When I went into Help / troubleshooting / and clicked on the "profile" button

When you do that now, what is the current profile folder? Please provide the full path including the name of the profile folder.

I thought "if I can change the name of the profile my son created to the same as this one that TBird has generated, perhaps it will load my profile.

Where is the profile your son created located? Please provide the full path including the name of the profile folder.

Also post the contents of your profiles.ini file.

I'm in even worse trouble because TBird won't start at all now,

What error do you get?

even when I uninstall it and get Linux to install it again.

What exactly do you expect to happen when re-installing the application? Thunderbird separates the program installation from the profile data.

What a mess ...

... you created.

1. You cannot do it now as TB will not open at all. I just get a notice "Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing." There don't know where the profile was before (the one I deleted) but assume if TB created it, it put it in the correct place. 2. The new profile with my data in it is saved in a folder "profiles" on my external hard drive. Path is: profiles/Thunderbird/ There are two files in Thunderbird: u5dpgg69.default and profiles.ini 3. the ini file reads

Start with last profile=1
Profile 0
Name=default
IsRelative=1

Path u5dpgg69.default 4.Error I get when starting TB is that it just won't start, just gives me a screen stating TB profile cannot be loaded and may be missing. 5. I had no expectations at all - just a hope that it might help. I am now wondering if I can change the location of and name of the profile my son created so that TB will recognise it? But I'm not going to try anything without your expert advice. Thanks again.

Your new profile is incomplete or broken in some other way. If you deleted it outright then Thunderbird would simply create a new one. But since you have a complete working profile there is no need to start over.

Close Thunderbird. In Linux, its profile is stored under ~/.thunderbird where you will find profiles.ini and a folder named Profiles. Try copying the relevant files over these from your backup.

Note that .thunderbird is a hidden folder and you'll need to enable display of hidden folders in your file manager. That's usually ctrl+h.

I'd do the following: Delete profiles.ini.

Then start Thunderbird. It will create a new profile. Determine the profile folder via Troubleshooting Information as you did before.

Close Thunderbird.

Copy the contents of the profile on your external drive into the newly created profile folder. You did determine it's location in the previous step.

Overwrite any files which may already exist there with the files and folders from the profile your son created.

Start Thunderbird.

Right, thanks to both of you, christ1 and zenos, I have now got a new copy of Thunderbird and it works! I am just trying to migrate my address book and archives into the new version. I did the "reveal hidden files" and have now got two of the "8figure+default" files in my Thunderbird folder with the new "profiles ini and the "crash reports." If I use one half of my screen to show all the folders and files in the new one and the other half to display the folders and files in the one my son saved for me... Do I just drag the box "minidumps" for example over the same name in the new (current) file? Or can I just drag the whole green rectangle marked "qvfmgu97.default" onto "fxhm94vd.default" Or even should I open each file / folder and individually drag each item? On top of this, the two "default" folders do not contain the same amount - the one my son did with my stuff has far more in. I'm sorry to ask what must seem to you to be stupid questions - its just that I don't want to mess things up again! Thanks again for your generous help and advice.

If you'd followed christ1's directions, I'd expect your old address book to be included into your copied profile.

Did you leave any files or folders behind?

Open qvfmgu97.default on the backup. In your other window, open fxhm94vd.default in the new profile folder

Do ctrl+a in the old profile to select all the contents.

Either:

• Drag and drop into the new profile

or

• copy the selected files and folders (ctrl+c)
• paste (ctrl+v) into the new profile

Well I've learned a lot from both of you and my Thunderbird is now set up exactly as I wanted it with all my address book and archives. Thank you and thank you to Mozilla Support. Fantastic service!