How to salvage messages from a folder that has become corrupt?
One failure mode of an SSD is write errors. My drive began failing and (I think) corrupted some of the Thunderbird mail files. Now, in one folder, inbox, I can see the email list, but cannot open the emails. In another folder, Sent, it appears blank -- as if nothing is there. Unfortunately, the backups made last week (while the drive was beginning to have trouble) are also corrupt. The files are on the drive and appear to be the appropriate size -- is there a way to repair or extract all or some?
Folders that were not accessed last week are not affected. I tried the db rebuild, but no change. Thunderbird does not give any errors. There are a couple thousand emails in each of these folders. Is there any way to salvage?
All Replies (7)
I think it's rather the mail file contents what's corrupted than a disk problem.
First of all create a backup of your Thunderbird profile folder. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-tb#w_backing-up-a-profile
Then try to rebuild the index file of the troubled folder. Right-click the folder - Properties - Repair Folder
Note: depending on the corruption this may erase messages from the affected folder which cannot be recovered anymore. In that case you'd need to restore them from a recent backup done prior to the corruption.
Corruption is often caused by anti-virus software messing with Thunderbird mail files. It is therefore recommended to create an exception for the Thunderbird profile folder, so that the real-time scanner won't attempt to scan the profile with your mail.
For more information on the profile location see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird
Also see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_working_-_Thunderbird
Though helpful, the above information does not solve the issue. In this case it was absolutely the failing SSD (not anti-virus, etc..) It gave a lot of problems -- I'm seeking help for the Thunderbird portion here.
I have tried the "rebuild folder" option with no joy. It tells me the file size is 174Mb and message count is 0. Is there any way to extract information from that file.
I do have good backups from a while ago. However, because the corruption was slow at first, then more progressive as time went on, and since the last 3 weeks are most critical, those are the ones I'd like to salvage --- if possible.
Thank you for any help you can offer.
Any Ideas?
It tells me the file size is 174Mb and message count is 0.
Can you explain that in more detail? What did you do to get that information? What is 'it'? What file is 174 MB?
Click on the folder "Sent". Right click then select "Properties". In the small box that appears, just under the "Location" line, it says: Number of messages: 0 Size on disk: 174 MB
Is there any way to extract information from that file?
The problem is similar for the "Inbox", though it does give the correct number of messages.
Number of messages: 3147 Size on disk: 431 MB
The difference with "Inbox" is it shows the messages in the message window, but when they are selected, it does not read the info of the message -- just get a blank screen -- as if the email had not content.
Actually that's not totally true, because it does show content of the emails in the first 1/4 of the messages -- the old ones. I can also see content of messages in sub folders that were not accessed during the time the SSD was having problems. Those appear just fine.
The errors are weird, because, as it was explained to me, the SSD did not write everything correctly as it began to fail. Some files can be read by their parent programs, some, like these email files, cannot. It seems like in the read process that Thunderbird is not finding some key things it's looking for, so it just skips over those. I'm just wondering if there is a way to extract what is good info versus what is missing or garbage.
Thank you for any help you can offer.
I have tried the "rebuild folder" option with no joy.
What happened when you pressed 'Repair Folder'?
Is there any way to extract information from that file.
Mail files are text files. They can be opened with a text editor, e.g. Notepad++. Don't try the Windows Notepad. Check whether the mail still exists in the Sent file. Make sure Thunderbird is closed when you do that.
The difference with "Inbox" is it shows the messages in the message window, but when they are selected, it does not read the info of the message -- just get a blank screen -- as if the email had not content.
That sounds like the classic mail file corruption - see above. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1128964#answer-892115
In this case it was absolutely the failing SSD (not anti-virus, etc..)
I'm not convinced about that.