re :When I installed 38.5.1, I had to start from scratch even when I said No to a new account.

If Thunderbird updated and you could not see anything in the left Folder Pane and Thunderbird was asking you to 'create a mail account', it sounds as if TB lost track of the profile and so created a new one.

But elaborate a bit more...When I installed 38.5.1....did you use the auto update or did you uninstall Thunderbird program, then download and install the recent version ?

Check to see how many profile folder names are in your 'Profile' folder. Make hidden files and folders visible:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Show_hidden_files_and_folders

Assuming you keep Thunderbird in the default location, look here: C:\Users\Windows user name\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\Profile name\

Profile name will usually be: 'xxxxxxxx.default' where the x's are letters and numbers. How many are in the 'Profiles' folder?

Assuming there's more than one.... Make a note of the different profile names.

click on the older profile name You will see a list of files and folders including a 'Mail' folder. At this point scroll down and look for abook.mab, history.mab. Other address books you created will have a .mab extension. These are address books - see section 'RE: Address Book' below

click on 'Mail' folder. click on pop mail account folder. Do you see a load of files with same name as folders you would normally see in Folder Pane? Do those files have a good size? Each mbox file (has no extension) eg: 'Inbox', 'Sent' etc, contains the emails, it will also have an indexing file, same name with a .msf extension. If you see 'Inbox.sbd' fodler, then it means you had subfolders in the 'Inbox', click on that folder to see more mbox files and indexing files.

Make a note of the profile folder name which has all the old info.

Download this addon ImportExportTools:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

How to Install Add-on Extension: After downloading addon extension *.xpi file to desktop or downloads folder.

In Thunderbird 'Tools' > 'Add-ons' or 'Menu icon' > 'Add-ons'

• Click on gear wheel icon and select 'Install Add-on From File'.
• Locate the *.xpi file you downloaded and click on 'Open'.
• You may need to restart Thunderbird when prompted.

Then use that tool to import all old mbox files. I would suggest you import them into 'Local Folders' account as you may not want to accidentally overwrite anything.

• right click on 'Local Folders' account in Folder Pane
• select: ImportExporttool > Import mbox file
• select: Import directly one or more mbox files'
• click on OK
• Locate the mbox files (no extension) in the old profile
• click on 'Open' to import.

Then you manually move the emails to suitable folders.

RE: Address Book In profile folder name: 'Personal Address Book' called 'abook.mab' 'Collected Addresses' called 'history.mab' both of these default files can be copy pasted from old profile folder name to new profile folder name overwriting the new default ones. So if you only ever had those two, then a simple copy paste will resolve the issue.

Any other .mab files cannot be simply copy pasted.

All .mab files can be imported from old profile folder name into a new profile folder name using an addon tool: MorefunctionsForAddressBook.

• https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/morecols-en.html

download link is at the bottom of that webpage. Install instructions are the same.

In 'Address Book' select an address book - not 'All Address Books' 'Tools' > 'MoreFunctionsforAddressBooks' > 'Actions for address book' > 'Import address book from .mab file'.

Important Note: When performing any changes such as copy pasting .mab files on the Thunderbird profile folder o0r creating backups of profile folder, Thunderbird program must not be running. So exit/close Thunderbird first.

Thanks for the contact, but you can enter info directly into this forum question using the 'Post a Reply' box. You asked if I used the auto update and I think I did. Afterwards I deleted the old Tbird version before I realized the inbox would not show the sub folders. It was a couple of days before I realized the Address Book was empty. I followed the directions on how to show hidden folders. There was still only one profile. None of the folders in the one profile I found are older than the day I downloaded the new version of TBird, so everything is gone. Thank you for helping me. I appreciate it.

re :You asked if I used the auto update and I think I did. Afterwards I deleted the old Tbird version

Unfortunately, it does not sound good.

If Thunderbird auto updated or asked to update and you clicked on ok to update now, then you would not have an old version as it would uninstall everything not required and install all the new files without you doing anything.

So, I'm wondering what you did when you say: Afterwards I deleted the old Tbird version There are two parts to Thunderbird. The actual Thunderbird program which will be located in 'Program Files' and the Thunderbird Profile folder containg all emails, address books etc, located in the Appdata/Roaming folder.

General info: Uninstalling Thunderbird program via Start > Settings > Programs and Features, selecting the Mozilla Thunderbird program and clicking on 'uninstall' will only uninstall the program and not the Profile. Then downloading a current version and clicking on install, would put a new version back onto your computer. When you start Thunderbird, it would then hook up with the Profile folder again.

Sometimes, but not usually, it can lose track of where the profile is and so can create another, hence why I asked you to check on how many profiles were in the 'Profiles' folder.

It sounds like you deleted the actual Profile folder. If you did this then Thunderbird would start up and finding no profile folder, it created a new one and there would only be the one profile folder name in the 'Profiles' folder.

Although this is not exactly great news, it might help to explain what occurred. Now that you know where the Thunderbird Profiles are located, I would recommend that you backup that Profile folder name periodically.

Info on how to perform a simple manual backup. In Thunderbird 'Help' > 'Troubleshooting Information' A new window opens showing contents of your profile folder name. Remember - if you cannot see profile folders, then you may need to make hidden files and folders visible. These are the files and folders that need to be backed up. Bur first - Close Thunderbird - this is important. Then, go up the directory and copy the profile folder name containing all those files and folders. Paste the copied folder onto an external device. A usb memory stick is ok providing it can take the size of that folder. I use an external hard drive.