Ramona's fix for lost Netscape 7.1 mail folders

I posted this as a reply to someone else's similar problem, then realized that maybe no one will be checking that thread again, so I've started a new one.

Ramona, I've been reading your thread in response to Godfrey as well as The Fix you've posted in regards to lost mail folders.

My problem seems to be a bit different, so before I jump into following these instructions and making things worse, I thought I'd lay it out for you, since you seem so on top of this stuff.

I've been using Netscape 7.1 for some time, with no trouble. This evening, when I opened the Mail window and clicked on 'get messages' there seemed to be a long delay, although no error messages popped up. I waited for quite a long time, then I closed out the Mail window (a mistake?). Some time later, I decided to try to check my mail again, figuring that there had been some problem with the ISP. I didn't get asked to set up a new account or
anything, and *most* of my mail folders still appear just fine in the left pane. But a few have disappeared. Two were single folders, and one was a subdivided folder.

My profile is still there, in the right place. However, the files for the missing folders, both the ones with no extensions and the summary files, are missing. The subdivided folder still has its .sbd folder, which still contains the subfolder information, so it looks like most of my email is still there, but inaccessible. And it looks like the other two single folders are just gone.

Any ideas?

Chrissie

 

Welcome to the Forum, Chrissie!

Hi Chrissie,

Glad that you started a new Thread for your problem.

So if I'm understanding you correctly, you have lost two Mail folders since the snafu earlier in the evening.

How many Mail Accounts do you have? If you have multiple accounts, did you check each Mail Account Folder in Windows Explorer for the missing two folders?

If those files aren't showing up in Windows Explorer, then I'm afraid they're gone, however, that would be quite unusual. Even when Netscape or Mozilla has a corrupt prefs.js file, the Mail files show up on the HD.

Ramona

 

I only have the one mail account, and only one profile.

I copied everything in my profile to a backup folder, just in case I made things worse, then I went into Netscape Mail and created a new folder with the same name as the missing subdivided folder (the sbd file was still present, with all of that information intact). That new folder, with the same name, automatically read the sbd file and recreated the subdivided folders. So all that's missing there are the messages that were filed in the main folder. In addition, I'm missing the messages that were in the other two missing folders, the ones that weren't subdivided.

So, I managed to gain access to most of the missing messages, but I still don't know what happened or whether I will ever see those other folders again. They're definitely not on my hard drive, and by an unfortunate coincidence, I had just backed up my profile without realizing that there was a problem, so my backup file is also missing those folders.

 

Chrissie,

Do a "Find" for the missing Mail folder, and if you remember any of the text in the missing messages enter that also in the "Containing text ". Ensure that the "Include subfolder" box is enabled.

If you don't find the messages on the HD, then you must have inadvertently deleted them, or the folder which contained the messages.

Ramona

 

Well, I tried searching, and can't find those files anywhere on the HD. I suppose that I must have deleted them, although I can't think how or when. The only thing I can think of is that while the mail server was hung, I might have impatiently clicked on something but not have noticed because the screen was frozen.

Thanks for trying to help, though.

 

Hi Chrissie,

I'm sorry that you lost your mail! I know that you will be doing frequent backups now to prevent this from ever happening again.

Ramona