Mozill crashed and lost all mails

[Dr. Muhammad Masroor Ali]

Dear All,
I am using Mozilla 1.2.1 in RH 8.0. While doing some apparently
innocent works, mozill crashed. At the next invocation I seem have
lost all my mail and mail folders plus all the preference settings.
What should I do? I have lost everything, mail for the last few years,
my address book, all.

Any help will be appreciated.

[Juan M. Gonzalez]

That seems to be the bug 170539 ("prefs.js gets wiped
- all mail/news accounts settings lost").

If you don't have a backup copy of your prefs.js file,
you will need to enter your mail account settings again
(mail servers, etc.).

Surely your mail messages are still there. For example,
if you use Windows and POP accounts, probably they are
in C:\Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\...
or something similar.

To recover your mail messages by hand, see:

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=170539#c81
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=63389#c55
http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.0/faq/mail-news.html#3.8
http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1901
http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4837
http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2450
http://www.mail-archive.com/users%40beonex.org/msg00195.html

[Juan M. Gonzalez]

> Surely your mail messages are still there. For example,
> if you use Windows and POP accounts, probably they are
> in C:\Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\...
> or something similar.

And -I think- the folder in your Red Hat Linux would be:

~/.mozilla/[Profile Name]/[random string].slt/

Data from:

Mozilla 1.2.1 Release Notes: Files Created or Used
http://www.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla1.2.1/#files

[Mary C.]

Same thing happened to me the other day. All my mail in all my folders was
gone including the mail settings! Is this a new virus. It's in the folder
you mentioned but how do I get it back into my Inbox? I had to redo all my
accounts and it appears to be working but did not restore the mail to the
Inbox.

Thanks.

[Juan M. Gonzalez]

Well, when you enter the mail settings again, new directories
are created for your mail accounts. You can see them with the
Windows Explorer (in the case of Windows), or in the Mozilla
menu: Edit -> Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings... -> Server
Settings -> Local directory.

As said in the links provided in a previous message of this
thread, it is necessary to copy the mailbox files from the
old to the new account directories. Restart Mozilla and you
should see your old messages again.

It is better to remove the old mail summary files *.msf (they
will be re-created correctly by Mozilla), and keep the files
with no extension, like "Inbox", etc., where the messages are
stored.

You may rename some of the files (to "Inbox-old" or "Inbox-new",
for example) to avoid overwriting possible recent messages in
your new mail account directory.

And, just in case, keep a copy of the prefs.js file (the Mozilla
user preferences), and restore it to its place if this bug happens
again, to avoid recreating your accounts by hand.

Hope this helps.

--
People in Action
http://peopleinaction.info
Web Guide: Ecology, Solidarity...

[Mary C.]

Juan,

Thank you for your help. I guess I'm dumb or something but I am confused.

I went to Edit>Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings>Server Settings>Local
Directory.
Do I copy the files to Local Directory?

I tried yesterday copying the Inbox files to the New Inbox files but nothing
happened. There's so many files in the Mozilla folder that I'm not sure
which one to copy to. And, according to your directions here, would you
remove the old mail summary files BEFORE or AFTER copying the mailbox files?
You completely delete them, correct? What do you mean by "keep the files
with no extensions, like "Inbox", etc., where the mesages are stored?

Sorry I am so dense but I really need these messages back and don't quite
understand your instructions. Probably simple and I'm dense.

Thanks again.

Mary

[Juan M. Gonzalez]

Sorry, I think the problem is my too basic English (I'm from Spain).
:-)

In the mentioned Mozilla menu (Edit -> Mail & Newsgroups Account
Settings... -> Server Settings -> Local directory), you can see
the new directory for your mailbox files. Something similar to:

...\[Profile Name]\[random string].slt\Mail\pop.yourserver-1.com

for a mail account pop.yourserver.com. Probably your old directory
is very similar, without the "-1" or with a different number:

...\[Profile Name]\[random string].slt\Mail\pop.yourserver.com

So, you need to copy all files with no extension (Inbox, Sent...)
from the old directory to the new one. And the same for the
directories of each mail account, if you have several. That's all.

Step by step:

1. Print these instructions.

2. Close Mozilla.

3. Open for example Windows Explorer (if you use Windows),
to manage the files.

4. Make a backup copy of your profile, including your mail
directories, just in case there is any problem. You can copy
your profile in a folder of "My Documents", for example.

5. Return to your new mail directory, for example, in Windows
95&98:

C:\Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\[Profile Name]\
[random string].slt\Mail\pop.yourserver-1.com

and delete all the mail summary files (*.msf): "Inbox.msf",
"Sent.msf", etc. You can order the files by type in the
Windows Explorer (or any similar program) to make this
easier. Mozilla will recreate these files correctly later,
when you will restart Mozilla.

6. Rename the files with no extension ("Inbox", "Sent"...)
in your new mail directory to avoid overwriting recent
messages in the next step 7. For example: "Inbox-new",
"Sent-new"...

7. Copy all the mailbox files (the files with no extension
like "Inbox", "Sent"...) from the old mail directory to the
new mail directory.

8. Repeat steps 5 to 7 with each mail account, if you have
more than one.

9. Restart Mozilla. If you copied correctly the old mailbox
files to the new mail directories, you will see the old
messages again in Mozilla, after restarting the program.

10. Then, you can reorder your messages in Mozilla by
renaming folders, creating subfolders, moving messages...

That's all. As said before, there is related info at:

http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.0/faq/mail-news.html#3.8
http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1901
http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4837
http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2450
http://www.mail-archive.com/users%40beonex.org/msg00195.html

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=170539#c81
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=63389#c55

I did this before and it works perfectly, but please
let me know if you find any problem.