Thunderbird Cannot See Messages

[Akopian]

One day I turn on my computer and it cannot detect a seemingly random portion of the messages in my subdirectory structure. In fact, some of the subdirectories are missing. I look in my profiles and the messages still appear to be there.

I tried deleting all the msf files. That did not work.

I noticed that there are two files for each subfolder. There is a .msf file with the name of the folder and then another file just named after the folder. Then there is the sbd folder. When I delete the file named after the folder, Thunderbird no longer recognizes the messages.

Copying the zmeil recovered emails (using Unix format) did not seem to work either. I noticed that on all the sbd files that Zmeil created there is the directory structure appended to the file name. For example: Purchased Programs.sbd_Security.sbd_A-Squared Control Center

Is Thunderbird not recognizing the file? I WOULD get a new directory but under number of messages there would be a ???, and then the directory would be empty of any messages.

I'm very frustrated. Has Thunderbird changed how it indexes emails? Please help.

[Yulja]

As far as we know Mozilla has not changed Thunderbird format or something like that.

As explained at http://www.z-a-recovery.com/thunderbird-email-database.htm:

1. SBD folders are used for hierarchy structure of the Thunderbird's mail folders
2. Files with .MSF extension (file type) are used to hold various mail indexes and preferences (not actual messages) and therefore can be safely deleted
3. Files with no extension are the mail files containing actual emails; they must not be deleted in any case (deleting them you delete your messages)

So, if you have deleted the file with no extension, the messages stored in this file are lost and neither Zmeil nor any other email recovery program would not be able to extract them.

What you can do:

1. Try to find the deleted Thunderbird file without extension (maybe it is still in your "Recycle Bin") and restore it.
2. If you'll be able to restore the file, just copy it to the Thunderbird profile folder (http://www.z-a-recovery.com/thunderbird-email-database.htm)
3. Start Thunderbird. If you cannot see lost messages try Zmeil to extract them (see the tutorial (http://www.z-a-recovery.com/thunderbird-recovery.htm)) from this file.

[marcey]

I use Thunderbird. I, too, have lost a large amount of my saved emails. I am very technically unsavvy. I could not recover them by following instructions. I tried creating an "Archives" folder in my "local Folders' and then tried moving all of my saved emails, which were in a folder I called "categorized info" and it had many subfolders, each with much information. I dragged the folder down to the local folders "archive" folder I had created. They were there, just fine. I opened several to see them. Then, I deleted the original "categorized" info folder which was in my mail email as a branch under my "inbox". I closed Thunderbird and when I reopened it, they were no where to be found. I have tried the recovery on the demo copy of zmeil, but I must be doing something wrong. I need someone to walk me through this process.

[Alexey V. Gubin]

With a demo copy of Zmeil, what the exact problem is?

Is it able to locate the Thunderbird message databases? Referring to this tutorial, http://www.z-a-recovery.com/thunderbird-recovery.htm, scroll down to "Running Zmeil". After you click "Next" for the first time (step 2), is there anything in the list of known mail files?

[srusinova]

My Thunderbird cannot see messages in one folder. But Zmeil dont work correctly . The systems message is (scanning this folder) : "An error occurred and it is not possible to continue execution.The program is now terminate.The error message was UNCONTAINED main thread fault. Do you want to anonymously submit the error report?" Please write me what that means

[Alexey V. Gubin]

Could you please download and try this version: http://www.z-a-recovery.com/zmeil-21-011.exe
If it still fails with the same error message, then click "Yes" to submit the error report. We need the error data to resolve the problem.

Also, if you try to store the recovered messages into MS Outlook, consider saving them as EML files first, to see if this gets around the problem.