Are you saying the Folder Pane is completely empty? Do you see the mail account name/email address folder but there are no folders under the account name?

Are you talking about a POP or IMAP mail account ?

Check the view: 'Menu app icon' > 'View' > 'Folders' > select 'All' Confirm the option 'ALL' is selected.

re :My husband was deleting the trash folder at the time. Do you mean he was 'emptying' the Trash?

I am a novice, where do I find out if I have a POP or IMAP main account. The folder pane is there, I see the mail account name/email address folder,sent, drafts etc but non of the folders made for our client emails.

Have I lost everything??

Just had a look, it is IMAP.telstra.com:993 if that is any help

Right-click the account in the Folder Pane, Subscribe..., click Refresh. Can you see the missing folders and check (subscribe) them?

No nothing came up, we have about 200 folders missing

Help/Troubleshooting, click Open Folder to open the profile folder, close TB. Open the ImapMail/<imap.telstra.som> subfolder or similar. Do you see files with no extension named after the missing folders, and like-named .msf files?

First of all what is TB does that stand for Thunderbird, and if so how do I close it. I had a look and could not find any folder names that are missing. Have I lost everything? is there anything else I can do?

Go to the troubleshooting information on the help menu. Click the "open folder" button. about the middle of the visible information. Close Thunderbird.

In the windows file manager that opened when you clicked the open button.

Locate the file foldertree.json file in the list and delete it. Restart Thunderbird.

found foldertree.json file, deleted, restarted, nothing has come back.

Look at the account through webmail. Are the missing folders visible there?

No they are not there, never were in web mail

If they were not seen in webmail, they were probably in Local Folders. If you open the profile folder as above, are there files named after the missing folders in the Mail/Local Folders subfolder? If you see them there, delete the .msf files and restart TB.

THE LOCAL FOLDER CAN BE SEEN ON THE LEFT WITH THE OTHER FOLDERS THAT ARE STILL THERE, BUT WHEN 1 CLICK ON THE ARROW THE DROP DOWN BOXES ARE TRASH AND OUTBOX & DRAFTS - VERTICAL@ OUR EMAIL ADDRESS. WHEN I CLICK IT BACK UP IT SHOWS : LOCAL FOLDER (little arrow before 584). IF I CLICK ON THE ARROW IN BRACKETS BEFORE 584 NOTHING HAPPENS. ON THE RIGHT IT COMES UP WITH tHUNDERBIRD MAIL - LOCAL FOLDERS ACCOUNTS THEN VIEW SETTINGS FOR THIS ACCOUNT SET UP AN ACCOUNT CREATE A NEW CALENDER

ADVANCED FEATURES SEARCH MESSAGES MANAGE MESSAGE FILTERS

DOES ANY OF THIS HELP?

We are trying to determine if your missing folders are still on your computer, but hidden when TB is open. Help/Troubleshooting, click Open Folder, close TB. Open the Mail/Local Folders subfolder and see if there are files with the names of your missing folders.

Hi sfhower, When I open the folder mail/local folder I can't see the missing files. There is imported.sdb Trash folder etc but no files

I have a similar problem. Some of my folders have moved to different locations and some have disappeared completely. I have found them in E:\Backups\Thunderbird\gpei06zl.default\Mail\mail.btinternet.com\Inbox.sbd\Holidays.sbd. How can I reinstate them? Any help would be gratefully received.

Buster said

I have a similar problem. Some of my folders have moved to different locations and some have disappeared completely. I have found them in E:\Backups\Thunderbird\gpei06zl.default\Mail\mail.btinternet.com\Inbox.sbd\Holidays.sbd. How can I reinstate them? Any help would be gratefully received.

Look in the Mail\mail.btinternet.com subfolder and the .sbd subfolders for files with no extension and named after the folders - the mbox files. Copy the mbox files into the Mail/Local Folders location of the current profile folder, while TB is closed. The default profile folder is here: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\8charstring.default

When you restart TB, the folders should appear under Local Folders in the Folder Pane.

vertical

re :When I open the folder mail/local folder I can't see the missing files. There is imported.sdb Trash folder etc but no files

I am guessing that all those missing folders are in the 'imported.sbd' folder as mbox files (same name as missing folder) and *.msf files. It sounds as if you do not see an 'imported' mbox file (it has no extension). Make sure Thunderbird is not running. In the 'Mail'/'Local Folders' folder do this:

Right click in blank area below 'imported.sbd' folder select 'New' > 'Text Document' change the name of that new text document to say 'imported' and remove the .txt part. - Make sure you get the spelling exactly the same as used in the 'imported.sbd' folder. When you remove the .txt part it will say something like 'if you change file extension it could become unusable'. You do want to change it, so say yes. This will create an mbox file called 'imported'.

Start Thunderbird. Check folders in 'Local Folders' mail account.

If unsure about what to do, please post an image showing the contents of the 'Mail'/'Local Folders' folder, so we can see what you see.

Thank you for your reply sfhowes, it was very helpful. I could not work out why my default profile folder was directed to Drive E: when everything else was held on Drive C: I have now copied the default profile folder from E:\Backups\Thunderbird\8charstring.default to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\8charstring.default so I think that is one problem solved as it is now recognising Drive C: as my default drive. I have moved the mbox files ( I am assuming that this is shorthand for 'mailbox') into my Local Folder and hey presto they appear under Local Folders in my tree menu. The next problem is how do I reinstate these folders to their correct i.e. pre apocalypse locations?

Buster said

The next problem is how do I reinstate these folders to their correct i.e. pre apocalypse locations?

If you mean to restore the folders to their original location under the POP account, there is probably no benefit to doing so, as the mail will still exist only on the local computer. But you can create new folders in Local Folders and move the messages from the copied folders to new locations.