Deleted email folder by mistake

libra10

The folder seems to have disappeared in both Thunderbird and GMail, both on my PC, tablet and mobile.

If I restored my PC (Windows 11) back to previous date, would this also restore my GMail folder?

Thanks for any advice.

p00hsticks

Presumably you have tried looking in the 'Trash' can in your Gmail to see if they are there ? 
Gmail don't do 'folders' they're 'labels'

libra10

Thank you for replying.

Yes, I've checked Trash in Thunderbird and GMail server, without success.

Also wondered whether it would be possible to recover the folder without doing a restore, but it doesn't see, possible.

p00hsticks

It maybe a long shot, but have you tried searching for specific mail titles that you can remember were in the folder ? I've never done it with e-mails ,but more than once one of my document folders had gone missing and I thought it had got deleted but it turned out that I'd inadvertently dragged it inside another folder so that it wasn't visible from the main list anymore  

libra10

I think there were approximately 15 or 16 emails in the folder.  I remember a few of these and will do a search, Unfortunately the others were emails waiting to be printed out, and I have forgotten some of the people who sent them.
I don't keep many separate folders, but checked whether the folder could have slipped in with others, without success.

I can't understand how the folder has disappeared as I'm very careful before deleting anything.

It would be helpful if there was a recover option, but it doesn't seem possible.

Thanks for replying.

400ixl

Gmail is a cloud service, Thunderbird local in most cases.

If you link gmail to thunderbird then you can see the email within Thunderbird. If create a new folder in Thunderbird then you can easily create one which ic not a Gmail folder and moving mails there removes it from gmail in its entirety. It would not longer be visible if you went to gmail.com to see it.

If you have done this and then deleted the folder in Thunderbird then it has nothing to do with gmail unfortunately. In this instance you would be entirely dependent on what backups you do of Thunderbird.

Have you gone to gmail.com to see if it is in the online side?

libra10

Thanks for replying @400ixl
Unfortunately I've never done Thunderbird backups, I didn't know this was possible.
Yes, I've checked GMail as well as Thunderbird, and the folder is nowhere to be seen on either.

400ixl

You could try these recommendations https://www.ehow.co.uk/how_7165104_restore-email-folders-mozilla-thunderbird.html

No idea if they work as not a Thunderbird user for at least 15 years now since I can do it all in Gmail natively in a browser.

libra10

Thanks very much for the link.

I've tried some of the suggestions, but not much success.  I will have another look tomorrow.

Thank you for your help.

bob2302

Are the actual emails gone, or just the folder? Last I heard, you can access gmail via POP or IMAP and I'm guessing you are using IMAP. Google emulates IMAP folders as a type of label, so it's possible that the emails have just had the label removed, and can still be accessed by a search. 

libra10

Thanks for replying.

The folder including emails are gone.  I checked the server as well as Thunderbird, and they had vanished.

However, searching for several of the lost emails, I managed to recover those I remembered and they are now stored in a new folder.  It seems too easy to just lose a folder, I am very careful before deleting anything and it's a bit of a mystery how this happened.