Recently, my provider switched from POP to IMAP. For me, the transition worked fine.
Then, some three weeks ago, Thunderbird failed and now I am faced with a problem I
am unable to solve. Here is a brief description of what happened:
Thunderbird suddenly hung, it appears that it was a configuration file that got damaged.
I found that all files in “.Thunderbird/name/default” were intact, so I made a backup,
recreated my account, and was up and running.
However, I need access to my older mails, and now I am trying to establish them as
local folders in TB. I have a directory “.Thunderbird/name/default/Mail”, in that directory
there is a subdirectory “pop.provider.no”, in which all my e-mails can be found. As an
example, there are two files “inbox.msf” and “inbox”, the latter contains my e-mails.
Now my question: How do I get those e-mails into the local folder “inbox_before_crash”?
Note: Those e-mails do not reside on the provider’s server.
> Now my question: How do I get those e-mails into the local folder
> “inbox_before_crash”?
Just copy and rename the “inbox” file under the active “Local Folders”
directory. Do that while thunderbird is not running. You can also copy
the inbox.msf file, it is the index (it lists what emails have been
read). If you don’t copy it, you have to create an empty inbox.msf,
renamed the same as the inbox (just don’t use the name “inbox”).
Thunderbird should pick it up when started.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)
On 2013-10-31 00:46, deano ferrari wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2594538 Wrote:
>> Thunderbird should pick it up when started.
> That approach makes good sense Carlos.
I have been using that method for more than a decade
They are just standard mbox files, they can be copied and opened on
several mail viewers. You can open them in Pine, for instance - it is
only the index files which are not standard.
Which means, of course, that the indexing can get lost. At worst, the
indexes get regenerated, but the information they contained is lost. The
emails are correct, but the information such as which posts have been
read, which answered, which marked with tags… that’s lost. Different
programs have different ideas about how to index mail mboxes.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)
If it helps, here is what I believe is the “default” Thunderbird profile directory structure.
I used TB to manage one POP account for a long time, then transitioned to managing both POP and IMAP accounts by adding additional accounts using
Edit-Account Settings-Account Actions-Add Mail Account
My resulting (simplified) directory structure is
~/.thunderbird/profile_*name*
/ImapMail (IMAP accounts)
/imap.googlemail-*name*.com (directory)
/imap.googlemail-*name*.com.msf
/Mail (POPmail accounts)
/mail.comcast-*name*.net (directory)
/(Many other files and directories)
I see no sub-directory “pop.provider.no”; perhaps a transition thing?
