilitate a change in email hosting companies, I tried to save all of the messages in my IMAP accounts to local folders by creating new local folders, selecting messages from IMAP folders, and dragging them to local folders. For some folders it worked fine. For others the messages disappeared from the IMAP folders and did not re-appear in the local folder. It seems that my messages are gone. What happened, and can I fix it?
All Replies (4)
Also, I noticed an IMAP folder that is definitely not empty (it indicates I have new messages), but no messages show up in the message list.
Do you have webmail access to the IMAP server? Then you can check via webmail whether messages are still on the server.
Wrt moving messages, it is better to copy messages, and verify whether they have made it successfully to the destination folder, instead of moving them right away. After verifying that messages have been copied successfully you can delete them in the source folder.
Don't use drag and drop for copying/moving. Select the messages to be copied - then right-click - Copy To or Move To.
If you move large amounts of messages make sure your anti-virus software is not messing with Thunderbird files. This often causes file corruption resulting in lost messages.
Yes, in hindsight, it would have been better to copy rather than do a drag-and-drop move.
The folders that I already dragged and dropped are empty in the web client too. Other folders are empty in Thunderbird, but not in the web client.
Other folders are empty in Thunderbird, but not in the web client.
What you see in Thunderbird should always match what's on the server. If you have folders on the server which aren't visible in Thunderbird verify you're subscribed to these folders.
Even when copying, do that in multiple batches. Don't copy Gigabytes of mail in one huge chunk.
The folders that I already dragged and dropped are empty in the web client too.
When you dragged messages from the server where did you drop them? Assuming to somewhere underneath 'Local Folders', you can check in the file system and open the corresponding mail file with a text editor. Note, mail files are the ones without a file extension. If there is mail in it, it should have a size greater than 0 bytes. Do that only when Thunderbird is closed.