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1. Thunderbird was not my default mail client in Windows. When I tried to select it as default it did not appear in Windows' list of applications.

2. I tried to find the my profile and it showed where it was - but that directory did not exist. I finally was able to make a new profile and the directory showed up - but then the default-esr profile disappeared and now I can't find it and neither can Thunderbird. Is there a way to find where it went? I don't believe I delete it, it just went away. This is the message I get:

Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible

My Windows 11 laptop became corrupted and the os had to be reinstalled with Microsoft's help. In the midst of all this I did not think of backups sadly. After the restore I started to put my apps back on and without thinking, I installed Thunderbird. I realized immediately my mistake when I saw only new email and no local folders.

The Windows restore created a windows.old directory and I see my profile and configuration files in it. I want to use those old files but I don't know where to copy them exactly. There is some confusion on my part about where the startup is happening for Thunderbird. I really need to have access to all my old mail and local folders.

I'd appreciate any help in this matter. Thanks, Sue

Hello I'm using TB 128 esr / flatpak on Ubuntu 25.04. I'm satisfied, but I want to install Thunderbird in parallel before switching to this version. https://support.mozilla.org/fr/kb/installer-thunderbird-sous-linux#w_changing-channels I read and managed to install TB "monthly beta" by extracting the tar file. It wasn't possible to retrieve the profile via the zip file because it's 2.4 GB. It seems to work, even though it uses quite a bit of CPU power, ~20%!

1/ Anyway, my main interest would be to have a usage similar to Firefox standalone, which I can use from my computer to my laptop :-) with the same profile stored on an SSD data drive. I don't want to install the profile on my computer or laptop system drives!

2/ How do I launch this version at startup?

REgards

I just update firefox but all my none of my bookmarks loaded. I share my computer with my husband. He has a different account on this same computer and his bookmarks are showing up on my side, but mine are nowhere to be found. Previously we have had separate bookmark lists and all was fine. I don't know where my bookmarks went.

How do I get them back and put on "my side" and still have my husband's on his side?

Hello !

I'm having an issue loading my Thunderbird profile and looking for help. I copied my profile from C:\Users\phili\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles to D:\Thunderbird\Profiles I updated the profiles.ini located in C:\Users\phili\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird but it didn't work. When I launched Thunderbird, it asked to create a new profile and erased my updates in the profiles.ini

My Thunderbird install is located here : D:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe I'm running 128.5.2esr

I've tried moving back the aiedx66w.default-release to C:\Users\phili\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles but to no avail.

Can someone help me ?

Thanks Philippe

hi, if i sync 2 t/bird installs which one will install its personal data on the other pc?. the same question also applies to my f/fox install if anyone knows

win 10 tb145.02

thanks very much if anyone knows

HELP!!

I am trying to move my Thunderbird profile (containing a huge number of mail files dating back to 1995!!) from a Windows 10 computer to a new Windows 11 computer. My active profile has been kept in my Documents file (for easier automatic cloud backup). I have spent days trying everything I can to make this work. The best I can do is two profiles, one that can check mail, but contains no historic mail or files -- the other that has all my emails but won't connect with my server. "The following is a special account." "There are no identities associated with it." I was wondering if I could merge these two profiles? Or?

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!

Running Thunderbird 140.0.1esr (64bit) on Windows 11 Dell desktop.

Have had two active mail profiles running for years, one for each of us in the family. Some weird things are taking place now.

This afternoon when initiating Thunderbird by selecting Thunderbird icon on the task bar as always do, Thunderbird began going directly to my profile, not bringing up the 'Thunderbird - Choose User Profile' window. This has happened previously and I got instruction on the forum how to resolve, so I did that resolution again.

I ran Thunderbird.exe -p in the RUN box .

It bought up the 'choose user profile' window so I UNCHECKED the box 'use the selected profile without asking at startup.' I guess somehow it got inadvertently checked. I expected this to resolve the problem. Note: When the box came up the first time I did NOT notice the names of the profiles offered, ours or the default ones mentioned below.

Now, when I initiate Thunderbird by selecting the icon in the task bar or selecting the icon on the desktop or selecting Thunderbird in the START list of apps -- it still goes directly to my profile not bringing up the 'Choose User Profile' window. HOWEVER, when I enter in the RUN box either thunderbird.exe or thunderbird.exe -p it brings up the 'Choose User Profile' window.

BUT -- the profiles offered are default and default.esr. They are not our two profiles we have been running for years. Our two profiles are still in the Thunderbird Profiles directory as seen with File Explorer. Hovering over default and default.esr shows their respective paths to the Thunderbird Profiles directory. (Cannot edit these paths.) But using File Explorer, these two profiles (default and default.esr) are NOT seen in the Profiles directory at all.

Question: 1. How do I get Thunderbird to function correctly. That is, when selecting the Thunderbird icon it brings up the 'Choose User Profile' showing our two profiles, and when I RUN Thunderbird.exe in the RUN window it ALSO shows our two profiles in the 'Choose User Profile' window, and NOT that default and default.esr profiles which I don't even see in the Profiles directory.

One more thing -- I have been thinking of switching over and installing the Thunderbird Release Channel -- If I installed it, would these problems carryover or would they be resolved? Thank you.

Added this note: In the past when the box 'use the selected profile without asking at startup' got inadvertently check and I resolved the problem by running thunderbird.exe -p, I was not running the Thunderbird version I am running now. It was back on 9/22/24 and I forgot what version it was but I don't think it was the ESR version back then. Maybe that is why running this command worked back on 9/22/24, but getting weird results now with the current esr version running. Thank you again.

My version of Firefox wont save History, Bookmarks or Downloads. I've made sure the privacy settings are correct and have tried reinstalling Firefox several times. It also wont let me drag a link from the address bar to the bookmark bar anymore like it used to. Any help with this would be much appreciated... Thanks!

I'm on a Win 10 desktop. Version 140.3.1esr worked okay yesterday but when I started it this morning it is now missing my email accounts, folders, calendar, and contacts. Unfortunately I haven't done a backup in some time. The first image shows what I see.

The 2nd image shows that there are 2 profiles in the Thunderbird folder. The rc2jk0cq.default-release profile was created today & appears to have all of my data; it's the default profile. The v9w93tjh.default profile has an extensions folder and 3 files.

How can I recover from this?

Thanks

I have followed the instruction https://support.mozilla.org/de/kb/Benutzerprofile-Thunderbird#w_ein-profil-sichern to shift my profile from one harddrive to an other on my PC

The original profile is still on the old location %APPDATA%/Thunderbird I have updatet profiles.ini pointing to the new location At first glance it seemed to work Thunderbird was starting and when I cloesd it the date of files in the new location changed. But when I renamed the old profile in the old location Thunderbird does not start correctly and I only get

   <menuitem id="folderPaneContext-getMessages"
</pre>
^
If I rename the old profiles again to the original names, it starts without any issues

Sorry for the long=winded message but I figured it would save time to explain the steps from the beginning.

I've been using Thunderbird as an OSB for my archived messages from Apple Mail. In that scenario I create a .mbox file of all messages I want to save from a particular year and then import that into Thunderbird into a local folder with the year as the folder name. The version of Thunderbird where I was doing that is 115.10.1

I started testing Thunderbird version 139.0.2 as an Apple Mail replacement with only 2 of my email accounts.

Now I want to convert entirely out of Apple Mail. First I made a backup copy of the entire Thunderbird folder located in the User/Library folder onto an external hard drive that I then disconnected from my computer.

Then I downloaded the latest version 145.0 (aarch64) and installed it. (I still have the other 2 versions on my system) I opened it up and got into the profile manager (troubleshooting then about profiles) and discovered that I have 4 of them. I made the one that contains my archive the primary one. It does not have any connections to a live email account. I've only ever imported an .mbox file. Everything that I've archived is there. This is profile Number 1. I renamed it Archive so I could keep track of it.

Then I opened up each of the other 3 profiles in a new browser in sequence to see what they were.

It appears as if I have one that is empty. it opens up wanting me to set up an existing email address. I closed that one down. It's called Profile number 2.

The next one appears to be the current one for the 2 test email accounts. It has them properly configured, showing messages in the inbox and with the messages that are supposed to be archived off in the local folders I had created as I expect. I am calling this one profile number 3.

The third one first had me add the passwords for the 2 test accounts and then it is pretty close to number number 3 but is missing some of the local folders. This is called profile number 4.

Want I want to end up with is 1 profile. I would prefer to start with the one that has all my archive messages in their local folders, and then add the test accounts including all their messages from profile number 3 with its local folders. Once they are safely moved and part of the Archive profile I would like to delete all three numbered profiles. Once I am down to only one active profile and no others lurking about I plan to slowly start adding the rest of my email accounts moving them one by one out of Apple Mail and into Thunderbird.

I've read the various articles on moving out of Apple Mail into Thunderbird So I believe I can add the Apple email accounts to my Archive profile successfully. I have the import tools so I can import the .mbox files from Apple mail into those accounts.

Where I'm stuck is I can't seem to find an article that gives me detailed instructions on how to combine profiles within Thunderbird. All the articles imply keeping multiple profiles active and I would prefer not to do that.

I am sure I am just not searching properly but I am at a loss as to how to proceed. I do not want to delete any profiles or start adding more accounts until the profiles are cleaned up.

Thanks for reading this long explanation and I appreciate any help anyone can provide.

So I have a bunch of Firefox profiles I want to set up a new profile and I want to set up the profile switching with in that profile perhaps by creating a bunch of profiles from the about profiles page and then replacing those profiles with the old ones as I don't see a way to just import old profiles in the UI. How do I go bout doing that like copy and move exactly what exactly where.

I'm struggling to understand where Thunderbird stores everything on a Windows computer so that I can use my incremental automated backup system to keep things backed up.

This support article :

[- Where Thunderbird stores your messages and other user data]

only mentions about the <user>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles folder but there is also a <user>\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles folder that appears to be used and needed.

There is a ton of other conflicting 3rd party information out there so I'm hoping for a definitive answer here.

My question is : Can I backup just the '<user>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles and <user>\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles and be assured that I will be fully able to recover my email client in the case of needing a complete reinstall ?

I am trying to copy my Thunderbird profile folder from my Windows PC to my Linux Mint PC. I have successfully done this a few times previously, but this time it seems that Thunderbird does not 'see' the folder.

The Thunderbird folder copies to the correct folder (according to the instructions) OK, but when I start Thunderbird, nothing is shown. This is the first time that I have moved Thunderbird to A Linux OS, but I can't see what I am doing wrong.

It started with duplicate Archive and Drafts folders...so I checked TB help, and it gave me several suggestions, including going to my Profile folder and deleting duplicate folders from there. Everything seemed fine...until I realized that suddenly TB has NO emails later than 2022! I went in to Gmail to see if I could recover them...but they're all missing there as well. In my business account--also through Gmail, but managed through my domain name--not just my Inbox, but EVERYTHING is gone. It's as if I never existed.

This is extremely upsetting: I teach and have my own business, and losing all my emails is catastrophic.

Can someone please help?

Basically the title. With TB closed when there were no tabs open, I have located the profiles on the win10 PC in c:\users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird and copied said folder onto a USB stick, then pasted it from the USB stick into the same location on the target (win11) PC (and apparently according to the progress panel everything was pasted as it should). On the target PC, Thunderbird does open, but in the default account definition tab (and creates a default-esr profile along the way), but does not find the profiles I copied onto the target PC. I really need the existing mails and folder structure. Thanks in advance!

I deleted a profile from my Thunderbird account, but I keep getting a popup login screen. I can no longer access this profile. HOW can I get rid of this popup screen? It continues to popup every few minutes! Need it to stop!!

Fire Fox - This profile was last used with a newer version of this App - Create a new profile.

After logging into my account, I saw a Fire Fox page showing new features. Upon downloading Fire Fox, I saw the the above message. I didn't want a new profile, but there wasn't an option to close the window and to just continue to use the newer version that was already installed ???

I tried Control / ALT / Delete . Upon restarting it showed the same message! I uninstalled Fire Fox, which surely has not helped things.

Am I able to restore the profile from the "newer version"? Otherwise, I will probably have to setup Fire Fox from scratch and have lost all bookmarks.

Thanks so much for your assistance. Myles

Hi,

I take a look to forums and docs but didn't find answer to it : just found informations about the use of firefox -P

Is there a way to change the defaults profile path.

For example, in the profiles.ini :

Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/be7er9lz.default Default=1

this is a relative path referring to %appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\[PathVariableValue]

Is there a way to change a config file or config to customise the path for all users a windows computer ?

For example :

setting this variable to \\nameofserver\Firefox\

will made all relatives profiles looking for : \\nameofserver\Firefox\[PathVariableValue]

without this option, I should be obliged to edit all users profiles.ini to change path to absolute

Thanks for your help

ludovic