Lost inbox
Maria McDonald
I found that I had lost all inbox mail from 5/8/08 until 11/19/09. I
have looked through my profile, and found the current inbox, which is
small, and then a much larger inbox that seems to be a back up. It was
in a separate folder, and dated 10/29/09. This seems to be my previous
inbox.
I took the steps that I found looking for information on this: I
renamed that box InboxOld, and it does show up in the folder list on
the left, but I still can't see the mail. Any ideas?
I use a Mac running OSX 10.4.7.
Jay Garcia
--- Original Message ---
Did you try > From - Tue Nov 24 12:06:11 2009
> X-Account-Key: account18
> X-UIDL: 49b79ce10000f387
> X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
> X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
> X-Mozilla-Keys:
> Return-Path: <flipp...@sbv.co.za>
> X-Spam-Flag: YES
> X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on gatewayno.com
> X-Spam-Level: *****
> X-Spam-Status: Yes, score=5.6 required=5.0 tests=FH_HELO_EQ_D_D_D_D,
> RCVD_IN_PBL,RDNS_DYNAMIC autolearn=disabled version=3.2.5
> X-Spam-Report:
> * 5.0 RCVD_IN_PBL RBL: Received via a relay in Spamhaus PBL
> * [92.4.125.79 listed in zen.spamhaus.org]
> * 0.5 FH_HELO_EQ_D_D_D_D Helo is d-d-d-d
> * 0.1 RDNS_DYNAMIC Delivered to trusted network by host with
> * dynamic-looking rDNS
> Received: from host-92-4-125-79.as43234.net (host-92-4-125-79.as43234.net [92.4.125.79] (may be forged))
> by gatewayno.com (8.13.6.20060614/8.13.6) with ESMTP id nAOHVXfK069804;
> Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:31:36 -0600 (CST)
> Received: from 92.4.125.79 by etrn.datapro.co.za; Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:31:19 +0000
> From: "Yvette Roberts" <Rober...@altern.org>
> To: <j...@jaygarcia.com>
> Subject: *****SPAM***** your photos
> Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:31:19 +0000
> Message-ID: <000d01ca6d2b$eec3c870$6400a8c0@flipperv712>
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
> X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
> X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0)
> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.71.2730.2
> Importance: Normal
> X-Spam-Prev-Subject: your photos
> Status:
>
> Hey, some jerk has posted your pictures (u understand what kind of pictures are there) and sent a link of them to all ur friends. I have already replied back. Said, that he is an idiot. See the link:
>
> http://ykinofasyp.virtue.nu/refykug.html
>
> Yvette Roberts
>
Did you try VIEW => Messages => All ?
--
Jay Garcia - Netscape/Flock Champion
www.ufaq.org
Netscape - Flock - Firefox - Thunderbird - Seamonkey Support
John Doue
> On 24.11.2009 12:23, Maria McDonald wrote:
>
> --- Original Message ---
>
>> My Thunderbird started acting funny, and after I compacted the folder,
>> I found that I had lost all inbox mail from 5/8/08 until 11/19/09. I
>> have looked through my profile, and found the current inbox, which is
>> small, and then a much larger inbox that seems to be a back up. It was
>> in a separate folder, and dated 10/29/09. This seems to be my previous
>> inbox.
>>
>> I took the steps that I found looking for information on this: I
>> renamed that box InboxOld, and it does show up in the folder list on
>> the left, but I still can't see the mail. Any ideas?
>>
>> I use a Mac running OSX 10.4.7.
>>
>
snip
>
> Did you try VIEW => Messages => All ?
>
Unless I am way off, Thunderbird does not create backups of mail files.
Are you sure you do not have a separate application that might have done
that?
I am assuming that, after renaming the Inbox file (without extension) to
Inboxold, you copied over the Inbox file you had found to your profile
(where the Inboxold is, I understand). Otherwise, TB just recreated an
(empty) Inbox file.
If you did not do that, make sure to close TB and copy the Inbox file
you found (without extension) to your profile. Hopefully, you will see
emails.
At the end of the day, a number of conclusions at least:
-you need to determine what application created the Inbox file you
found. Or did you at some point create a second profile and imported
your original mail for the other profile? The name of the directory you
found the file in might help determine this.
-this issue has been addressed several times: do NOT use your Inbox as a
storage place. Same you would not use your street mail box to store your
snail mail. Create subfolders adequately named and dispatch your emails
accordling.
- Backup, backup!
Good luck
--
John Doue
Maria McDonald
Thanks for the information. Here is what is happening:
I found this big inbox file in my profile in a folder called
mail.mezdesign.com, which is my mail server name. I then took that big
Inbox file, moved it into the local folders folder, deleted the
inbox.msf file, and then restarted Thunderbird. It did not read that
old Inbox file, but created a new one, and moved that big Inbox file
to a newly created mail.mezdesign.com folder (that is my mail server
name). That is why I thought that Thunderbird makes backups. I see a
number of folders with the following names: mail.mezdesign.com,
mail.mezdesign.com-7, mail.mezdesign.com-6, mail.mezdesign.com-5,
etc., all with dates getting older as the folders get lower numbers.
Somehow, Thunderbird must be creating these. I also located a profiles
copy just on my hard drive, which contained the same types of files. I
found large Inbox copies from 8.21.09 and 7.9.09. I don't recall
making this copy. I'll try to see if I can load those large old Inbox
files into the Local Folders to see if I can read them.
Lesson learned on not using the Inbox to store. I do have a elaborate
subfolder system and I use tons of filters, but I apparently that's
not been enough. Thanks for your help on this.
Greywolf
[...]
>
> Thanks for the information. Here is what is happening:
> mail.mezdesign.com, which is my mail server name. I then took that big
> Inbox file, moved it into the local folders folder, deleted the
> inbox.msf file, and then restarted Thunderbird. It did not read that
> old Inbox file, but created a new one, and moved that big Inbox file
> to a newly created mail.mezdesign.com folder (that is my mail server
> name). That is why I thought that Thunderbird makes backups. I see a
> number of folders with the following names: mail.mezdesign.com,
> mail.mezdesign.com-7, mail.mezdesign.com-6, mail.mezdesign.com-5,
> etc., all with dates getting older as the folders get lower numbers.
Every time you recreate a identity/account, or create a new one, TB sets
up one of these folders. If you remove Inbox, TB will just recreate it.
Inbox and Inbox.msf constitute the "folder" that you see labeled "Inbox"
in that account. Don't delete or move the Inbox file, just copy it.
(It's a text file, so you search it for keywords if you want to find an
e-mail in it.) You could copy all the Inboxes in those folders, plus
Sent, and any other files that have no extension. You can skip Trash.
First create a suitably named real folder to put them in. You can then
go through them at your leisure, and archive the really important
e-mails within them. You can then delete all those mezdesign folders
except the current one (check by looking at the file dates within them.)
See below about why Compacting "folders" is necessary
> Somehow, Thunderbird must be creating these. I also located a profiles
> copy just on my hard drive, which contained the same types of files. I
> found large Inbox copies from 8.21.09 and 7.9.09. I don't recall
> making this copy. I'll try to see if I can load those large old Inbox
> files into the Local Folders to see if I can read them.
This will work, but first rename them, eg Inbox-8-21-09. And Compact
them before opening them.
> Lesson learned on not using the Inbox to store. I do have a elaborate
> subfolder system and I use tons of filters, but I apparently that's
> not been enough. Thanks for your help on this.
Yes, and my note below has some further thoughts on archiving mail.
...............................................................................................
Why Compacting folders is necessary in Thunderbird.
A simple explanation, I hope ;-), based on experience and snooping
around in the Thunderbird Profiles folder.
Thunderbird does not in fact remove messages that are Deleted or Moved
from their folders. Thus, the folders increase in size until some limit
(set by the system) is reached. Then you have problems, such as not
being able to Delete, Move, or Copy messages, not seeing headers of
recent messages, etc.
The Reason for this:
a) The "folders" shown within each account are not in fact folders, but
files. Each "folder" consists of two files, eg, Inbox and Inbox.msf.
b) When you download a message, it is added to the Inbox file.
c) When you Delete a message from the Inbox "folder", a copy is added to
the Trash file, and Inbox.msf and Trash.msf are updated. The message
within Inbox is not deleted.
d) When you Move a file, a copy is placed in the target "folder", and
the *.msf files are updated. The original message is not deleted.
e) When you Empty the Trash, the copies of the messages in it are
deleted, and Trash.msf is updated. The copies in the original "folder"
remain there.
To remove messages, you must Compact the folders.
"Compact folder" removes copies of Deleted and Moved messages from the
original files, and updates the *.msf files. It appears to do this one
message at a time, so if you have never Compacted folders, the process
can take a _very_ long time. Minutes, in fact.
It's best to set Thunderbird to Compact folders automatically:
Tools > Options > General > Network & Disk Space > Compact Folders >
Check "Compact folders when it will save over", and enter a number in
the box. (I think 300 is good.) Close the pane.
Note that many other e-mail programs use the same general "mbox" method
of storing messages, and may cause similar problems.
Re: archiving e-mail:
Troubles with the mboxes arise from our tendency to use the built in
"folders" to store mail. So it's worth thinking about archiving mail
that's worth the hassle of work arounds. I use a a folder tree external
to Tbird, and Save As e-mails (and news posts) there.
You can also create subfolders, Move mails into them, and from time to
time copy the relevant files (in \Mail\account.folder) to an external
folder. These are text files, and can be searched, but images etc will
show as text blocks, and HTML will show all its tags.
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