Years of messages in Inbox missing & profile shows Inbox file at 0 KB
My Inbox showed no messages the last time I started Thunderbird (until Thunderbird started to download new messages). I looked on the C: drive under Profiles, and the Inbox showed 0 KB, when a backup from 10/17/2021, was 1.67 GB (1,753,217 KB). I am not sure how this happened. I think there were Thunderbird updates for a couple of days before I noticed the problem. I had been having trouble with Windows 10 updates, and saved files on an external hard drive on 4/20/25 to back them up, but by then, the Inbox file in my Thunderbird profile showed 0 KB. I am using POP to download emails. Is there any way I can get my emails back? Are they saved somewhere else? Thank you in advance for your help!
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Is there any way I can get my emails back? Are they saved somewhere else?
Yes, in your profile backup if you have one. The backup from 0/17/2021 is a bit outdated. Otherwise recent messages might still be stored on the POP server according to your server settings for this account (see image)
Hm. That is what I was afraid of. Lesson learned: Save profile backups more often. I did leave messages on the server, but there are multiple issues. 1. I'm not sure how to get Thunderbird to pull the old messages in; so far it has only pulled in new messages from the first time I opened Thunderbird after the Inbox was zeroed out. 2. Some of the messages are in folders on the server, and I don't know if I can import emails in those folders. 3. Also, I only lost the messages in my Inbox. If Thunderbird moved messages to a folder per one of my filters, I still have those emails in those folders. Which means that if I got Thunderbird to pull old messages in, I will have a lot of duplicate messages. 4. I don't know if it is possible to import messages from the Sent folder on the server, but if it is possible: The Sent folder on the server contains only messages that I sent when I was using webmail; it does not contain any of the messages I sent directly from Thunderbird. ... I didn't lose any messages from my Sent folder in Thunderbird, but if I tried to start a new profile to import all the emails from the server, it wouldn't include all my sent messages. QUESTION: Taking into account the issues above, do you have any advice for how I can pull old messages from the server into Thunderbird? Thank you for your initial reply, and thanks in advance for any additional help you can provide!
you have obviously located the folder, but when you say the inbox is 0 kb. there should be two files. One with an MSF extension that is of very little use and the actual inbox file that has no file extension at all. So place check again for the inbox file. (although you having located a 1 point something GB file you backed up earlier indicates you are probably looking at the correct file.)
Are there any other large files in that folder or the root of your profile folder named nstmp See https://kb.mozillazine.org/Nstmp_folders
Dyrbiće so pola swojeho konta přizjewić, zo byšće na přinoški wotmołwił. Prošu stajće nowe prašenje, jeli hišće wužiwarske konto nimaće.