My hard drive crashed the other day, but, luckily, I had a Carbonite backup online. I’ve now restored all my files and reinstalled eM Client Pro. I’m able to get mail in all accounts. However, the local folders are all empty. What is the name of the file that populates all those folders? Thanks!
It is not really advisable to copy individual files or folders in the database directory. But you can try the Local Folders directory from your database location. Make sure eM Client is closed before you do that, and making a backup first would also be useful if anything goes wrong.
Better option is If your backup was done using eM Client’s own function, restoring it using eM Client’s own function will give you an exact duplicate of how it was.
If your backup was done using some third party application, as long as eM Client was closed when the backup took place, restoring the directory to it’s original position should give you an exact duplicate.
Both eM Client’s backup and external backups should copy the complete C:\Users_username_\AppData\Roaming\eM Client directory.
Thanks for the reply! I may have a more serious problem than I thought since I’ve already copied the AppData folder you suggested and still don’t see the contents of the local folders in eM Client. Now, I’m concerned that the data for those folders may not have been backed up. I use Carbonite and didn’t know eM Client had to be closed before the files could be copied. Since I felt comfortable with that I didn’t have eM Client’s backup options implemented. I’m still working on the original hard drive that crashed. It won’t boot, but I have been able to access it when using a USB external attachment. I’m having mixed results when accessing the Users folder where everything is, but, at least, I can see the files. I just need to deal with some permission issues first.
If you can get the complete database folder from the old disk, that would be the best.
I don’t know how Carbonite works, but if it skips open files, it may not have backed up anything from eM Client. A solution would be to set the automatic backup in eM Client, and have that directory included in Carbonite’s backup.
Right, I’m working on getting access to the database folder on the old drive. As for Carbonite… all data files associated with eM Client were restored from Carbonite and that included the local folder names and structure in eM Client. It’s just the contents of those folders that’s missing. Very strange and it’s making me consider alternatives to the way I’ve been backing up my hard drive.
Basically when eM Client is running every single file in the database directory structure is open. So an application that skips open files will copy the directory structure but not the contents. I guess that is what happened.
What is the name of the file or files that contain the local folders data?
You need all the files in C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\eM Client\Local Folders , not one specific file.
I understand, but what is the one file that holds all the data that populates the local folders in eM Client? I’m asking since I want to search my Carbonite backup to see if that file exists there.
It is not just one file. You need the complete folder. Inside the folder there are 13 files:
attachments.dat
contact_data.dat
contact_index.dat
conversations.dat
event_data.dat
event_index.dat
folders.dat
mail_data.dat
mail_fti.dat
mail_index.dat
task_data.dat
task_index.dat
timezones.dat
Copying just one will most likely break the eM Client database, and these file names also exist in other folders.
If the backup was made while eM Client was running, there will be 39 files, as additionally each one will have a .dat-wal and a .dat-shm counterpart. You will need all of them that exist in that folder,
Got it…thanks!
The list I gave above is from a default clean install of eM Client, so your folder may have additional files.
Hi, Gary,
My story here has gotten a little more complicated. It turns out that Windows created a new user when I performed a reinstall. I really don’t know how it happened, but I now have eM Client and associated folders/files under two users (David and dwbur). Under both users, I found the files you mentioned in an earlier post, but they are of different sizes. I will post screen shots of the two folder file listings to illustrate. Maybe you can suggest how to proceed???
Open eM Client. Export any items you want to keep. If you are using IMAP to connect to your server, then don’t worry about email, as that is stored on the server. But export anything in local folders, like local calendars and contacts. If you are using POP3, then you want to export your emails.
Close eM Client and rename the C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\eM Client folder. Copy the folder from your old user profile to your current one.
When you open eM Client, you should now have all your old data back. If you exported anything, import that back into eM Client.
Thanks! Of the two Local Folders from the two users (David versus dwbur), is there any way you can tell which is the better one to use to copy from? I’ve compared the sizes of files with the same name in the two listings and they are sometimes dramatically different. And…some files are missing in the user=David listing.
The files in David are bigger, so I would say that is the one to copy because it has more data.
But instead of moving directories around, you can change the database directory in eM Client. Go to Menu > Tools > Settings > Storage and select C:\users\David\AppData\Roaming\eM Client. (Make a note of the current location before you change it) Restart eM Client, you will most likely get a database repair window, then you can export your data or move it to an online location. Then change the database directory to c:\users\dwbur\AppData\Roaming\eM Client, and restart eM Client. Export your data, or move it to an online location, then open your current database again (the one you made a note of). If you moved your data online, it will be there after syncing, or import if you exported it.
Don’t worry too much about duplicates, as eM Client has a handy Deduplicator function (Menu > Tools > Deduplicator) to remove any duplicates after you are finished importing.
Once you have everything, I suggest you delete any database directories other than the one you are using. Then make a backup using eM Client’s own backup function. Another useful idea is to use online rather than local folders. That way if your hard disk crashes, you can simply open eM Client on another computer and everything will be there.
OK…thanks for the detailed protocol.
This process didn’t work for me. I guess the backed-up data from Carbonite just wasn’t right since all I got was the folder names and no data. However, I’ve solved the problem. I took my failed hard drive to The Geek Squad at Best Buy and they were able to retrieve about half the data on the failed drive. Luckily, my eM Client folders were part of the data they retrieved. When I copied that data to my eM Client directories everything was restored. What a relief! I’ve learned my lesson, though. I now have eM Client backup scheduled, I’ve set-up Windows 10 backup system images and I’ve created a recovery disk (on a flash drive). I think I’ve got myself covered for any future crashes.
Happy you got everything back after all that.
Obviously Carbonite does not copy open files, and therefore did not copy your data.