Thunderbird Community Forum

I've been having a bit of a nightmare - I was using Google mail - then I migrated to Proton - now I am going back to Google (for now).

I added my email address to Thunderbird and then had to installed Proton Mail Bridge to allow me to download all those emails to Thunderbird. This is apparently 9.5GB worth of email according to Mail Bridge.

Now when I open Thunderbird it keeps crashing, becoming unresponsive. I don't know how to proceed - do I need to sign out of Proton Mail Bridge - or Delete my account in Mail Bridge - or something else.

I can't tell if Thunderbird is busy "compacting folders" or some other task...

I have been in the meantime trying to delete messages from my Proton mail (in my browser) to see if that helps. But I can't tell if this is doing anything beneficial or not.

I literally can't open Thunderbird now without it crashing, despite me not taking any kind of action (just the spinning/loading wheel constantly visible).

Hope this is enough info but happy to share anything else! I have tried restarting the computer too.

Auf der Öffnungsseite erscheint normalerweise links ein schmaler Streifen mit den ganzen Ordnern, wie Posteingang, gesendet usw. mit der jeweiligen Anzahl der E-Mails. Im übrigen Feld rechts daneben sind alle E-Mails einzeln aufgeführt. Jetzt erscheint manchmal auf der Öffnungsseite eine andere Ansicht, ähnlich wie die Konteneinstellungen. Mit mehreren Versuchen kreuz und quer gelingt es dann wieder die normale Ansicht zu erhalten. Vermutlich habe ich mal irgendeine falsche Taste gedrückt, so daß sich die Ansicht plötzlich geändert hat. Könnte sich das Problem lösen, wenn ich Thunderbird neu installiere oder gibt es eine einfachere Lösung?

Normalerweise habe ich die klassische Ansicht, links die Ordner mit der jeweiligen Gesamtanzahl der E-Mails und rechts alle E-Mails einzeln mit Text aufgeführt. Jetzt seht das nach dem Einschalten von Thunderbird so aus: links nur teilweise die Ordner ohne der Gesamtzahl der E-Mails und rechts eine Ansicht ohne alle E-Mails und nur einzelne Nachrichten, wie Neue Nachrichten verfassen, Nachrichten suchen,Filter für Nachrichten verwalten usw. Manchmal kommt aber die richtige klassische Ansicht zurück, wie jetzt gerade, später ist diese Ansicht wieder weg für längere Zeit. Ein Benutzer hat mir schon geantwortet. Ich habe alles ausgeführt, wie bei Ansicht Haken vor Konten/Ordnerliste. Das Problem besteht aber weiterhin. Ganz oben am Rand stehen bei Suchen die zwei Kästchen - STRG + K, die gehen aber nicht weg. Ich vermute, daß ich irgendwie eine falsche Tast angeklickt habe so daß die richtige Ansicht gehemmt wird. Es isr wahrscheinlich ganz was einfaches, ich weiß aber nicht wie und was tun. Hilfe wäre gut.

Hello there,

With one of the email addresses I am montoring on Thunderbird I experience an unusual difficulty.

There are times, I get to see a pop-up window that the login failed, and being prompted to enter the password again.

I've learned that in those instances I need to remove the password from the password list in thunderbird, restart my laptop, and in opening the thunderbird dashboard re-enter the password, and then it's fixed.

Today, however I keep repeating this procedure time and time again, but this time it doesn't fix the issue, and this pop-up message keeps popping up, each time enter the new password.

Is there anyone who can help me resolve this issue ? ...

That would be great, because since the login fails, I am unable to receive any incoming mails of, nor send any from that account in thunderbird.

Kind regards, Christiaano

Hello! After a Windows 10 update (around September 5, 2026), Thunderbird stopped receiving Gmail messages. Laptop: Dell, Windows 10. Account: Gmail. The problem occurs both in Russia and abroad. My emails were organized into a folder structure created inside Thunderbird. The most important thing for me is to restore this internal folder structure with all its messages. What we tried: • We kept the old Thunderbird profile folder as a backup and created a new profile. • In the new profile we switched the account to POP3 so that emails are stored on the computer. • Thunderbird downloaded the emails, but only up to a certain date (around 2023). Newer messages did not download. • The old folder structure did not appear in the new profile. Thunderbird version: [version]. Authentication method: [OAuth2 / normal password]. Error message: [error text]. Could you please advise: 1. How to restore my old folder structure from the saved profile folder? 2. How to make Thunderbird download all emails, including the recent ones, and keep receiving new mail? Thank you!

Greenby Support wants a screenshot of Thunderbird Outgoing Server (SMTP) which I can't find via the App menu or any other means of searching. So I do not know which version we have re your question below and I have chosen one shown at random to allow me to submit my question

I have been using Thunderbird for years with no problems. However recently, Thunderbird very often simply stops responding. Sometimes it just hangs up and sometimes the program bar at the top displays "Mozilla Thunderbird (Not Responding)". If I try to wait for it to respond, it literally hangs for several minutes before it begins to respond again, and often, it simply never starts responding again. It has simply gotten to the point where Thunderbird is practically unusable. All my other application software continues to work with no problems. It's just Thumderbird.

The version number in this submission may not be correct. I can't provide the real version number because of the hangups.

Any suggestions?

I can see that there has been a reply or a messages was forwarded and when I right click for the menu "Open" may not even appear at times. When it does appear "Open in Conversation" is not always presented as an option even though there has clearly been conversation as I can locate reply's in the Sent folder. Sometimes it's there but when selected it opens a tab that only shows the email and none of the conversations. It's hit and miss and I can find no rhyme or reason. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, I would love to Testflight Thunderbird on Apple. Thanks, Sue

First, I have very limited understanding of software. I need very simple explanations.

Here's my issue. I use Thunderbird on my desktop computer. I have used the Import/Export > Options > Backup Scheduling function to backup my Thunderbird email to my USB/flash drive. I have labelled the backup folder on my flash drive "Thunderbird email backup." That folder contains numerous subfolders including: 1) calendar-data 2) chrome_debugger_profile 3) crashes 4) datareporting 5) extensions 6) ExternalMailFolders 7) Mail 8) minidumps 9) saved-telemetry-pings 10) scheduled-notifications 11) settings 12) shader-cache 13) storage.

Again, these are the subfolders created/named by the Thunderbird Import/Export backup. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THESE FOLDERS MEAN.

Here's what I want - it's actually very simple. I want to be able to see (read) my backed up email on my flash drive without using the Thunderbird installed on my computer. I want complete interaction with the backed up email without my desktop Thunderbird - or my online email account - being involved at all.

My understanding is that Thunderbird Portable is supposed to be able to allow me to do that. I downloaded Thunderbird Portable (from https://portableapps.com) to my flash drive but when I tried to access it the first thing it did was try to force me to put in my online account (POP?) information.

I don't want to do that. I just want to open Thunderbird Portable on the flash drive and have it realize that all of my backed up Thunderbird email information is right there in the same flash drive. I want it to just access and use what's right there.

I was really hoping that Thunderbird Portable would simply ask me where to look - in a very user-friendly way! - and I could tell it to go to my "Thunderbird email backup" folder on my flash drive (WHERE ALL MY THUNDERBIRD INFO IS!) and it would simply do just that and provide me with complete Thunderbird service for the backed up email.

Am I missing something? Can someone give me a VERY SIMPLE walk through to do what I would think should be a very simple thing? Thank you. Chris (6/29/26)

PS - I've read the Mozilla Support ARTICLE: Thunderbird Portable (Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition) and other portable apps as alternatives (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1285834) and it alludes in general terms to exactly what I want to do but it does not give any step-wise instructions.

I save important emails to archives so I can easily find them. They're gone, and I didn't delete them. I appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks, Connie PS I don't know what Thunderbird Version means or how to find it. I couldn't send this request in without that area filled in, so I put in the first number. My computer is a Dell from 2009. I'm vintage also and not very computer savvy.

06 May 2026 USA Just to inform users:

All mailboxes and all mail in profile are catastrophically and irretrievably deleted when I: 1. Change the location of the profile folder. 2. Make appropriate change in profiles.ini reflecting the location change. 3. Launch Thunderbird in Offline Mode (launching in OFFLINE mode is the fatal event). 4. Mailboxes will appear during this one launched session

    but

5. If Thunderbird is closed while still OFFLINE, then a re-launch of Thunderbird in any state will reveal

     that all mailboxes and all mail have been deleted.

All mailboxes, and of course, all mail in the profile are catastrophically and irretrievably deleted. I was lucky that I made a backup before changing profile location.

The deletion of mail and mailboxes occur at the close of Thunderbird's OFFLINE state. An examination of the profile folder indicates the destruction has occurred upon closing of Thunderbird in OFFLINE state.

It is not the re-launch of Thunderbird that causes the catastrophic deletion. The deletion occurred when Thunderbird was closed in its OFFLINE state.

To successfully change the profile location I must: 1. Make the change to profile location. 2. Make the appropriate change to profiles.ini 3. BE SURE to make the FIRST LAUNCH of Thunderbird in ONLINE mode--ONLINE only. 4. Once 1,2,3 are done, then Thunderbird does not corrupt the profile folder.

Conditions that MIGHT make my configuration uniquely affected: 1. I use Proton Mail Bridge in conjunction with Thunderbird. 2. My Profile folder is on a network share that is letter-mapped in Windows. 3. I have about 10 email addresses in Thunderbird that are Outlook IMAP, Gmail IMAP, and of course, Proton Mail.

I've been using Thunderbird a couple of years in this configuration with no problems. I just decided to rename my profile. So, this is my first discovery of the problem.