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Local folders erased

an1539.2407
an1539.2407
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Hi,

I'm running TB 78.7.1 on Windows 10 and have my local folders saved to a USB drive. My USB was assigned as the F: drive and I'd configured TB to use this drive for the local folders. After many successful uses of the USB on the F: drive, the next time I started TB I noticed that my PC had assigned the USB to the G: drive. Within TB, I changed the local folder from F: to G: and restarted TB as prompted. After restarting, TB had deleted all the folders on my USB! The USB now has files such as:

[Gmail].sdb [Gmail].msf filterlog.html inbox.msf msgFilterRules.dat Templates.msf Trash Trash.msf Unsent Messages Unset Messages.msf

I found a file recovery tool and was able to restore some of the deleted files. This was a painstaking process. After restoring the files and folders on the USB I was able to get TB to recognize my local folders again using the F: drive. Today, I plugged in my USB and once again the PC assigned it to the G: drive while TB was configured with F:. Instead of changing the TB configuration, I decided to use 'Computer Management' and changed the USB drive from G: to F:. I kicked off TB but it still deleted my local folders and left files similar to the ones listed above. Why is TB behaving this way? I need to use the USB for my local folders since this is a shared PC. Is there a way to stop TB from deleting my local folders on my USB or is this a bug? Thanks in advance for any help!

Hi, I'm running TB 78.7.1 on Windows 10 and have my local folders saved to a USB drive. My USB was assigned as the F: drive and I'd configured TB to use this drive for the local folders. After many successful uses of the USB on the F: drive, the next time I started TB I noticed that my PC had assigned the USB to the G: drive. Within TB, I changed the local folder from F: to G: and restarted TB as prompted. After restarting, TB had deleted all the folders on my USB! The USB now has files such as: [Gmail].sdb [Gmail].msf filterlog.html inbox.msf msgFilterRules.dat Templates.msf Trash Trash.msf Unsent Messages Unset Messages.msf I found a file recovery tool and was able to restore some of the deleted files. This was a painstaking process. After restoring the files and folders on the USB I was able to get TB to recognize my local folders again using the F: drive. Today, I plugged in my USB and once again the PC assigned it to the G: drive while TB was configured with F:. Instead of changing the TB configuration, I decided to use 'Computer Management' and changed the USB drive from G: to F:. I kicked off TB but it still deleted my local folders and left files similar to the ones listed above. Why is TB behaving this way? I need to use the USB for my local folders since this is a shared PC. Is there a way to stop TB from deleting my local folders on my USB or is this a bug? Thanks in advance for any help!
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All Replies (2)

Matt
Matt
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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You would be better asking how to stop your sadly defective operating system changing the drive letters at random intervals.

Or you could use portable Thunderbird that lives on the same USB as the data. https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/thunderbird_portable Basically a usb drive under windows can not be considered "safe" to hold Thunderbird profile data unless it is the portable version in use. Other operating systems do not suffer from this random re assignment of drive letters because they simply do not use drive letters.

an1539.2407
an1539.2407 Question owner
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Thanks for the response and the suggestion of using a portable version of TB! I agree; don't know why Windows would change the drive letter. I guess the concern I have is why TB deleted all files in the folder and inserting new files. It should at least prompt before cleaning out the folder or just add the new files without removing the existing files. Thanks again for the response.