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Hello,

Windows 11 OS / PC

Basically I have Thunderbird installed on my second hard drive. I had several folders of different programs in that drive. I was basically trying to clean up those folders, so I made a folder called programs, and was dragging program files into that folder.

I dragged the whole Thunderbird folder into that new folder. That was where my issue started. After that, the desktop shortcut I had for it wouldn't work. Ok, easy, I went to the Thunderbird folder, found its .exe and voila, made new shortcut.

When I opened that up, it was basically like a new install, asking me to set up username/password pop/smtp etc. I'm decently ok at this, and I know that your Thunderbird profile can just be put in and it will pull everything back up the way it was, only, it's not.

When I looked in the AppData profile area for Thunderbird, it had a profile that was listed at 6:53, 7/22/2025 the exact time I moved the whole folder, and created the new shortcut...

So, my question is, how screwed am I? When I built my PC, I imported the Thunderbird profile over from the old computer to the new one. This was on 12/31/2023. So now, I see no other profiles but from 2023, and from the screwup date, today 7/22/2025.

I should also mention I tried messing with Thunderbird again later this evening, and it made another profile, 10:30 7/22/2025. I knew this wasn't right, and deleted it. So now, when I click on the Thunderbird shortcut, it says profile cannot load Thunderbird, profile is missing / inaccessible. So, Thunderbird won't even load up.

I'm wary of doing a fresh install, as I'm thinking there should be a profile dated between 12/31/2023 and today 7/22/2025, and I don't want a new install to wipe everything if the correct profile is hiding in there somewhere.

If I somehow figure out how to get the main program working again, please tell me the current data from Thunderbird before moving the folder is stored on that original 12/31/2023 profile. I really really really hope the correct and current profile wasn't wiped out when I moved the folder.

Is there a way to do a Windows restore to get it back if it is truly gone? If it is not truly gone, is it still the 12/31/2023 profile (Thunderbird just updates that original profile and keeps the original date that was transferred to the new computer)? If not, how can I find the current one I had before moving the folder? And how can I get Thunderbird to load using that profile?

Thank you for taking time to read this, and if you can help me get my Thunderbird back, you are a God among mortals!

I am trying to move Tbird profile from one HP to another. When I try to backup or export I get" backup / export failed unexpectedly" . The new installation has a number of profiles but I am lost as to how to proceed. Thanks.

Just switched to Firefox. I made a work firefox profile and a home firefox profile. I'd like to have them both open simultaneously in different windows.

When I go to `about:profiles` I see both profiles there but I don't see the button to launch a profile in a new window or an option to open one. In Chrome it's really easy you click on your user icon on the top right and can toggle to whatever profile.

I can however make a new default profile, and launch that in a new window, and then log in to my home profile. But if I close that profile accidentally I have to make a whole new profile and do everything again. So already today I've accidentally closed my home profile 3 times and I've had to make 3 new profiles to sign in to home again.

It's really clunky. Is there an easier way to do this?

I made the mistake to following Mozilla's advice on why my tabs stopped coming back after I closed out, despite the fact that I had that selected in my settings. Now I'm stuck with an "Old Firefox Data" folder on my desktop and I can't remove it because I need administrator privileges -- but it's my personal PC. WTF

Hi all, I'm really confused. I posted about this the other day, but it doesn't look like that topic got any views, and I have a bit more information, so I'm starting a new topic here. When I click on a link in an email, whether that be from Thunderbird or Outlook, Firefox opens as expected, but none of my settings appear to carry over. That means I don't have access to my browsing history, it prompts if Firefox should use Zoom to open links which should already be set, and other things that act like Firefox is not customized yet, even though it's been my default browser for years now. Additionally, I'm not sure if Chrome got set as my default browser or if it asks every time it detects another browser is open, but it asked me again today if I wanted to set it as my default. I had Chrome open because I use it when interacting with the Google applications for my work. When I went in to set the default file types for Firefox, two Firefox options showed up, so I'm not sure which one to choose. Can someone please help with this?

Hi, When the big update happened with Thunderbird 115, I started having a ton of problems, which I posted about on this forum at that time. It seemed too complicated to resolve, so I've just been forcing TB to quit when I get the "Thunderbird is not responding" message. I've done that hundreds of times since November, 2023.

Now I want to use a newer computer and thought I would install the latest version of TB. I wonder if I have corrupted my profile by all the force quits. Should I create a new profile and just start from scratch?

I'm really hoping the current version doesn't have a ton of bugs and that I don't have to spend hours on this project.

Thanks, DD

Hi,

Just upgraded to 140.0.1 and when I restarted Thunderbird it asked that I create a new profile, as if it was the first time I used it. I checked in %APPDATA%/Thunderbird/Profiles, I have 2 folders, one ends with .default (47 b), the other one, ends with .default-release (around 7Gb). I've tried messing a bit with the profiles.ini and the install.ini files but it didn't change anything appart from creating other 47b folders when restarting Thunderbird. So I'm back to the original files but I'm stuck. When I open the about:profiles page, the .default-release one does appear at the top and seems to be the default one, yet nothing shows up in the usual window.

What should I do?

Thanks a lot