Thunderbird Community Forum

My current Thunderbird profile has been created dirctly in ...AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird. <Profiles> does exist but not contain any recent files or data. How do I restore a proper data structure without losing any emails, settings or other data?

The screenshot shows the present structure

Hello,

I need help recovering my old emails from Thunderbird.

I am using a POP account. Recently, I changed the message storage location from the C: drive to the F: drive. After doing this, Thunderbird only shows recent emails, while my old emails are missing.

Here is what I have checked:

The mailbox files still exist on the F: drive. Inbox file: approximately 1.1 GB Sent file: approximately 1.18 GB I also have a complete Thunderbird profile backup of approximately 2.73 GB. The profile contains prefs.js, the Mail folder, and all profile files. Some account folders such as: pop.accessarchitects.in pop.accessarchitects-1.in pop.accessarchitects-2.in have Inbox files that are 0 KB. However, another mailbox file named Inbox is about 1.1 GB, which appears to contain my old messages. Thunderbird downloads and displays new emails correctly, but it does not display the old emails. I previously had around 60,000+ emails organised into many custom folders such as Contracts, Bills, Axis Bank Statements, Notifications, etc. Some mailbox files still have large sizes, but Thunderbird does not display their contents. My folder structure F:\Mails\

   Inbox (1.1 GB)
   Sent (1.18 GB)
   Inbox.sbd
   Local Folders.sbd

Inside Local Folders.sbd, I also have mailbox files such as:

Inbox (~642 MB) contract & bill (~778 MB)

The data appears to exist, but Thunderbird is not recognising or indexing it.

My Questions How can I reconnect these existing mailbox files without losing any data? Is there a way to rebuild the indexes so Thunderbird recognises the old messages? Could the issue be caused by an incorrect profile mapping after changing the storage location?

I have not deleted the original mailbox files, and I have a complete profile backup available.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Hello

I use Thunderbird for many years, I have a profile weighing 3,6 GB now… I already moved this profile on my old computer, from default location to a data disk. Now I needed to move it to a new computer, so I moved it to my Dropbox (with local storage on both), to conveniently access it from the new machine, and to have some kind of backup (with a real backup, more occasional, of course). I don't plan to launch Thunderbird from both computers, so there should be no conflict.

I installed a fresh new download of Thunderbird (152), which I just upgraded to 153. The new computer runs Windows 11 Professional (build 26200.8875), has 32 GB of memory and a large amount of free disk space.

My profile.ini file currently looks like: ``` [Install734AE0B000379192] Default=C:\Dropbox\Applications\Thunderbird\0q9jw2nn.default Locked=1

[Profile1] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/ncc2rvps.default

[Profile0] Name=default-release IsRelative=0 Path=Profiles/30jrlwud.default-release

[General] StartWithLastProfile=0 Version=2

[Profile2] Name=PhiLho IsRelative=0 Path=C:\Dropbox\Applications\Thunderbird\0q9jw2nn.default Default=1 ``` Profile 0 and 1 were created at installation time. I added the Profile2 and I set StartWithLastProfile to 0 to ensure the profile manager sees the profile.

When I start Thunderbird, after choosing the PhiLho profile, I end up with an empty window: no accounts, no messages, no folders, etc. I see no relevant error in the developer console, or the logs. What I am missing?

I have followed your instructions at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer and gotten nowhere all day. on it. You have "Profile Folders", a folder called "Profiles", a bunch of profiles (folders) inside the Profiles folder and profiles in Roaming and in Local paths. When I get the old profile 'k41******' copied to the new computer in both the Roaming folder and the Local folder the Thunderbird program still will not show me the old files. I don't need any of the thousands of emails in the old computer, just the Templates in one account. This should be easy. I should just copy the profile k41***** ect. and paste it into the "Profiles" (notice the pleural there) and then Thunderbird should work. But it does not.

My old laptop died, and just reinstalled TB on new laptop. I have the SSD with old profile, and added profile to the new Profiles folder. Thought it would be as simple as editing the Profile.ini to specify the old profile, but that hasn't worked. Need help.

Dennis

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 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!

Good morning,

I’m reaching out because I’m having trouble with my Thunderbird email and need some assistance.

I was using Thunderbird without any issues before, but now all my old emails have disappeared. I can still receive new messages, but I’m unable to send emails like I used to. I also can’t recover or view any of my previous emails.

It seems like something may have reset or become corrupted, and I’m not sure how to restore my old messages or fix the sending issue.

Could you please help me get Thunderbird working properly again and recover my old emails if possible?

Thank you for your support.

Dee

I'm trying to move from Windows to Linux without downloading all my imap messages again. What I've tried: 1. Install tbird on Linux, create new profile. 2. Close tbird. 3. Using Linux file manager,

 - delete contents of new profile folder
 - copy contents of old profile folder into new folder
 - delete Compatibility.ini in the copy

4. Open tbird with -p (profile manager)

I've tried twice with different results. The first time at step 4 I started offline. Thunderbird opened will all my previous tabs open, except that all the internet tabs reported connection failure - as expected. Under account settings, both local folders and my gmail account reported the correct (new, linux) path. When I went online and completed the gmail OAuth dialog thunderbird reported an inbox summary folder error, and deleted all the imap mbox files. I closed and restarted tbird- which failed with a crash dump. the terminal window reported successful minidump creation- the file manager showed the minidump file at zero size.

I repeated the process (recreating the original unmodified profile). This time at step 4 I started online, and tbird never opened- it generated the crash dump immediately.

Two questions: 1. Is it possible to transfer an imap profile and avoid re-downloading all the old messages? 2. What am I doing wrong that I'm getting the crash dumps?

Windows: [Compatibility] LastVersion=147.0_20260108190847/20260108190847 LastOSABI=WINNT_x86_64-msvc LastPlatformDir=C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird LastAppDir=C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird

Linux: [Compatibility] LastVersion=140.12.1_20260628021646/20260628021646 LastOSABI=Linux_x86_64-gcc3 LastPlatformDir=/initrd/mnt/dev_save/Thunderbird-portable64/thunderbird64 LastAppDir=/initrd/mnt/dev_save/Thunderbird-portable64/thunderbird64

In the Move Thunderbird data to a new computer article, it says under "An alternative method for Mac":

"CAUTION: Do not open Thunderbird again on the original computer - unless you repeat the process in reverse to transfer the folder contents back to the original computer before opening the app. (If you forget, you can manually check one version against the other to ensure important messages are retained, but it's messy and time consuming.)"

It's not entirely clear to me why this would be an issue, but it makes me wonder if that would make the following use case problematic:

1. The user already has Thunderbird on "Computer A" set up, and wants to copy their Thunderbird profile onto "Computer B" to get the same setup and email accounts on both computers. They intend on using both "Computer A" and "Computer B" simultaneously. For simplicity's sake, let's assume all email accounts use IMAP, so emails are synced with the server, and thus simultaneous access between multiple clients is possible.
2. The user follows the instructions to copy their Thunderbird profile from "Computer A" to "Computer B".
3. The user opens Thunderbird on "Computer B" to make sure everything is working (let's say it's working and emails are syncing to "Computer B").
4. The user then opens Thunderbird on "Computer A". Their expectation would be that they would see the same emails and settings as on "Computer B". If they composed/moved/deleted an email on either computer, those changes would sync and be visible on the other computer.

Would this be an issue? Or should the user just start anew on "Computer B" and manually sign in to all of their email accounts again?

As explained in the subject line - title, I do NOT need nor use the Today Pane.

It use taking up needed space for the down arrow & popping up distracting me.

How do I eliminate it? I will even, if necessary edit Thunderbird to get rid of it.

'AND bold text' somehow, a new version of Thunderbird was created - downloaded and all my passwords AND bookmarks are gone. I looked for the profile, but it's new so does not contain passwords NOR bookmarks.

THANKS! Remain WELL & be SAFE!

Robin

is there any way to perform a dynamic backup of Thunderbird. By that I mean a regular (e.g. daily) backup of the profile or at least the mailboxes using a scheduler without closing Thunderbird down?

Hi, I have been running low on hard disk space due to the bloated Windows 11. I have been trying to clean up Thunderbird by deleting a bunch of saved emails and compacting, but the size of my profile folder is still about 3.5 GB. I looked at all of the subfolders under my profile and found a bunch of what I think is dead storage.

Under the MAIL folder there are 4 folders for what looks like my current Local Folders and 3 older local folders. Under the IMAPMAIL folder there are 4 folders for what looks like my 2 current email addresses and 2 older unused email addresses.

I looked under the account settings for the Local Folders and the 2 email addresses and have identified the 3 out of the 8 folders that are still being used.

So my question is, is it safe to just delete these apparently unused folders?

7-1-26: Problem when I updated/downloaded Thunderbird 152.0.1. When I try to open, a dialog box asks if I want to create a new profile. By mistake I clicked the "new profile button" but didn't create a new profile since I want to use my previous profile just as with past upgrades. However, I couldn't move past that screen so I closed Thunderbird. Then when I try to re-open Thunderbird, I get that same dialog box and can't move forward. What can I do? Your assistance is truly appreciated, Rick

First, I have very limited understanding of software. I need very simple explanations.

Here's my issue. I use Thunderbird on my desktop computer. I have used the Import/Export > Options > Backup Scheduling function to backup my Thunderbird email to my USB/flash drive. I have labelled the backup folder on my flash drive "Thunderbird email backup." That folder contains numerous subfolders including: 1) calendar-data 2) chrome_debugger_profile 3) crashes 4) datareporting 5) extensions 6) ExternalMailFolders 7) Mail 8) minidumps 9) saved-telemetry-pings 10) scheduled-notifications 11) settings 12) shader-cache 13) storage.

Again, these are the subfolders created/named by the Thunderbird Import/Export backup. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THESE FOLDERS MEAN.

Here's what I want - it's actually very simple. I want to be able to see (read) my backed up email on my flash drive without using the Thunderbird installed on my computer. I want complete interaction with the backed up email without my desktop Thunderbird - or my online email account - being involved at all.

My understanding is that Thunderbird Portable is supposed to be able to allow me to do that. I downloaded Thunderbird Portable (from https://portableapps.com) to my flash drive but when I tried to access it the first thing it did was try to force me to put in my online account (POP?) information.

I don't want to do that. I just want to open Thunderbird Portable on the flash drive and have it realize that all of my backed up Thunderbird email information is right there in the same flash drive. I want it to just access and use what's right there.

I was really hoping that Thunderbird Portable would simply ask me where to look - in a very user-friendly way! - and I could tell it to go to my "Thunderbird email backup" folder on my flash drive (WHERE ALL MY THUNDERBIRD INFO IS!) and it would simply do just that and provide me with complete Thunderbird service for the backed up email.

Am I missing something? Can someone give me a VERY SIMPLE walk through to do what I would think should be a very simple thing? Thank you. Chris (6/29/26)

PS - I've read the Mozilla Support ARTICLE: Thunderbird Portable (Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition) and other portable apps as alternatives (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1285834) and it alludes in general terms to exactly what I want to do but it does not give any step-wise instructions.

I used to have Thunderbird on this laptop and was using Microsoft Office 365. I have since stopped using it from GoDaddy. I uninstalled the old Thunderbird and reinstalled a new version. I am trying to enter the new server settings but I keep getting the old Office 365 settings showing up. How do I get rid of that and find the new settings page to enter the new settings?

All my old email accounts are showing up and I only want to add 2 to the new Thunderbird. I thought uninstalling would delete all the old stuff. Please help.

I created a user profile for IMAP and all was OK....Until I deleted the profile for POP and I lost all e-mail folders that I didn't move to IMAP. My PC is running Linux Mint. How do I get my lost e-mails?