Assuming this is not a frost free fridge, I've seen ports between top and bottom freeze up and not work until a full thaw-down was conducted, which can take a couple days.

Need make and model and serial number which often indicated date of manufacture.

I didn't buy the thing; it came with apartment.

At this point I risk losing a major stash of stuff I've put up from the summer bounty. Jams, berries, etc. Argh!

I think today they all are. I think in 1990 it was a luxury.

You can tell by whether or not ice builds up in the freezer or not.

If you've had this fridge for four months or longer, you'll know that it either does or doesn't build up ice.

OTOH, if this is a new unit to you, you might have to wait and see.

I defrosted it all day, put bowls of hot water in, used a blow dryer to dry it out.

Thanks for your advice.

If it has just one compressor and the freezer side works but the fridge doesn't, there's a good chance of a blockage.

Once compressor runs the whole show, if the compressor's bad then nothing works, if only the freezer works it could be a blockage, even a scrap of broccoli can do it.

That last time I saw this problem was with a upper freezer/lower fridge unit, and I had to remove the outside back panel and the back panel inside of the freezer part.

In the center was a port that was clogged.

They are used to defrost the freezer, and they burn out. The first symptom is that the non-freezer part becomes warm. The ice buildup in the freezer will not show up, because it is inside the walls of the freezer section, but it prevents the cold air from blowing into the non-freezer compartment. Odds are your heaters have failed.