missing messages
I've been archiving my mail locally using Thunderbird (mbox format). Today I transferred some files from one mailbox (Mailbox A) to another (Mailbox B) and by the end some messages cannot be found in either Mailbox A nor B. On a separate issue, I seem to be missing messages that I thought were in Mailbox B previously. Unfortunately when I open the local Mailbox B file in a text editor, I also cannot see the messages I was expecting to find, so I don't think it's an .msf file corruption issue.
Does anyone know where I could potentially recover these messages? I'm a bit distressed to think they are lost forever (my last backup of the local mail storage was unfortunately out of date) but I am guessing this is likely the case. Thank you.
All Replies (2)
Are you using an imap or pop mail account ?
re :Today I transferred some files from one mailbox (Mailbox A) to another (Mailbox B)
Is Mailbox A and Mailbox B in the same mail account? OR Is Mailbox A in an imap account and Mailbox B in the 'Local Folders' mail account ?
If you move messages out of an imap folder and put them into another mail account eg: Local Folders mail account, then the 'move' is in effect taking the email out of the imap account and off the server.
If you did not download full copies in the imap account then you are only putting headers into the 'Local Folders' mail account in which case you have not got a copy of the email.
What is 'Mailbox A' - it the 'Inbox' or another folder you created? Is that folder set up to download/receive full copies of emails or not?
- Account Settings > Synchronisation & Storage
- click on 'Advanced'
- Is 'Mailbox A' checkbox selected to download full copies?
Do you have an Anti-Virus which is allowed to scan any opened files?
I would strongly advise you:
A) check the following:
Make sure you are actually downloading full copies of emails into the Imap account folders.
B) When you want to 'move' emails from A to B, do not use 'Move to' - use 'Copy-to' because then you can check whether you can access those copied emails. If something fails then at least you have not lost the original off the server, so can repeat the action. Only delete emails once you are sure you have good copies in the 'Local Folders' mail account.
C) Do not allow Anti-Virus or cleanup software like CCleaner or Wisecleaner to scan anything in your profile folders. They cause havoc.
Thanks for the answer and my apologies for the missing information. They are both local mailboxes (There are Mailbox A and Mailbox B mbox files on my drive).
Good point about the copying and then deleting. I have been just moving by dragging. It may be that something crashed during the transfer - I thought Thunderbird was conservative in the deleting after it checked the transfer itself but I may have been overoptimistic.
So there is no place I could search for old messages from a local mailbox?