Thunderbird Community Forum

I'm asking this question so I can post some helpful information for people wanting to create a backup of their profile.

If you are using Windows OS and you got your download from the official website: https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/all/

How do you locate the correct folder to backup? The backup must contain everything, profiles, mail accounts, emails, address books, calendar, preferences - the lot. The backup can be used to transfer between computers.

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.

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

Hi, I have moved to a new computer and transferred my Thunderbird account to it without any problems. However, I wanted to do a backup of my profiles, etc, but the old Thunderbird backup link no longer works. Has it been discontinued, and if so, what replaces it?

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!!

My Windows 11 was recently reinstalled to factory settings, which uninstalled Thunderbird but saved my mobx files. I used Thunderbird exclusively to view older emails that are stored on my PC as mobx files. I do not use Thunderbird as an active email client. I reinstalled Thunderbird, but have been unable to get it to find my mobx files that are stored together in a folder.

I've used thunderbird for years. Now I can't get it back. I tried a clean uninstall/reinstall. Downloaded from the thunderbird site. Seems to install fine, but then says no profile recognized. I put some old profiles in the appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles in desperation, but still no luck. My clean uninstall did involve registry entries (Revo-Uninstall). So I'd like to get a clean start with Thunderbird, but it won't let me. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. I dread the idea of using another email after all these years!

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?

Hi everyone,

My antivirus as quarantined 2 files from my TB profile:

• d:\internet profiles\thunderbird\profiles\z3rq1w7t.default\prefs.js
• d:\internet profiles\thunderbird\profiles\z3rq1w7t.default\virtualfolders.dat

I asked the antivirus to restore them, but the damage is done. TB has lost track of everything I’d stored over the years, including my email accounts, emails, preferences, etc. It’s like a fresh install.

But I can see that my profile still contains about 5 bg of data. So everything’s there, but it seems it no longer knows how to access it.

As you can see, my profile isn’t buried in the depths of Windows; it’s on my D drive. Perhaps I just need to ‘reconnect’ TB to the correct profile, but I don’t know how to do that anymore…

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance. Guy

Win 11, v.153.0 Firefox (default), v.153.0 T'bird.

Lately, when there's a link in an email and I click on the link, it takes me to a Firefox browser that's not my normal one - this new one doesn't have my settings, saved passwords, or home screen default, etc.

What happened and how can I fix it? Or must I wait for another update? (It just now updated to 153.0 and the problem still exists)

It is quite annoying.

Thanks.

I've been using Thunderbird for many years, originally on WindowsXP then Linux (Kubuntu) on my PC. Recently purchased an HP laptop and installed Kubuntu 24.04.2 (the same as my PC). Firefox allowed me to sync both computers, is there a way to do the same with Thunderbird ?

I rebooted my Windows 11 PC yesterday and apparently Thunderbird updated to version Thunderbird 128.6.1esr (64-bit) during the reboot. Unfortunately, when I opened Thunderbird, it showed a Create New Account screen instead of my existing email accounts. I went to "about:profile" and it lists my existing profile as the default, but it will not access any of the accounts in it. I've tried reinstalling Thunderbird over the existing copy and get the same result. I'm at a loss as to how I can retrieve many, many years of emails in six accounts!

I am installing Tbird on a Windows 10 instance that I am recovering from backup. There is a default profile that contains a folder for a user in an IMAP domain that no longer exists. Tbird won't start and just spins with a message about a missing IMAP user.

I copied the profile to another backup folder. And then uninstalled and re-installed TB. The "AppData > Roaming > Thunderbird > Profiles" folder(s) are still there but empty. When I start TB it says: "Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible." The old email is not important now. Should I delete more folders in AppData, or what should I do next?

I copied my Thunderbird profile from an old Win 10 computer whose motherboard was failing, and I managed to get the profile copied before I completely lost access. Now I no longer have access to it. I did not use Mozilla Backup. I downloaded Thunderbird on a new Win 11 computer. On the new computer, I set up Thunderbird. Then I deleted the new profile and pasted the old profile. Now Thunderbird will not open at all. It says, "Your Thunderbird profile can not be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible." I have uninstalled and reinstalled Thunderbird, but I still get that message. How can I fix this? Thanks, Teresa

I set up Thunderbird on Debain 13 OS "Trixie" and then migrated (or tried to) my profiles.ini and attendant email folders to Ubuntu 24.04. I have done this before between Linux and even Windows installs, copying the folders over. Usually that is all you need to do to migrate emails and 'set up'. However, migrating from Debian to Ubuntu causes issues, namely the import is rejected by TB. At first, I thought perhaps Debian is using a newer version of Thunderbird and Ubuntu uses an older version, so I upgraded Thunderbird to a newer version. Import of profiles and folders still crash. This is using the profile import tool in TB.

I have a lot of emails via IMAP and it takes a long time to set them up and about ten gigs worth of emails. Is there anything that can be done?

I am trying to install Thunderbird into a new computer with Windows 11. When I try to run, it goes to a configuration page but will not connect after finding my account. I have double-checked password, but it says "Unable to log in at server . . . ".

I have uninstalled and reinstalled new program, but get the same response each time. I want to install Thunderbird (and Firefox) and copy my profiles from my old computer to the new one. I am not able to do either. I have followed the online instructions for moving/migrating both, but neither work. Any suggestions?

Rad

Hello! I am developing an application for an organization that uses Thunderbird in a Windows environment. Among other features, it is necessary to implement the transfer of mail client settings from one workstation to another. Built-in Mozilla Thunderbird tools are not suitable. I am still considering implementation options (autoconfig or direct work with files), and I have several questions. I will be very grateful for any help. 1. What is the minimum required files in the appdata folder that I need to create (transfer) so that the profile works without errors on the new workstation? No need to transfer messages, they are all on the server, and offline work is not used 2. How does the installs.ini file work? I need to avoid creating a new profile when starting Thunderbird for the first time, do I need to create an entry in installs.ini, and if so, where can I get the correct installation code? 3. Is it possible to transfer saved passwords to a new workstation? What are the requirements for this? I am very grateful for any answers