perhaps http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_deleted_mail_accounts

Thank you, but this doesn't help. :(

ImportExportTools extension does not work for the latest Thunderbird 68.6.0 (!), so the instructions you noted can not be followed. (I had already hit this road block, as I said, I tried for hours!)

Thunderbird's native "Import" tool is useless as I can not direct it to the location of the Local Folders file which requires importing.

Furthermore, the Account password was stored in a Draft Folder file stored in Thunderbird, which I can no longer access, because Thunderbird "disappeared" all of my folders as reported.

I am dumbfounded that Thunderbird is this user unfriendly and unwieldy to work with.

So what, now I have to install an older version of Thunderbird just to use the "old" ImportExportTools extension?

This is just crazy!

Like trying to convince a three legged donkey to exercise with a hula hoop. ;/

Any other workarounds?

Thank you for your help.

The relevant add-on is ImportExportTools NG for TB 68.

With your new profile, you could select Local Folders in the left pane of Account Settings, then in the right pane for Local directory Browse to the Mail/Local Folders location of the old profile. Or, close TB and copy the mbox files from Mail/<popservername>, ImapMail/<imapservername> and Mail/Local Folders of the old profile to Mail/Local Folders of the new profile. The mbox files are large files, named after the mail folder, and have no extension.

For a Yahoo account, using OAuth2 authentication instead of 'normal password' will allow the input of the regular account password, instead of a secure key. If you change the authentication method for the incoming and outgoing servers, delete the passwords in Options/Security/Passwords/Saved Passwords, restart TB, and enter the account password when prompted.

Thank you for your help.

I have ImportExportTools NG installed now.

I created a new profile, and can pull mail in from yahoo with the secure mail key I have established.

However I can not find the "disappeared" Local Folders (Inbox, Drafts, Sent) that were present when the Account Setting>Account Actions>Remove Account action was executed two days ago.

All of the Local Folders I can find (using Folder Search in Explorer) are ancient (newest is 2016). The ones that I can find which are current (today's address) lack the content that was present two days ago. So the upshot is: the Local Folder of two days ago is non existent.

Is there any way I can restore these?

I need them desperately.

Thank you for your help.

Local Folders has default Sent and Drafts folders, but an Inbox in LF suggests you had a Global Inbox. Check the subfolders of Mail that are for POP accounts, or of ImapMail for IMAP accounts, for Inbox, Sent and Drafts mbox files. Search manually, don't rely on Explorer search.

Thank you sfhowes! :)

Not out of the woods yet, but I do believe I have located the disappeared data as a result of your guidance....it is busy importing now, so I shall see when it completes.

Just wanted to pop you a note that things are looking up now.

Back soonest...

sfhowes,

How long should a 5meg mbox take to load?

The little blue wheel has been going round and round for hours....(see image). ;/

Not impatient, it is just hard to tell if anything is happening.

I have closed TB and reopened...tried importing the mbox into various locations (see image attached "mbox blues")...Drafts don't import.

As shown on the other image, I was able to import Inbox, (it is not like this is complicated-it just isn't working).

I have done 187meg mbox imports that were faster.

My targets are the Inbox, Draft, and Sent mboxs in the attached profile directory.

Any ideas?

Thank you!

If importing with the add-on is not working properly, just copy the mbox into Mail/Local Folders, with TB closed. Your account is POP, with all the mail stored on the local computer, so it doesn't really matter if it's in LF or any other folder. Once it's in LF, mail can be moved to other folders by drag and drop.

The method would be different with an IMAP account: you can't import an mbox to an IMAP folder with the IET NG add-on.

shhowes....

THANK YOU.

Everything is back to normal now.

And then some.

Thank you so much for your help.

I owe you.

Best,

-L