Sorry idk if this is the right place to ask.
Struggling with retrieving my offline emails!
Changed the server info and password but email is the same.
If you have your client configured for IMAP, Thunderbird will synchronise with the new server.
If you did not transfer your emails from your old server to your new server, that means the new state is “empty inbox” and synchronising means “removing everything that’s available locally”.
To fix this, either do a server-to-server transfer from the old email provider to the new one (there are tools to do that, like imapsync), or try importing emails from a backup into Thunderbird after synchronisation succeeds, so that Thunderbird will upload the messages. It’s possible that you will need to use a tool to rewrite the message IDs so that Thunderbird treats the messages as new items.
If you have already cancelled your old server provider (so a server-to-server transfer is not possible), restoring from backups may be your only solution.
If you don’t have any backups, your email may not be lost. The first thing you need to do is copy Thunderbird’s data folder to a backup location, just in case Thunderbird tries to do maintenance on the file while you’re performing recovery. Then, use a tool like Thunderbird Reset Status (I can’t quickly find a more up to date tool but they probably exist) to unmark the emails in the Thunderbird mail store as deleted. Then set up backups for your new mail server.
If you use the trick above and Thunderbird starts deleting emails again, repeat the trick but break the email account settings first. Then, set up a second connection to your email account, drag over all the undeleted emails so they get uploaded to the new server.
Thank you so very much! This makes me feel a lot better :) I look forward to working on this tonight
So one of my computers still had the emails. I was able to move them into local folders, though moving more than 100 at a day would crash TB. Then I setup the new IMAP sync and everything works fine.
It seems going forward I should send copies to those local folders? TB works rather unintuitively. Thank you for your help! You helped me understand and explore my options :)
Local folders are traditionally meant for protocols like POP3, where the standard procedure for email is to get downloaded and deleted from the server. IMAP is designed to keep email on the server, like you’d expect in most cases.
You can copy mail to local folders as a backup, but the problem you encountered is that the protocol was technically right, but you didn’t know about the details of migrating email providers. This problem should only happen in two scenarios: when your email vendor seriously fucks up, or when you migrate mail servers without first copying all the email over. As long as you keep backups for the first scenario, and remember to copy over email first during the next migration, you should be in the clear.
You can use your email in whatever method you prefer, of course. I prefer to keep email centralised around my server. If you’re going local-first, you could consider using the older POP3 protocol instead, which is more local-oriented.
Thanks this is really helpful. I would prefer local!
POP3 or IMAP? Desktop or Android?
If IMAP, are you sure your local folders are actually local?
Edit: By local I mean in the “Local Folders” tree not under your domain tree where the inbox is.
It’s IMAP and I think I set to keep local but you’re making me doubt myself. Thunderbird settings are worded in a confusing manner
Even if you say to keep a local copy, I do not think it is truely an independent local copy unless you actually move it to “Local Folders”. Otherwise it is probably just a local replica.
No expert with IMAP, though I have used Thunderbird for decades, I have just switched to IMAP myself in the past year.
You’re right. They were not local at all!