[sf-lug] Migrated wrong set from thunderbird, lost a bunch of folders. Can I be saved?

[Michael Shiloh]

Interestingly, my sent mail from the same period is missing. I'll bet 
it's there somewhere, just not indexed properly.

On 01/19/2011 10:55 AM, Michael Shiloh wrote:
> First of all I confess to being very foolhardy. I always install all
> Ubuntu updates without backing up my system, I use the latest version of
> Ubuntu, Thunderbird, and Firefox, I even run experimental versions with
> wild abandon.
>
> I've been using Thunderbird for some time. Starting somewhere in the
> past month, when starting Thunderbird, I get a message saying I'm using
> a new version, and a migration assistant offers to migrate my settings.
> It gave me three choices: 1) continue to use old settings 2) migrate to
> new settings 3) decide later.
>
> I'm not even sure which versions this referred to. As I mentioned, I was
> probably using a bleeding edge beta, so it's possible that the "upgrade"
> was just an official install of something I was already using, or
> possibly even a downgrade.
>
> Up until yesterday I chose 3), decide later, because I couldn't be
> bothered to figure out what settings these were, and whether I preferred
> to old or the new.
>
> Yesterday for some reason I chose 2), migrate to new settings.
>
> I didn't notice any difference and forgot about it, until this morning,
> when I noticed that that a whole lot of folders that I had created in
> the past few months were missing, and a big chunk of mail that had been
> sitting in my inbox is gone.
>
> I can't recall when I made these changes to my inbox folders, but the
> missing mail is conveniently timestamped. I'm missing 1/3/2010 - 1/18/2011.
>
> My question is whether I can go back to the previous settings and
> retrieve my mail and folder structure.
>
> Oh, how I miss the old days of mbox format and mutt. I may go back. Of
> course you could fuck yourself over royally back then, and I did, many
> times, but at least I understood clearly what I did. For me the main
> attraction of computers is the learning opportunities.