Thunderbird can't seem to remember who I am! For the past year or so, every few weeks, I open Thunderbird to find that it doesn't know who I am. My entire account has s… (read more)
Thunderbird can't seem to remember who I am! For the past year or so, every few weeks, I open Thunderbird to find that it doesn't know who I am. My entire account has seemingly disappeared! The first time this happened, I nearly lost it. I thought everything was gone. After doing some research, I discovered the likely problem was that the prefs.js file in my profile folder was corrupted. Going back to a backup (thank goodness for backups!) and copying an older version of prefs.js to replace the corrupted one fixed the problem - all my emails and folders were back as they were before. Whew! Until it happened again. And again, and again, and again, etc., etc.
Since this is a well known problem (I found the "fix" noted above in Mozilla help), I assumed at some point there would be a permanent fix. But several iterations of Thunderbird have come and gone since then and the problem remains. I have used Thunderbird for nearly 20 years, and have loved it. But if I don't find a solution for this problem, I may have to abandon the platform. I can't afford to have my email client forget me every few weeks. Resetting the prefs.js file takes time, and alarmingly it doesn't always work! A few times I found my backup prefs.js also failed and had to rely on an even older backup which can sometimes be problematic if I changed any settings in the interval in between. I REALLY hope someone has found a more permanent solution to this issue! If you have, please post it and let us know where to find the cure for Thunderbirdheimer's!!