Thunderbird Community Forum

I have my incoming IMAP emails stored on my local computer drive where the default Thunderbird installation puts it. This is fine.

My question is, can I move the local folders directory to another external drive or network attached storage? I am doing this as I have a small local SSD and combining all emails the size is massive.

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 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?

Hello, I just enabled the backup sync option for the Firefox web browser (Win 10). What is the equivalent process, or recommended method of enabling a backup for mail folders, calendar entries, address books, settings, etc. of the most current Thunderbird version on a Win 10 PC? I could not find a clear answer in the help forums. Thank you.

Can I use thunderbird with multiple accounts on multiple PC's and stay synchronised?

I have two PC's i want to set up - it seems like i have to create a new account for a second PC rather than pick up the account set up from the first PC.

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 just installed a new router and all of a sudden nothing is working properly on my PC. Among other things, I need to fix Thunderbird, and for that I need to find where my thunderbird profile is. The instructions I've seen say to go to troubleshooting information, find profile folder, and click on "open folder." When I do that, nothing happens. (I told you installing the router appears to have broken everything--I don't know how that happened, especially since I was on the phone with tech support for the router for install), and I'm no closer to finding the profile file. I can enter %appdata%\roaming\thunderbird\profiles but that shows me two different profile directories and I don't know which one is the right one. How can I find the correct file and why doesn't troubleshooting information just show me that?

Thunderbird installed a new version and would not open until I created a new profile. Now all my locally saved email is missing. The only profile I can find is the new one for my email account, dated April 2026. Where is the old profile with all my saved emails? I have no email older than April 2026 in my Inbox. POP3 email, saved to my desktop computer, is gone. Please help me find them.

"Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible" keeps appearing mid-screen. version 147.0.1 re-installed several times (Win-10). Transfers of profile attempted from operating PC (Win-10) Cannot locate profile even in a "fresh Install" although the shortcut appears on screen and other associated files seem to be installed. Helps have been downloaded and tried. Same issue. I've received help suggestions from Lin and sfhowes both on 2-6-26.. Thanks for your help.

When I try to copy Thunderbird Profiles to my backup hard drive I get the following error message after a few minutes of writing the write stops and I get the following error: Cannot Read from the source file or disk" INBOX Type: File, Size: 315 MB. Date modified: 7/1/2025 6:54 PM If I press the Skip option the file backup proceeds normally with the remainder of the files in Profile. This started about 3 months ago -- previously all files in Profile backed up without a hitch. I am concerned that I am not getting a full backup. Please help!! Thank you Cliff Hill

I had to log in this morning, the first time as its automatic, and when i did all my folders and emails have gone. Where are they as there is important information in there which i need. The page layout is different too as i can't delete anything. HELP

Yesterday I was having trouble sending emails from one of my email accounts. I had not fixed that when I shut down for the night. Today when I turned my computer on, both my email accounts and my address book was gone

After some Windows Updates installation, my computer behaved very erratically, and I had to reset it. After selecting the option to keep all files, it appears to be a joke, as I have ended up having to reinstall almost everything. Regarding Thunderbird, all the files have disappeared including the folder with the profiles, however I did a back of that folder on a separate disk and I need to know if that can be used and how to go about it.

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.

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.

I have been trying to transition my Comcast.net email to Yahoo email mandated by Comcast. I have been using Thunderbird as an POP account for years with the comcast.net account. When sending emails through Thunderbird, I was prompted to enter my Comcast.net password. It worked fine. With the transition to Yahoo, my email password did not allow the Yahoo email to flow thru to Thunderbird. Yahoo stated that I need a four block with spaces, and 4 digits each block, Yahoo APP System generated password. When I keyed in that APP Password, everything would flow through. one time, Next time I want receive or send and email, I needed to key in the App Password. Yahoo stated that once entered it I would not have to use their system generated APP Password. Unfortunatley there was nowhere to save that password in Thunderbird. Yahoo then told me to remove and re-enter my Yahoo Account in Thunderbird.

I deleted the old profile that was originally my profile for Comcast.net and editied to the new Yahoo details, and started reestablishing that profile with the Yahoo Incoming Mail and outgoing smtp server information, Unfortunately upon re-entering my Yahoo information I have lost of of the existing emails/folders. that I had in Thunderbird. Now what do I do to recover all of those old emails & folders?? Help! I still have to use the original email address that has been converted to Yahoo. Any way to go back to Comcast to recover the data that consituted those old emails, or are they just lost?

This is a follow-on to a question I asked yesterday. I appear to have accidentally deleted the main Profile I use for email. However - thinking back - I'm 99% sure I clicked the 'Don't Delete Folders' command. This supposedly deleted the Profile name BUT retained all the information in 'storage' - but where is that located?

On T-Bird start up I'm given a list of (originally) four Profiles. Currently I only use Profile Three, but on start=up today it is not there. Doing the usual searches does not list it, only 'default', 'new user' and 'profile two'. Is there any way to recover it?