[Software] Emails missing from May to October

[larbac]

Hello

Yesterday I updated my Kubuntu from 24.04 to 25.04 without any big issues.

Today I still had some updates to do (some SNAP stuff I think) wiich I did.
While using Thunderbird, I got a message that there was no space for my account (don't know why, since there's a lot of space available on the HDD).

I closed TB and opened again, and now I noticed that all emails from May to October are missing, on the 3 accounts that I have there!!!!
What the hell happened? Is there any way to recover them?

Thanks

[jlittle]

I suspect you've been moved from the APT version of thunderbird to the snap version, and the thunderbird profile location has changed. I suspect that your old email is still there in ~/.mozilla/thunderbird (or ~/.thunderbird). Hamburger menu, Help, Troubleshooting Information will let you click Open Directory to see where thunderbird is looking. The profile is in a directory called something like xxxxxxxx.default-release.

The profile should have been migrated, but there's a lot that can go wrong. People restore thunderbird data from backups or from another OS by copying the profile directory contents; I suggest you backup stuff first, and do any copies with thunderbird closed.

Lots of us here at KFN don't like the snap versions of firefox and thunderbird. Just ask if you need help de-snapping. Most (I presume) who de-snap use the APT version from the Mozilla repo, but I prefer the download version which installs to /opt; with this approach updates are less automatic but faster.

[larbac]

Now that I'm seeing even better, the lost emails are from 2024... Damn
Yeah, probably it was SNAP. How to revert this snap crap?

[larbac]

I think it's game over... The inbox files are way small.... Fu*** how can this crap happen?!?!?!?!

[jlittle]

The inbox files are way small....

Are you looking in ~/.mozilla/thunderbird, or under ~/snap/thunderbird/?

Thunderbird uses hundreds of files for mail these days, so it's the size of the profile directory and its contents that's relevant.

See https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/...et-rid-of-snap for method that has been tested by the community.

[larbac]

Just removed SNAP with the script.
Reinstalling Thunderbird now

[larbac]

Well, I did a fresh installation of all. Emails are gone though... So damn weird...

[jlittle]

I think your old email may still be there somewhere. Are there two directories with the form xxxxxxxx.default-release in the profile directory? If there are, I suggest trying, in a konsole:

thunderbird --ProfileManager

IIUC here's no simple way to merge profiles, but one can export and import contacts and emails.