Mail database conversions?

Issue encountered. Was using Thunderbird 1.0.2. System crashed. I have
backups of everything, no problem there. The problem I am encountering is
that when I try to put my mailbox database files within the new 1.0.6
application, they will only read certain mailboxes, and only certain files
within each.. I have lost a PILE of important emails. Has anyone
successfully converted these database files, or managed to extract the
information from them in order to at least print them off? I can't find a
1.0.2 download source after some googling (at least not one that I trust)
and I can't find any documentation on such a situation. Hope one of you can
help. I know I should have stayed on top of thee updates for thunderbird,
but 1.0.2 was running so nicely, and I have problems with 1.0.6 on my
laptop, so I figured I would leave well enough alone...lesson learned.

 

try thunderbird 1.5 alpha 2 - running smoothly here and has been since it a1

 

The files in your profile's Mail folder that don't have extensions
contain your messages and you should be able to open them in a text
editor like Windows Notepad or Wordpad. The files with MSF extensions
are created by the program when needed and tell the program how to
display the messages in the files that don't have extensions.

When transferring mail folders from one profile to another, I find it
best to just tranfer the files that have no extensions and to build
folders and subfolders for them later. Thunderbird should be closed
when transferring the files.

Old and new versions of Thunderbird can be downloaded from
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/

 

I still have a copy of TBird 1.02, it is a 5.75 MB file. I can send it
to you via an
email attachment if you want. Send an email if you like. I will be gone
'till Sunday nite. Will shoot it to you then.
Like you I've learned in the past and I keep the old versions around for
a while before I delete them.

Tom

Tom

 

I still have a copy of TBird 1.02, it is a 5.75 MB file. I can send it
to you via an
email attachment if you want. Send an email if you like. I will be gone
'till Sunday nite. Will shoot it to you then.
Like you I've learned in the past and I keep the old versions around for
a while before I delete them.

Tom

 

Doug G babbled on about this

You, sir, are the best. I don't know how I missed the fact that an open
source group likely has a public FTP... went dummy for a few I suppose.
Thanks guys, and to Tom for offering to email the file. Up and running again
have the emails I need and archiving the installers.

 

Just a note, and I can only speak for a Windows XP installation.

In fact, the files at the OS level in the mail profile folder are named
the same as you name folders in a Mozilla mail app. So, if you name a
folder in Moz or Tbird "bob.smith" then the file at the OS level will
also be named "bob.smith". Hence, it's not strictly safe to tell people
that the mail files are always the ones withOUT an extension. It is
correct to say that those files with the .msf extension are index files
and do not need to be backed up as they will be regenerated on the fly
when Moz or Tbird run.

Further, there is a deeper structure created using .sbd folders at the
OS level. At this point my brain begins to hurt when trying to describe
this structure so I'll let you all explore on your own. (now where'd I
put the Excedrin?)

Anyway, an important point is that when you back up a profile you should
back up everything except (perhaps) the cache folder(s).

 

Ed Mullen babbled on about this news:e5idnZ2dnZ0OZtWMnZ2dndzzaN-dnZ2dRVn-

I think that is maybe where I went south. I only ever backed up the
account folder, not the entire profile, which perhaps I shall change in
my backup jobs.

 

I tend to think of Windows file extensions as being three or four
charcters. So a file named "bob.smith" would make me stop and think.

To prevent imported files from overwriting files of the same name, I
select them, click copy and then paste, and move the files named Copy of
Inbox, Copy of Sent, etc.

To merge my profile's \Mail\mail.comcast.net folder with another
profile's Mail folder, I would rename the mail.comcast.net folder to
mail.comcast.net.sbd, move it to the Local Folders folder and create a
new folder there named "mail.comcast.net."

It's a whole lot easier and quicker for me to merge mail folders than
try to explain how I do it.

I delete cache folders and history.dat files before making back ups.