Every few weeks, I open Thunderbird and my entire account has seemingly disappeared!
Thunderbird can't seem to remember who I am! For the past year or so, every few weeks, I open Thunderbird to find that it doesn't know who I am. My entire account has seemingly disappeared! The first time this happened, I nearly lost it. I thought everything was gone. After doing some research, I discovered the likely problem was that the prefs.js file in my profile folder was corrupted. Going back to a backup (thank goodness for backups!) and copying an older version of prefs.js to replace the corrupted one fixed the problem - all my emails and folders were back as they were before. Whew! Until it happened again. And again, and again, and again, etc., etc.
Since this is a well known problem (I found the "fix" noted above in Mozilla help), I assumed at some point there would be a permanent fix. But several iterations of Thunderbird have come and gone since then and the problem remains. I have used Thunderbird for nearly 20 years, and have loved it. But if I don't find a solution for this problem, I may have to abandon the platform. I can't afford to have my email client forget me every few weeks. Resetting the prefs.js file takes time, and alarmingly it doesn't always work! A few times I found my backup prefs.js also failed and had to rely on an even older backup which can sometimes be problematic if I changed any settings in the interval in between. I REALLY hope someone has found a more permanent solution to this issue! If you have, please post it and let us know where to find the cure for Thunderbirdheimer's!!
Izmjenjeno od strane Wayne Mery
All Replies (7)
I doubt your "fix" is actually doing anything but whacking a Band-Aid over a hemorrhage. So thing go pear shaped on the very next released update because the underlying problem on your system has not been addressed.
I am forced to guess, because your description does not offer anything to go on, but generally the issue is Thunderbird was originally installed as a 32bit version and at some point in the last few years has been updated to a 64bit version. This means that the location the executable file is stored triggers Thunderbird to abandon your exiting profile. based on the rules it has for profile per install. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/dedicated-profile-thunderbird-installation
This "feature" is a royal PITA and the developers apparently just can not see the forest for the trees. They think it is great and my attempts over the years to get a sensible change implemented have not only fallen on deaf ears, the developers express a lack of understanding of just what the problem is. They do not grasp how infuriating the thing is to average people. (me included)
So your profiles.ini file is not corrupt, so proceeding like it is is just perpetuation the problem. Use the profile manager as described in the article, or the command line as I describe in this old bog post from 2019 to force Thunderbird to use the right profile, instead of applying the band-aid. https://thunderbirdtweaks.blogspot.com/2019/09/i-lost-my-profilemail-on-update-to.html
Once Thunderbird has been told this profile for this version of Thunderbird the ongoing issues should cease. At least until you move the profile to a new device, or change user names or change the 64 V 32 bit versions. (some have to revert to 32 bit version to make MAPI work from their accounting package.)
Thank you for your reply! Maybe it will help me get somewhere. I checked my Profiles folder in %appdata% and found that my number of profiles has grown from one to four! Two are regular #.default folders and two are #.default-release folders. In the Profiles folder, I see them like this (renaming the alphanumeric names with simplified a-d lettering for convenience):
a.default-release b.default c.default d.default-release
In this case, c.default is my original profile. I have no idea where the other ones came from.
I opened the Profile Manager as suggested to see what's going on. Although there are four profiles in the Profile directory, the Profile Manager lists only two: a.default-release and c.default. It indicates that c.default is the profile in use.
According to the Profile folder in %appdata%, the profiles a, b and d were last modified three months ago, while the profile c (my original profile) had a modified date of today (makes sense, since I used it today).
Thunderbird Profile Manager says the correct profile is in use, so that is good. But why to I have three new profiles and why do only two of the four appear in the Profile Manager, which I assume should be able to see them all? And if Thunderbird is recognizing the correct profile, why does it keep forgetting who I am (requiring me to delete and replace the active copy of prefs.js as noted above)?
Thanks for the continuing help and advice!
The first item is that .Default is a legacy profile name.
Since the implementation of profile per install, profiles get .default-release naming convention.
Sure the profile manager shows garbage. You keep replacing the data in the profiles.ini file with an old backup. As the profiles.ini file is the source of the "registered" profiles in Thunderbird's profile manager all you are seeing is a reflection on how divorced from reality the profiles.ini file you are using is. It contains two profile and you have four on your disk. Sure it is showing whatever was in the backup you made that you keep restoring from.
So where is your Thunderbird.exe file stored (an integral part of the profile per install decision to drop a profile is if the path changed to the EXE file.) is it a 32 or 64 bit version?
There is also another file that stores the last version the profile was used with and if the last version was greater than this version, again the profile is dropped. It is not that simple, but those are the two killer parts of it for most folk.
The Thunderbird.exe file is locates at C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe
I am using version 115.8.0 (64-bit)
I definitely appreciate the input. Any suggestions on how to solve the problem? It sounds like constantly replacing prefs.js is not the solution, but what is? Thanks again for your help!
Do you have a hard disk or SSD in your computer? I would recommend moving the folder with your profile to another disk for an experiment. Scan your PC for viruses with another antivirus (portable version)
You must log in to your account to reply to posts. Please start a new question, if you do not have an account yet.