How can I change the Thunderbird Profile filename (instead of the random number)?
How can I change the Thunderbird Profile filename (instead of the random number)? I don't see this in the existing help files, and searching didn't find any similar questions I want something recognizable, like "thunderbird profile as of July 2025"
I see several folders within Library / Thunderbird. Some say "profiles COPY mm/dd/year" but the one titled simply "profiles" seems to be the active one. All these folders contain the same three random numbered files, and the one named xxx.default seems to be the one in use. I see two more users on startup, their files named xxx.TEMP and xxx.OCT2015 which I never use. Might be leftovers from when I had to change the SETTINGS around.
All Replies (7)
- exit thunderbird - go to c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird - open profiles.ini and change the name of the invoked profile - now click to the ...thunderbird\profiles folder and rename that profile to match - you're done. start thunderbird and it will be the new name
Using a Mac so the path to the profiles.ini is Library / Thunderbird. And the Profiles folder is also in the same folder as profiles.ini . So I can just change "4g45o3sh" to whatever I like? And I must keep the .default ?
[General] StartWithLastProfile=0
[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/4g45o3sh.default Default=1
re Help/Troubleshooting Info, about:profiles, Rename
If I do it that way, will it remove the random string portion?
If I do it that way, will it remove the random string portion?
Your profile name is 'default', and that is the only part you could change. However, I'd recommend not to mess with it, unless you know exactly what you're doing. Just leave it alone.
It looks like the actual filename, located in the Profiles folder, is: 4g45o3sh.default
So would the Rename function change it to 4g45o3sh.SomethingElse
That's odd, the suffix being used as a filename and not an indicator of file type. Is that a Unix thing? OSX is built on a version of Unix - makes FIle Permissions complicated.
It renames to somethingelse. Thunderbird generally avoids OS-specific names and processes. The name is only an indicator to show that, until changed by user, is the default profile. Nothing more.
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