Advice plz -- Thunderbird profile/mail recovery

[Soln]

Something happened to my mail on Thunderbird (Mac v2.0.0.17) such that the profile was corrupted.  After reading a lot of self-repair entries, this problem seems common. 

1. I backed up all my old mail, saved separately
2. Then created a new default profile via the profile manager
3. I then bulk copied all my original files except pref.js into the top folder in /Users/me/Thunderbird
4. But nothing appears.  So I recreated at least one mail account but again no old folders are being shown

Can someone recommend next steps?

[Trippy]

Is this POP or IMAP?

[Soln]

I have gmail (POP) and a private mail server (IMAP).  Two accounts.

[Lantyssa]

Thunderbird was kind of stupid about it last time I had to do that.  I remember having to tweak the .pfs file with the correct paths to get an existing install to see the new directories.  It was too long ago to tell you what I did though.

For the IMAP account you should be able to give it your settings and it will be done.

[schild]

FEBE (a plugin) worked for me when I had the exact same problem.

[Soln]

thanks but FEBE won't install -- I don't think it works for Thunderbird :(  how did you manage it?

[schild]

Oh right, FEBE is firefox, lemme see what the thunderbird one was.

[schild]

Scratch that, whatever it was it's not on my new version because we're on IMAP. Apologies.

[Soln]

partially solved.  Gmail is back, IMAP to follow. Just need to confirm all offline is Ok

This is in fact rather complicated to solve.  If you are on PC it's easier than Mac.  If you have to run SED to change some file headers.

Follow these instructions:
1. http://ask.metafilter.com/40173/How-to-recover-lost-email-in-Thunderbird-OSX
2. http://nic-nac-project.org/~kaosmos/mboximport-en.html
3. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_Issues_:_Disappearing_mail

[schild]

OH wao, I missed that you were on a mac. Yea, on a PC you just drag and drop the backup folder and it magically works. My brain hasn't been in the right place this weekend. Apologies.