Lost Messages from Inbox

[ABLE1]

Hello all, I am on v.38.4.0. Something just happened and need a insight.

I just noticed that my Inbox has all the headers but no context.

It seems that all other folders have Headers as well as the context.
I have not made any changes to any settings................ that I know
about.

First question is there some way to retrieve them from somewhere??

Second question how could this happen and how can it be set to not
happen again.

Thanks for any help.

Les

[Mike Easter]

ABLE1 wrote:
> my Inbox

POP or IMAP?

--
Mike Easter

[Chris Ilias]

I'm just going to assume you meant to say "content" instead of "context". :)

In which case, the problem might that your summary file is corrupted.
You can force Thunderbird to delete and recreate it by using the "Repair
Folder" function.

1. Right-click on a folder, and select "Properties".
2. Click on [Repair Folder].

--
Chris Ilias <http://ilias.ca>
Mailing list/Newsgroup moderator

[ABLE1]

On 12/13/2015 10:19 AM, Mike Easter wrote:
> ABLE1 wrote:
>> my Inbox
>
> POP or IMAP?
>

Hi Mike,

It is on POP.

The other odd event is that normally I see 5 to 30 postings to this
group a day.
Your posting is the first I have had in two days. I was starting to
think that the server was down and that maybe that was the reason for
the missing context or body of my emails. Then I checked my wife's
system and all is there.

I have since changed my setting to retain emails on the server without
deletion. Thinking that until this is resolved I won't lose any further
emails to my Inbox.

All emails prior to 12/11/15 have no bodies or context. Emails dated
12/12/15 at first seem ok, but, now I am noticing that when I click on a
given header I am seeing the context of a different sender. This is
only happening to a few of the emails.

Something very strange going on here.

In looking at the settings I have emails archived monthly. The funny
part is I can't determine WHERE they are archived.

Needless to say when everything in this world is going good you never
need to know much. Now it appears to be a much different story.

[ABLE1]

Wonderful!!! What that did was erase all of my headers that had not
"content".

Now I have a Inbox that is empty except for about 4 emails from yesterday.

My next choice is?????????????????????

Les

[Mike Easter]

ABLE1 wrote:
> Mike Easter wrote:
>> ABLE1 wrote:
>>> my Inbox
>>
>> POP or IMAP?
>>

> It is on POP.

The pop inbox messages are stored locally and are typically gone from
the server, so backup strategies are important. The inbox is also
subject to corruption especially if not maintained.

There is a m'zine article about corrupt folder recovery
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recover_messages_from_a_corrupt_folder

One of the strategies mentioned is the deletion of the .msf file, which
can be done using the repair folder function.

> The other odd event is that normally I see 5 to 30 postings to this
> group a day.
> Your posting is the first I have had in two days. I was starting to
> think that the server was down and that maybe that was the reason for
> the missing context or body of my emails. Then I checked my wife's
> system and all is there.

The news messages are handled differently than the pop messages; the
default configuration is that the message bodies are NOT stored locally,
so the .msf index file is all there is in terms of storage. That is,
just a subset of the headers, no message bodies such as are stored for
the pop inbox.

> I have since changed my setting to retain emails on the server without
> deletion. Thinking that until this is resolved I won't lose any further
> emails to my Inbox.

Well, that is one strategy.

> All emails prior to 12/11/15 have no bodies or context. Emails dated
> 12/12/15 at first seem ok, but, now I am noticing that when I click on a
> given header I am seeing the context of a different sender. This is
> only happening to a few of the emails.
>
> Something very strange going on here.

The article discusses problems with the .msf as well as corruption of
the mbox file itself.

> In looking at the settings I have emails archived monthly. The funny
> part is I can't determine WHERE they are archived.

What do you mean by that? You can't tell by looking at your folders or
you can't tell by looking in/ examining/ the profile's files?


--
Mike Easter

[ABLE1]

>
>> In looking at the settings I have emails archived monthly. The funny
>> part is I can't determine WHERE they are archived.
>
> What do you mean by that? You can't tell by looking at your folders or
> you can't tell by looking in/ examining/ the profile's files?
>

Mike,

At this point since I have done the "Repair Folder" and all is now gone
gone gone.
I need to come up with a "Plan B".

What I meant about the above is that I don't know where the archives are
archived, as in where are they located??

How do I retrieve them from where ever they may be located and put them
back to where they were archived from in the first place??

Thanks,

Les

[Wolf K.]

On 2015-12-13 13:51, ABLE1 wrote:

>>> In looking at the settings I have emails archived monthly. The funny
>>> part is I can't determine WHERE they are archived.
>>
>> What do you mean by that? You can't tell by looking at your folders or
>> you can't tell by looking in/ examining/ the profile's files?
>>
>
>
> Mike,
>
> At this point since I have done the "Repair Folder" and all is now gone
> gone gone.
> I need to come up with a "Plan B".

Try this:

a) Copy the Profiles folder to a safe place (see below on where to find it)
b) Compact all folders
c) Stop Thunderbird, delet all *.msf files, restart Thunderbird.

> What I meant about the above is that I don't know where the archives are
> archived, as in where are they located??

C:/Users/[you]/..../Thunderbird/Profiles/Mail/[account folder]/Inbox,
Trash, [Folder1], [Folder2], [etc]

/..../ varies with the operating system. More here:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

There is an *.msf file for each folder, eg, Inbox.msf, Trash.msf,
[Folder1.msf] etc.

Note that a Thunderbird "folder" is in fact a file, unless it has
subfolders. If a folder X has subfolders, you will see FolderX.sbd, and
inside that Subfolder 1, Subfolder 2, etc, and Subfolder1.msf, etc

> How do I retrieve them from where ever they may be located and put them
> back to where they were archived from in the first place??

There is no other place. The Archives are in the same place as Inbox, etc.

Use Explorer's Details view to check on the sizes of the "folders". If
Inbox is only a few hundred KB, ot in the low MB range, you have
probably lost the messages.

If you e-mail is provided by your ISP, and they offer a browser
interface to get at your mail, you will find some of your messages
there. Just how many depends on how much storage space they've allocated
for you.

As others have said, backup your Profiles folder at regular intervals.
Also, Compact Folders about once a week.

Good luck,

--
Best,
Wolf K.
kirkwood40.blogspot.ca

[Chris Ilias]

Either the messages are not in your inbox file, or they are marked as
deleted.
When you create a mail account, a folder named after the mail server is
created to hold all data pertaining to that account. (For example
\Mail\pop.mail.yahoo.com\) Your mail folders are contained in UNIX mbox
format. They are the files without extensions (Inbox, not Inbox.msf).
The MSF files are summary files Thunderbird uses to display header
information.
You should be able to open the Inbox file in a text editor, like
Notepad. Just make sure Thunderbird is closed when you do it.
Here's how to find your profile folder:
1. Open the Help menu, and click on "Troubleshooting Information".
2. Click on the button [Show Folder].

If you find the messages in the Inbox file, then post back here, and
we'll help you recover them.

Remember to make sure Thunderbird is closed when you open the Inbox file! :)

[ABLE1]

On 12/14/2015 7:07 PM, ABLE1 wrote:

> On 12/14/2015 1:06 PM, Chris Ilias wrote:
>> Either the messages are not in your inbox file, or they are marked as
>> deleted.
>> When you create a mail account, a folder named after the mail server is
>> created to hold all data pertaining to that account. (For example
>> \Mail\pop.mail.yahoo.com\) Your mail folders are contained in UNIX mbox
>> format. They are the files without extensions (Inbox, not Inbox.msf).
>> The MSF files are summary files Thunderbird uses to display header
>> information.
>> You should be able to open the Inbox file in a text editor, like
>> Notepad. Just make sure Thunderbird is closed when you do it.
>> Here's how to find your profile folder:
>> 1. Open the Help menu, and click on "Troubleshooting Information".
>> 2. Click on the button [Show Folder].
>>
>> If you find the messages in the Inbox file, then post back here, and
>> we'll help you recover them.
>>
>> Remember to make sure Thunderbird is closed when you open the Inbox
>> file! :)
>>

Here is where I am at this point. First I find this very challenging
since thing are not what they seem or SOP. What I mean is that when I
checked the:

1. Open the Help menu, and click on "Troubleshooting Information".
2. Click on the button [Show Folder].

What came up was << AppData > Roaming > Thunderbird > Profiles >
d89s1ulk.default
This was apparently on the Local Disk aka "OS (C:)" However if I do a
search on any of the seemingly folders listed such as AppData it can't
be found.

What I have done in the past 30 hours is that I first did a current full
drive back up my system. I then re-loaded a full backup from 3 weeks
ago. Once that was loaded I copied the the entire folder named "User"
to my back up drive. I then reloaded the current full drive backup so
that I am back to what I had when this all started.

My thought would be to reload the folder/file with all the missing
emails and all would be as good as it can get. The problem I am having
is finding that folder/file.

When I search the
Users\Les\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles\d89s1ulk.default on my
"OS(C:)" nothing shows up.

When I do the same search on my back up drive which has the "Users"
folder from 3 weeks ago the file does show up.

Is that the problem??

Is there a easy way to get all back or should I just reside myself that
all is lost and move on.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Les

[Wolf K.]

On 2015-12-14 21:04, ABLE1 wrote:
[...]

>
> Here is where I am at this point. First I find this very challenging
> since thing are not what they seem or SOP. What I mean is that when I
> checked the:
> 1. Open the Help menu, and click on "Troubleshooting Information".
> 2. Click on the button [Show Folder].
>
> What came up was << AppData > Roaming > Thunderbird > Profiles >
> d89s1ulk.default
> This was apparently on the Local Disk aka "OS (C:)" However if I do a
> search on any of the seemingly folders listed such as AppData it can't
> be found.

Shut down Tbird.

AppData is hidden folder. You must unhide it. Here's how:

From the desktop, open Control Panel --> Folder Options.

Go to View, find "Show Hidden files and folders", and click on the
little round button. While you're at it, uncheck "Hide extensions for
known file types".

Close Control Panel, then in Explorer you will be able to find
....Roaming - Thunderbird - etc
[...]

Look for the Mail folder, and inside that look for the account folder(s)
as mention by Chris. Follow his advice.

Tip 1: If Inbox is 10s of megabytes in size, then all the messages are
in there. If it's just a few hundred KB or a few MB, then older messages
will be gone.

Tip 2: Copy /Mail to some safe place regularly. I rename the copy with a
date, Mail-20151214.

Tip 3: Compact Folders about once a week. This will prevent Inbox, etc
from becoming unwieldy, and will reduce the odds of corruption.

Tip 4: With Tbird shut down, delete all the *.msf files. Tbird will
rebuild them when you restart it. I do this about once a month.

Tip 5: Delete messages that have become obsolete. Be ruthless. Most
problems with data corruption (in any application) come from keeping
stuff you no longer need. It just piles up and piles up and piles up and
piles up, and pretty soon you can climb to the Moon back on it... ;-)

Tip 6: You can use Save As to archive complete messages outside Tbird,
one message at a time. For this you will need a folder tree created on
your data partition.

Good luck, and have a good day.

[Tanstaafl]

On 12/14/2015 9:04 PM, ABLE1 <som...@somewhere.net> wrote:

> Here is where I am at this point. First I find this very challenging
> since thing are not what they seem or SOP. What I mean is that when I
> checked the:

> 1. Open the Help menu, and click on "Troubleshooting Information".
> 2. Click on the button [Show Folder].
>

> What came up was << AppData > Roaming > Thunderbird > Profiles >
> d89s1ulk.default
> This was apparently on the Local Disk aka "OS (C:)" However if I do a
> search on any of the seemingly folders listed such as AppData it can't
> be found.

No mystery here, AppData has ALWAYS been a hidden folder on Windows.

You have to change Folder Options > View to 'Show hidden files, folders
or drives.

The rest of your email seems to be based on this problem...

[ABLE1]

On 12/14/2015 10:37 PM, Wolf K. wrote:

> Shut down Tbird.


Ok, this is what I did.

I Shut Down Tbird.
I deleted all files with .msf files
I deleted d89s1ulk.default file: (Size 27MB)
from Users > Les > AppData > Local > Thunderbird > Profiles

Then I pulled the same file name from my BackUP drive and copied to the
C: drive at above location. The file size is 148MB.

I then opened Thunderbird, did a Compact of the Inbox and all folders.

I checked the Inbox and nothing changed. Only emails from the other day.
What did I do wrong?? What should I do different?? What did I miss.
I did the above 3 times, same result.

Thanks for any input.

Les

[Wolf K.]

Go into the profile (*.default), and find Mail. Inside that, find Local
Folders {or the account folder(s) if you don't use Local Folders. The
name(s) will be of the form [popxx.isp-X.com] if you use POP}.

Inside each account, find Inbox. Right click on Inbox, and Open it. Your
wordprocessor or Notepad will open the file. You will find all your
mails in there. Check the date of the oldest mail. The date of each mail
is in its header. If the oldest is older than "the other day", then you
may have set your View to "Unread" instead of "All". This is the View on
the tool bar, not on the menu bar. If it's not there, you can put it
there by Customizing the tool bar. Set the View to All, and you'll
should see more mails.

That's the limit of my advice, I'm afraid. But I note that even 148MB is
a rather small Profiles folder. If you had a year or more of mails, I
would expect it to be quite a bit larger than that. So be braced for the
worst.

Good luck,

[ABLE1]

On 12/16/2015 9:44 AM, Wolf K. wrote:
> Go into the profile (*.default), and find Mail. Inside that, find Local
> Folders {or the account folder(s) if you don't use Local Folders. The
> name(s) will be of the form [popxx.isp-X.com] if you use POP}.
>
> Inside each account, find Inbox. Right click on Inbox, and Open it. Your
> wordprocessor or Notepad will open the file. You will find all your
> mails in there. Check the date of the oldest mail. The date of each mail
> is in its header. If the oldest is older than "the other day", then you
> may have set your View to "Unread" instead of "All". This is the View on
> the tool bar, not on the menu bar. If it's not there, you can put it
> there by Customizing the tool bar. Set the View to All, and you'll
> should see more mails.
>
> That's the limit of my advice, I'm afraid. But I note that even 148MB is
> a rather small Profiles folder. If you had a year or more of mails, I
> would expect it to be quite a bit larger than that. So be braced for the
> worst.
>
> Good luck,

Wolf, et al,

OK I do believe I got it!!!!

It would seem that I first transferred the wrong "d89s1ulk.default" folder.
There are at least two.

This has the wrong one.
C:\Users\Les\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles

This has the right one.
C:\Users\Les\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

The trigger for me was when you said the file was on the small size.
That is when
I looked at the size and found the one that has about 4.7GB. Moved it
and all my emails are back. At his point I just lost a few from the
past couple of days of going nuts.

I have compacted all and I think I am good.

Thanks for all the insight!! Very helpful even though I may not have
used all of the suggested paths to fix my issue.

Have a Merry Christmas all!!!

Les