Thunderbird Community Forum

Back when W110 went to w11 I got a new computer and was given great directions here to back up my TB profile by searching %appdata% and copy the thunderbird folder to external source. That file is 198 MB. I do this every month now ..It is my understanding it saves my profile and all emails including local ones. Now in Aug 2026 when i copy this file, I am getting an error a file is too long and have no choice but to skip that file..I will attach a pic of the error. Is this back up ok to use or is it corrupt because of the error?

I also found in TB help there is an export feature in TB to a zip file but that .zip is huge..I did one just in case. I think you just open TB>select hamburger menu three lines on top right>tools>export. I did that back up/export also today and that is a .zip file folder that is less properties like 175 MB.

So now which way is the correct way to keep a safe copy of my TB in case my computer crashes or i have to put on another pc?

I bought a new pc with windows 11 and everything is fine except that I installed thunderbird via microsoft store and when I gave it my email address, I could see my emails but it hasn't created a profile. Therefore when a try to view the profile it says user.../appdata/roaming/thunderbird/profiles... doesn't exist. I am logged on as an administrator. Should I uninstall then install from the mozilla website directly?

This past week I started having a problem accessing URL's embedded in my emails from the Thunderbird interface. When clicking on the URL reference, nothing happens. I have not changed anything in my settings recently. Running Windows 7. I know my email server is working since this works when using my AT&T mail handler. I did have an issue with a Trojan virus that was cleared up with Malware program (i hope). I checked all the parameters of my mail handler and saw nothing that might cause this problem.

Have used Thunderbird for years and never had this issue before. Just upgraded to Thunderbird 115.18.0 esr and my calendar is now blank. Did the upgrade erase the data or is a pointer off somewhere? Can I get my calendar back?

How to search Desktop Thunderbird with multiple accounts for email message that were sent/arrived during a specific date range, a "Global" search which covers multiple accounts. All of the guidance I have found online result with me needing to pick a particular account.

I recently (unwisely) refreshed my Windows 10. I had to relaod Thunderbird, but when I tried to reinstal my previous profile, I couldn't do so. I've tried using profile manager. but it only seems to recognise two of the six or so profiles that exist in my profile folder. This means I can't access several years' worth of emails - I need to access these for invoice and work purposes. What is really frustrating is that I can see the profile I need in the profile folder, and all the emails seem to in the Mail/popmail/Inbox folder (all with a much smaller MSF. file of the same name). I've tried importing the profile into Thunderbird, but that doesn't work, it just imports the mailbox with no subfolders. A responder called David has already kindly provided advice (many thanks, David), but unfortunately the solutions haven't worked. Can anybody help?

What are the memory limits for Thunderbird. Currently, I get this message when I try to save and email "Unable to save your message to local folders. Possibly out of local file storage space." Please see attached screenshot.

I am not out of storage space.

Any suggestions?

Thank you.

Tom O'Brien

WHEN I ENTER AN ITEM IN THE TB CALENDAR IT OFTEN (NOT ALWAYS) SHOWS UP ON MY I PHONE CALENDAR. HOWEVER WHEN ENTER SOMETHING ON THE I PHONE IT NEVER SHOWS UP ON TB

I see others are having this same issue with no resolution in sight.

The company I work at is unable to print anything through the print preview in Thunderbird. The current work around is to download, open, then print the file.

Does anyone have any further information on this subject besides going through separate avenues to fix the problem?

Thanks!

Something seems to have changed recently with the PDF rendering in Thunderbird. I received an email with a PDF file attached. When I view it on the screen it looks fine, but when printing it out from within Thunderbird part of the top of the first page missing; it looks like part of the image is behind a white rectangle.

When I save the file and print it using Acrobat Reader it renders fine.

I don't know what to make of this behavior, but it does seem to be new and there is a difference between how the file is printed from Thunderbird as opposed to printing using Adobe Reader.

Thunderbird 152.0.1 on Windows 11 PC.

I have 10 email accounts I have to monitor. When I set up Thunderbird on Windows, I entered all the account info and the passwords. I checked the box 'use password manager'. This worked well for a few days. After several days, I started the app again and it asked for every password again. I entered all the passwords again. This happened several more times. I sought help for the bug, but found none. Someone suggested deleting password database files in the Thunderbird data folders. This did not help. Someone else suggested that CCleaner may be deleting password data files, so I added the entire Thunderbird data folder to the scanner exclusion list. Yes, this may be a security risk, but I need this app to work, as I have not found any other app that even begins to get the job done. Ready to start looking for another email app now, unless someone can fix this problem. It is not reasonable to expect me to lookup and restore 10 passwords every time I check my mail.

Thunderbird not connecting to server. It says timds out and an error occurred connecting to mobile.charter.net. I can neither send or receive emails. This started 8/20/2026

Hi, I've been using Thunderbird for years. It's been a great utility. However, today when I started it up, there was a random folder (UserFolder_27) created in the system folders. There was no right click option to delete it. Here are the remedial steps I took to remove it.

• Exited Thunderbird, removed the Userfolder_27.msf file from directory, restarted. No change.
• Right clicked the main account and Unsubscribed from UserFolder_27. Exited Thunderbird, removed the Userfolder_27.msf file from directory, restarted. No change.
• In Account Settings>Copies&Folders>Message Archive the UserFolder_27 was checked (no idea why). Unchecked the main "Keep message archives in" box. Exited Thunderbird, removed the Userfolder_27.msf file from directory, restarted. No change.
• Rechecked "Keep message archives in" and selected another personal folder. Exited Thunderbird, removed the Userfolder_27.msf file from directory, restarted. No change.

Somewhere in the troubleshooting steps, it created a second Spam folder.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Since reinstalling Thunderbird and Firefox, When i get an email in my Thunderbird email listing, clicking a link does not open it so I have to copy it and open it in Firefox.

I never had this problem before. People who get my messages, including the copies automatically sent back to me, have ?? ?? instead of the tabs or  ?? spaces I used in the messages. Messages sent to me from other people come in without the ?? marks. Example of my test message copied back to me: ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 26 Aug 26

To All: Disregard any "?? " in this message; I'm having some trouble with my email program.

This afternoon is our Board meeting at 5:00 pm on Zoom.

?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? Mary F Platter-Rieger

How can I fix this problem?

After moving the data file to a new windows 11 machine, the Password Vault no longer remembers passwords. How do I fix? Online searches have told me to delete several files in the Profile folder. I have done this several times w/o success. What are my options other than to find another email client? Thanks, Hank

I don't know where to start. Ever since the update to version 154 I've been having one problem after another: switch from Comcast to Yahoo causes problems with THunderbird, slow indexing, arbitrary folders showing up in different email addresses (confuses my account with my wife's' some of that may be problems dealing with gmail issues), lost email folders after attempted repairs. Three months ago there were none of these problems. I have not yet tried switching back to the last updated version of 153, but 154 does seem to have many more problems. I've run troubleshooting.

I am not a computer expert and there is only so much time I can devote to this, but even computer repair services I've called are at a loss and very pessimistic about the ability to repair things. In all the years (over a decade) my wife and I have used Thunderbird, there have never been as many problems as have surfaced in the last two months. Maybe the best that can be done is to hope that updated versions will gradually fix these issues. I will say that my Macbook Air (M2 chip) has far more problems than my iMac (M1 chip). I have checked and rechecked all server settings (smtp and imap). Although more cumbersome, things perhaps work better if I just stick to webmail options.

Thunderbird functions normally (sends/receives), except after Windows 11 goes to sleep, I log back in without difficulty., but attempting to use Thunderbird to send email fails with the message

"Sending of the message failed. The message could not be sent because connecting to Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.mail.me.com failed. The server may be unavailable or is refusing SMTP connections. "

There's no prompt to re-enter the primary password, and the only way to restore normal Thunderbird operation is by rebooting WIN 11. Is this a known bug with a workaround? The failure occurs whether the outgoing server is smtp.mail.me.com (Apple), smtp.comcast.net, or smtp.gmail.com