How to Restore Deleted/Lost Thunderbird Emails

Summary

Are you looking for a way to restore deleted or lost important Thunderbird email files on your PC? Here in this article, you’ll find 3 effective methods to restore deleted Thunderbird emails from trash, after emptying trash or directly apply email recovery software to restore lost Thunderbird emails in 3 steps. Just follow to get your lost Thunderbird email files back now.

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Deleted Thunderbird emails and emptied trash, how to restore?

"Hi there, don you know how to get lost emails restored after emptied the trash in Thunderbird? Yesterday, I tried to remove and delete some old email files received in the Inbox. I didn't realize that I've deleted the wrong emails till this morning when I tried to reply and modify emails in Thunderbird.
I've already emptied the trash, do I still have a chance to recover deleted emails after emptying the trash? How?"

Are you having a similar problem with Thunderbird email recovery? Don't know how to restore Thunderbird email files? Don't worry and just follow below guide methods to restore your lost Thunderbird files and emails right now.

Method 1. Restore Deleted Thunderbird Emails from Trash

It's quite easy if you accidentally deleted received emails from Inbox to Trash. You may follow below guide lines to undelete Thunderbird emails from Trash now:

1. Launch Mozilla Thunderbird and sign in with your user account;
2. Click on Trash and find your deleted emails;

Recover deleted Thunderbird files from Trash.

3. Right-click on deleted email files in Trash and select Move To > Select user account > Specify location where you want to restore deleted emails to - Inbox (highly recommended);

Restore deleted Thunderbird files from Trash.

4. Check and find restored emails at Inbox then.

Method 2. Manually Restore Deleted Thunderbird Emails After Emptying Trash

If you have emptied trash and permanently deleted Thunderbird emails in your PC, don't worry. You'll still have a chance to recover permanently deleted emails after emptying Thunderbird trash with below tips:

1. Show hidden files in Windows Explorer;

Open Widows Explorer > Go to Folder Options under Tools;
Click View > Check Show hidden files, folders and drives > Click OK;

2. Find Thunderbird saved files in PC;

Navigate to: C:/Users/YOUR USER NAME/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/YOUR PROFILE/YOUR THUNDERBIRD ACCOUNT and find your profile named with eight random letters and numbers followed by '.default';
YOUR THUNDERBIRD ACCOUNT is the Thunderbird account name under which you are trying to recover deleted emails files.

3. Open 'Inbox' file with Notepad or similar text editor;
Note: Inbox has no suffix and don't open Inbox.msf etc files.
4. Locate the line before your email text that reads 'X-Mozilla-Status: 0009' or similar > Change the number to '0000' > Save the document and exit Notepad;
5. Close Thunderbird and re-open it > Check and find recovered emails in the Inbox;
All recovered email files will be marked as unread there.

Method 3. Restore Lost Thunderbird Emails on a Local Drive with Email Recovery Software

If you think that the above offered two methods are too complex, relax! You can make things even simpler to recover deleted or lost Thunderbird email files saved on your local drive with powerful email recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. This software supports you to restore up to 2GB email files for free with simple clicks.
Just free download this email recovery software and follow below steps to see how to get lost or deleted Thunderbird files back now:

Step 1. Choose the drive X: where your lost email files were saved, and click "Scan".

Step 2. The software will initiate a scanning process immediately. The larger the drive is, the longer time it takes. Wait patiently until the scan is complete. To quickly locate the email files, you can click "Filter" -> "Emails", or directly search a specified file extension, such as .pst, .ost, etc.

Step 3. In the filtered results, choose the desired email files and click "Recover".

After this, you can copy and save the restored Thunderbird profile back to the location: C:/Users/YOUR USER NAME/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles and replace the old profile folder, and then relaunch Thunderbird, you shall be able to see the restored emails in the Inbox.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why choose EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard?

"EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is the best we've seen. It's far from perfect, partly because today's advanced disk technology makes data-recovery more difficult than it was with the simpler technology of the past, but it's fast and efficient..." —PCMag

"The first thing you'll notice about EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro is that its interface is very clear and uncluttered, with only a small collection of self-explanatory controls. You won't find lots of extra options hidden in a system of hidden menus, either; what you see really is what you get." —techradar

"Recover lost files, even after deleting a partition or formatting your drive." —Macworld

2. Why cannot I recover 2GB data for free?

It is recommended to check the version installed is Free or Trial because they are different versions.

Trial has data preview function but cannot save any files, while the Free version enables to recover 2 GB files. The default free space is 500 MB and you may share the product on social media to get another 1.5 GB.

3. Why cannot the recovered files be opened?

A file is saved as 2 parts on the storage device: directory info (which is comprised by file name, time stamp and size info, etc.) and data content.

If the files with original file names and folder structures cannot be opened, one possible reason is the corrupted directory info. There is still a chance to recover the data content with the RAW Recovery method in our software.

4. Why isn't it suggested to recover the files back to the original drive?: The storage structure of the lost files would be altered or damaged by any changes on the drive. If you save the recovered files back to the same drive, the original data structures and data content would be corrupted or overwritten, which causes permanent data loss. So you should prepare another disk to save the files.

5. How can I check whether my data is recoverable or not before purchase?: The Free version helps you save 2GB files to better verify the recovery quality of our product before purchase.

6. How long does it take to scan the drive?: It strongly depends on the capacity of your hard drive and the performance of your computer. As reference,most drive recoveries can be completed in around 10 to 12 hours for a 1-TB healthy hard drive in general conditions.

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