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I've used Thunderbird for years, and I LOVE it! A few days ago, my hard drive died. I had it replaced, and I've used my data backup to recover much. I did NOT have programs/apps backed up. I need VERY SPECIFIC steps to download and reinstall Thunderbird so that it uses my old profile. Should I first delete EVERYTHING having to do with Thunderbird and start anew? I did download it today and then went to the C:Users/Owner/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird folder. In that folder, I deleted the "new" profile file (I think!). Then I moved my backed up folder called Profiles into that directory. I tried to get Thunderbird to use that profile, but no luck. I'm reasonably intelligent (I've been told!), but I can't figure how to do this, and I truly need a step-by-step blueprint. Do I download Thunderbird first? If so, what do I then do to make it find the old profile. I'm running Windows 11 Home on a PC. Right now, I'm going for a long walk to clear my brain. In the interim, if one of you really smart, nice experts could give me instructions on how to do this, I'd be eternally grateful. I have numerous folders, and some really important old emails in that old profile. I also would like to be able to retrieve my address book and calendars ... which I ASSUME are part of the old profile. Thanks in advance for ANY assistance! Don't assume I know ANYTHING!!

Believe my T-bird account has somehow been corrupted. Takes forever to load on PC and always puts new emails in Trash folder. Often does not accept correct password. If I save / backup PROFILE, uninstall T-Bird and delete any Thunderbird folders on PC, if I restore per backup, will I be restoring the corrupted app. Don't want to loose email addresses, thousands of emails and email folder structure. Will a restore work? Thank you. Greg D

PS Version of T-Bird on laptop still puts all new email in Trash, but loads much more quickly, etc.

I tried to start Thunderbird and it would not open. There was a message that read, "Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible." After trying to fix it and nothing worked, I uninstalled and reinstalled Thunderbird. Now all of my contacts and data is gone. When I tried to use the import tool I selected import from another Thunderbird installation and I can't get past the continue button.

How do I recover all of my data and contacts/addresses?

I have been trying for 2 days to do:

1. Move the Thunderbird data base to E-drive from c as there is no space on C. I allow thunderbird to install - no option for data base location and it puts it on c-drive my default. I then copy all the files to e-drive and then it wants to re-install again. Same PC.

2. I cannot get mailstore to convert pst as the Outlook function in Thurnderbird does not or I cannot get it to work.

I am complete novice and this is all to complex. I live in remote place in Austrialian out back

Please Dan

I just tried creating a new profile in Nightly, and I received the "Approve sign-in to Firefox" email with a code, twice, but the profile page kept saying that my email bounced or something. Now it's saying it's locked.

hi

i just recently re-installed a new ver. of TB tonight i go to reply to an e-mail & notice the send function is not avail to send reply see attach

the button is grayed out & there is no send function

i did have my address book avail but it is not visible either ( this is another issue i have ) i did move from another profile

don`t know how to fix either. both profiles have the following files in them which do i have to copy & paste or overwrite see attach

Got up this morning and stared up Thunderbird as I always do but got a 'new account dialog'. All of my emails, folders, settings, etc. are gone. Went through the Help - Trouble shooting process to find the old profile. There are three profiles listed in 'About Profiles' and if I launch with any of them, all I get is a new setup. Freaking out here as I have 10 of thousands of emails, in multiple email accounts, in a relatively complex folder structure which includes online and local folder storage. I have a feeling that Thunderbird updated last night and is the cause of this problem.

Running Windows 10 Pro v 22H2, build 19045.6332 . Thunderbird 140.3.1esr (64-bit)

Thunderbird switched automatic to Freedom. No possibility to avoid. All connections where lost. After input connection data mail where downloaded. But over 2000 old local stored mail are gone.

How to restore all old local mails, structure and archives?

My old Windows10 computer died, but I have an external backup with my Thunderbird profile folder. In the meantime, I have been able to resurrect an old Windows10 computer to continue receiving email, but was not successful transferring the backup profile. Thus, I have "new" profile on this second computer containing only the recent emails not in the backup profile.

I've purchased a new Windows11 computer. My question is: How can I merge my old emails in the backup profile with the recent emails received after the backup was made? In other words, is it possible to merge two separate profiles into one? Thanks.

Illinichip

Several years ago, I switched over to the beta path of Thunderbird... In doing so, I created a new profile for the beta installation, leaving the old one behind in case I wanted to abandon beta... So I had two profile folders; I *thought* they were this:

current profile: c:\notes\Thunderbird original backup profile: c:\notes\Thunderbird.b115

Now, I've decided that there is no reason to retain the old Thunderbird profile folder, since I'm clearly committed to the beta path... however, I have discovered an anomaly... *both* the old and new profiles are periodically being updated!! Thunderbird.b115 is apparently actually my active profile, but Thunderbird was updated just a few days ago.

When I look at About Profiles, I actually see *three* profile folders listed:

Profile: Gorlash: (default: no) c:\notes\Thunderbird

Profile: Derell Licht beta: (default: no) c:\notes\Thunderbird

Profile: Thunderbird beta (default: no) c:\notes\Thunderbird.beta (note that this folder does not exist)

Profile: Thunderbird b115: (default: yes) c:\notes\Thunderbird.b115

===========================================

Is there something that I could do to consolidate all of this into just one folder? I don't even *know* what those Gorlash and Derell Licht profiles refer to... Yes, those are both usernames that I use online, in various contexts, but as far as I know, I don't use them in Thunderbird...

Q1: Can I just delete those other profiles where default is NO ?? Q2: Why is c:\notes\Thunderbird still getting periodic updates, even though those profiles are not default??

Hi ... I have carefully followed the instructions but when Icopy and paste ihe file involved - it seems to transfer - but NO PROMPT to overwrite appears. What might I be doing wrong?

I have installed Thunderbird on a new computer and copied my profile from the old computer as per instructions on the Mozilla site. However on the install on the new computer the LOCAL FOLDERS, sub folders which I use as archive storage do not contain the messages as per the my old computer. The sub folders are named correctly.

I have attached photos of the sub folders from the old computer showing data in the sub folder and also the new computer showing no data.

Please advise how to retrieve the data for the new computer.

I know that there are thousands of threads related to moving a profile, but despite having read many of them I am still struggling to move my profile (and I have been trying to do this for several years)

the Default profile is setting up under my Home directory that that is burning up about 10GB of space.

Folliwing Moderator Matt's excellent suggestions:

"so when you go to the troubleshooting information and select profile folder, where does it put you? In a different newly created profile folder. So copy everything to the new folder from the old one"

I DO finally seem to get all my old TB accounts and messages to show up from the moved location.

However, I can neither send nor receive email. which suggests that my Gmail IMAP and SMTP settings are wrong.

My IMAP settings are showing as: Port 993 Security: SSL/TLS Authentication: OAuth2

my SMTP settings are Port 465 Security: SSL/TLS Authentication: OAuth2

When I close the Newly moved profile and restart and specify the original profile (that is housed under /Home) the server settings there seem to be the same. But I am able to send and receive email under that profile.

what am I doing wrong?

Peter

Hello. I recently upgraded from my older MacBook Pro (now factory reset and sold) to a new MacBook Air. I use Thunderbird as my email client and I have many folders that live within my Local Folders. When I transferred all the data from the older Mac to the new Mac via iCloud, and set up my new mail account (IMAP), the folders did not download into the program. I've tried using Subscribe but none of my pre-existing folders show up. Any assistance would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Hello,

I need to purchase a new PC because my old PC was not compliant with Windows 11. I've installed Thunderbird and copied over my data, profiles, etc.

I've noticed that there is folder added to my offline Documents folder called "Thunderbird" and in this is another folder and a file.

Is this normal?

Thank you,

Gordon

Hi,

When I opened Firefox today, it asked me which profile I'd like to use. I named one Katy and then continued. Now, I can't see any of my bookmarks, none of my passwords are saved, none of my sites recognized. I've been using Firefox for years. Everything I have is saved there. I just want my old stuff back. I'm signed in on my account, but can't see another profile that I can choose. My phone still has all the passwords and bookmarks from before but I I can't see what profile I'm signed in under. Can anyone help?

Thank you!

Katy

Hi, In profiles, I have several, many of which are up to date and 2 are large, one which is meant to be my current profile at about 2.5 Gb and another at 3.6 Gb (plus others of about 50 Mb) - see screenshot. What is going on?

I had to install Windows 11 fresh because of multiple issues with my PC (I upgraded from 10 to 11 6 months ago). I installed Thunderbird fresh, and am trying to get it to see my existing data with is on my D drive. I browsed to the folder in Account Settings, but it's not showing up. I have years of mail and don't want to lose it.

There are too many options in the help for me to know which are actually related to my situation. I thought I was ready to do this, but am surprised at how difficult it is compared to the last time I did something similar.

Any help, even just pointing me to the right place to look for help, is appreciated!

Thanks!

Default profile lost / hidden.

For the last few days, I have been getting certificate errors. I decided to move from Pop to Imap which fixed the problem. Somewhere in creating the new IMAP account, it asked me if I want to have messages moved to another account, to which I said yes, which would keep me from having to move all of those folders and re-create the inbox structure. Well, that somehow removed that default profile. I backup regularly, but just found out that the appdata branch is a hidden folder and did not get picked up. Okay, fine. However, my email folders are on a data drive and are fully backed up. I have all of the data, i just need to re-establish the profile. If I go to appdata .... profiles ... , that account is in there. I can't import it. I can't even import the messages. Can you guide me to getting my default account visible again. I'm sure there are already articles and answers, and I browsed but could not find the right one in the many, many answers provided. I'm very tech savvy, so I'm sure I can follow the guidance given.