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Lost all sub folders beneath the folder Archives

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Hello Thunderbird users!

Today my father lost all the sub folders below the folder Archives. Doe anybody know how to get them back?

I tried the following:

The strange thing is I also don't see any .sbd or .msf files, with one of the names he mentions, under the directory Mail (in the profile directory). How can they suddenly disappear or be deleted?


If someone knows how to get the folders (with the e-mails) back, that would be very much appreciated!

Hello Thunderbird users! Today my father lost all the sub folders below the folder Archives. Doe anybody know how to get them back? I tried the following: * Clicked on Folder Modes -> All Folders * Tried the solution mentioned here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Local_Folders The strange thing is I also don't see any .sbd or .msf files, with one of the names he mentions, under the directory Mail (in the profile directory). How can they suddenly disappear or be deleted? If someone knows how to get the folders (with the e-mails) back, that would be very much appreciated!

All Replies (3)

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ps. The problem is not about 'Local Folders' but about the sub folders beneath the folder Archives.

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First up, archives are a sub folder of an account. You talk of local folders, but if there is say a comcast account that appear in the folder pane, it will have it's own archive folders.

Next there should be an archives.sdb file in the root of each account, including local folders. That is where the sub folders in archives are stored.

That is Archives, archives.sdb as are the mail in the actual archives folder. Archives.sdb is the storage for sub folders.

Mail is stored in MBOX files. They have no file extension, the index used primarily to populate the user interface is stored in an MSF file and generally speaking there is nothing there that will not be regenerated if the file is deleted.

So a full set of a folder would be say MyFolder, MyFolder.msf and if MyFolder has sub folders an MyFolder.sdb

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Hello Matt,

Thanks for your information and for thinking a long!

At the moment I can't check the files that you describe, because my father took his laptop with him on vacation. When he comes back, somewhere at the beginning of June, I will check the files and see what's inside the file Archives.sdb! Hopefully the sub folders are still there!