Where have all my e-mail folders and subfolders gone?

[#1]

Hello,

I think it was only yesterday, Tuesday 07/03/23, that I briefly checked my e-mail over webmail on my desktop PC and noticed that the only folders that were listed on the sidebar that had any actual e-mails in them were the 'Inbox' and 'Sent' folders. All my folders and subfolders weren't there. I wasn't too worried because I've found webmail a little bit flaky in the past (especially at busy times of day) and this kind of thing has happened before.

Later on Tuesday I launched my Thunderbird e-mail client on my laptop and had the same problem. All my folders and subfolders were missing and the only folders that had any e-mails in them were again 'Inbox' and 'Sent'. My e-mail is set up for IMAP and I've never had this problem of folders and subfolders disappearing on Thunderbird e-mail client before.

I'm very concerned because I have e-mails going back to about 2016/17 when I joined plusnet and many e-mails that contain vital information I don't want to lose. I'm wondering if plusnet have archived them or something if my e-mail account was getting too full, but I've had no warning e-mail asking me to trim it down a bit, which I could have done if I'd have known it was becoming a problem.

Please help me get my folders and subfolders restored so I don't lose any vital information.

Kind regards,

Si

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hey there @satch_ice9  and welcome to the forum. Please can you try the below for me:

Login to Webmail -> Click Settings at the top -> Click Folders (between Preferences and Identities) -> On the left hand side if there are any folders that are unticked, please tick them. 
 

[#3]

Thanks for the help. Your advice has resolved my issue.

What caused this to happen, because I didn't deliberately unselect any of my folders or subfolders?

[#4]

Each IMAP client has its own "view" of which folders it has subscribed to.  Folders are not "Lost" they might simply not be subscribed to and thereby reduce the volume of email which the client needs to keep in sync.

Something is missing in this tale - something happened here to bring about this change to folder subscriptions.  Has this mailbox been restored from an archive?

[#5]

Thanks for taking an interest Townman. I'm also wondering what's missing from this tale.

I didn't conciously do anything to my e-mail settings in regarding the folders/subfolders enabled in either webmail or in my Thunderbird e-mail client. I don't think such a dramatic change could have been a slip of a mouse/click on my part, either.

Regards,

Si