mozilla mail won't open

i've been using mozilla for a long time. i had it set to open to mail and newsgroups. recently, when i try to open mozilla, the mail and newsgroups icon appears on the taskbar, but the program window won't appear. if i rt click this icon and choose restore or maximize, nothing happens. after backing up my profile folder, i tried upgrading to mozilla 1.7.3, hoping this would fix it, but no luck. i've since switched to thunderbird for email, but there are a couple messages i would like to recover from the mozilla installation. i've tried importing emails with outlook, and with thunderbird, but apparently they can't import from mozilla. i think it was version 1.7 originally.

 

Welcome to the Forum, tahoejeff!

tahoejeff,

Do you still have Mozilla 1.7.3 installed? If so, what happens if you go to:
Start | Programs | Mozilla | Mail, and click on the Mail shortcut? Does it open correctly?

You can also try this:
Rightclick on the Mail icon in the task bar, and choose "Restore ". If that is grayed out, it is already in that mode. Rick click and choose "Move ", then use the arrow keys to move the window onto the desktop. When you get it so that you can see the window, resize it to your liking. Then close the window using the X in the right corner while holding the CTRL key. If that doesn't work, then press: ALT+SPACEBAR+M.

Another workaround, is to delete the localstore.rdf file, which is located in the salted (*.slt) folder.
If you are using a Theme, uninstall the theme (if possible) and see if that helps.

To get the messages from Mozilla to Thunderbird, do this:
With both Mozilla and Thunderbird closed, open Windows Explorer.
Backup both Program's Profile folder
In the Mozilla Mail Account Folder, rename the Inbox to MozInbox
Copy MozInbox and paste it into the Thunderbird Mail Account folder

Follow the same routine if you have messages in other folders that you wish to keep. Don't copy the MSF files, only the files with NO MSF EXTENSIONS.
If you have subfolders, then copy all SBD folders. Open the SBD folders and remove all file with MSF extensions first.

Let us know if you have further questions.

Ramona