Thunderbird Community Forum

Hi folks

When I tried to start up Thunderbird this evening, it has taken me to a set-up page. I seem to have lost all the settings, all my previous (about 3000 !) e-mails in my Inbox.

I obviously don't really want to set it all up again, but it has been working for years without a problem, and then suddenly this happens. I had now a 'warning' message saying that Mozilla Thunderbird wants to make changes to your computer - do you accept? I don't want it to make any changes unless it is to revert back to how it was.

Can anybody help me?

Thanks.

As of yesterday my Thunderbird account vanished, screen asking to set up an account. I am too old to be an IT expert, and I need detailed step by step guidance how to restore that account, full of Inbox emails and folders/subfolders. If it matters (depending on requirements?), my address is @verizon.net - which is pop3 but I have no problem opening the same emails on different devices, as if it were imap (verizon taken over by aol). Pain in the neck, hope to get help.

I hope someone can help here. I have used Tbird and FF almost exclusively from release. Thundebird is my only email program and the whole thing is playing up badly at the moment. I can send no emails. Some emails that show in the inbox show a blank screen and can not be deleted. All messages I send come back with an end of message error and SMTP blocked (see attached). This happened a few weeks ago and my email sourse gave me some new settings using port 587 and it worked ok until a few days ago then exactly the same again. They have checked and everyting works ok for them. I then checked with BitDefender to see if they could assist and everything was as expected so I did a complete computr scan with it and it came back with 3 trojan errors all of which were in Thunderbird. So I decided to do a complete delete and reinstall. No matter what I do or what I deleteincluding shutdown after every delete, when I reinstall it comes back with the total and Faulty Thunderbird So I can't start with a clean sheet. Not that I would like to as I have hundreds of contacts an email saves going back many years. Suggestions anyone

I use Thunderbird 115.18.0 on a Windows 7 machine. I wish to transfer all my Thunderbird data to a machine running Linux Mint 21.3 which has Thunderbird 128.12.0esr. I have not been successful after many tries. Could this be because the Thunderbird revisions are different? If so, can I get 115.18.0 to install on my Mint machine? If not how should I proceed? I have already tried creating a new .thunderbird directory with ********.default directory from the other machine. I have also tried a new .thunderbird directory with a the ********default-release directory as directed by one site.

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.

About a month ago I began the process of upgrading from W10 to W11. In the process, several problems happened. One of the problems was with Firefox. After reading and trying many suggestions from the Mozilla site, as well as several other sites, and having no success, I posted my problem on this Mozilla support site and hope that there was someone who could help. There was. After several days of exchanging messages (suggestions, instructions and results - mostly about Profile), Firefox returned.

The other major problem is Thunderbird. I have downloaded a current version (128.5.2esr). I have run it twice and, each time, email was downloaded. So that part seems to be working. What doesn’t appear are the settings I have used and message folders I have created over several years. I suspect that the problems are Profile related.

Starting from Help in the Thunderbird menu, then Troubleshooting Information, then Application Basics, I see Profile Folder. On that line is a button labeled Open Folder followed by (Local Drive). I click Open Folder and File Explorer opens to a folder named ab3xaztm.default-esr. It shows that the folder contains 59 items, including 10 subfolders. All files and folders show a December date.

Following the path C:\Users\rsuth\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\, in addition to ab3x…, there is another folder nlys3gkl.default that contains only 1 file, times.json.

Because of my earlier struggle – and eventual win – with the Firefox problem, I think that the Thunderbird problem might also be fixed in a similar way: Profile.

Slightly before the upgrading from W10 to W11, I made a copy of my Thunderbird folder. I think if I replace the currently active Thunderbird folder with the one I have saved, my Thunderbird problem may be over. However, I’m not certain that will happen and I’m not certain about the specific steps to take to make the replacement. (With my Firefox issue, there were a couple of small important steps I had to take to make it work, and those steps were explained to me by the person who helped me with my Firefox problem. So, after all these words, can someone point me in the direction to solve my Thunderbird problem?

Thanks for reading.

I deleted my Thunderbird account and created a new one on the same computer. I used a Profile saved on my external hard drive. The address book info was replicated. The hierarchy of folders and their emails were not replicated in the left hand pane. Is there a way to retrieve those folders with their content? Please, I am not super techno-savvy, so take me step by step. Thank you.

I have two profiles in my Thunderbird account. I want to create desktop shortcut for each profile. That way I can use the shortcut to get my email. On on profile I just want it to go straight to that account without asking for a password. On the other one I want it to ask me for a password. Is that possible and if so how can I do that?

I'm trying to copy an older Thunderbird profile so i can add it to my Thunderbird installation on a new computer (where I already have a profile and a bunch of mail). When I copy it, near the end of the copy process I get this strange message: "Replace the file 'Inbox.msf"? An older file with the same name already exists in 'mail.cyberacc.net'.

Original file: 143.3 kB. Last modified 2014-08-22 12:57:00 Replace with 122.2 kB. Last modified 2014-08-23 23:08:25

Curiously, no accounts from mail.cyberacc.net show up in my accounts sidebar. Under 'Account Management' it shows as 'XMPP - nn@cyberacc.net'

How can two files with the same name but different dates exist in the profile? What should I do in response to this prompt? Cancel? Skip? Replace?

Thanks

Copying from Lenovo x120e running Fedora 24 and Thunderbird 52.2.1 (64bit) Want to add to Thunderbird 128.13.0esr (64-bit) on Dell XPS 9315 running Fedora 42 Workstation Edition

I'm trying to transfer the Profile folder from my current laptop to my new one. I followed the directions here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer but must've made a mistake because none of my many Local folders have populated Thunderbird in the new laptop. Also, the GB size, number of files and number of folders show to be very different on the new laptop vs. the current one.

I'm inclined to just start over but have a question. Can I simply delete the contents of the "Thunderbird" folder under "Roaming" in my new laptop and try again to paste into it? Or are there some items in that folder that were inserted when I first downloaded TB into my new laptop so that doing a complete deletion would remove those and they wouldn't be replaced when I try pasting again? If so, how do I get around that?

Thanks very much for your help.

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 moved my Thunderbird data from drive C:\xxx\Thunderbird to N:\xxx\Thunderbird. The Thunderbird program remains on "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird" How do I tell Thunderbird to find its data on the N: drive?

     Thank you,    Art Lieberman

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

Hi, I am hoping that the community can help me find an answer to this. I have two computers that I use for work. The one in the office has TB running all the time and before I leave for the weekend/vacation I would close TB, copy the profile folder to a USB (or copy it to cloud) and then paste the profile folder on my work laptop (at home). While all the settings get copied (local folders structure, addons etc.) as I use IMAP, it downloads all the mail on the new system regardless. I thought that it should have the latest mail downloaded as part of the profile folder, is that not the case? The bigger issue is that none of the Completed Tasks Lists, Templates, etc. get updated. It still shows all the older stuff on the work laptop and no updates carry over from the PC (at work). Going through the profile folder I see multiple copies of the files prefs.js, folderCache.json, global-messages-db.sqlite appended as: prefs-computername.js and folderCache-computername.json etc. (The computername is the name of the PC - office/laptop) The profile name is the same between the two computers. TB is only started after the profile is copied locally. TB version is the same between systems. I am left scratching my head why somethings are copied but not others. Hoping that the community can help me here. Thanks!

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!

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?

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

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.