Thunderbird Community Forum

Can I safely access my Profile, which is on a Windows partition, when I am using Thunderbird under Linux (Fedora) on a different partition?

My computer is set up to dual boot using Windows 10 and Fedora Linux. I use Thunderbird and access my emails using POP3.

I use Windows most of the time and therefore my Thunderbird profile is on the Windows partition. But when I'm using Linux I sometimes like to be able to access my emails using Thunderbird. I have set up access in the Linux Thunderbird profile so that it points to my profile that is on the Windows partition.

In some earlier versions of Thunderbird that were around in 2022, I found that if I used Linux to open Thunderbird I could access my profile that was on the Windows partition and read and send emails, but then when I rebooted to Windows and tried to run Thunderbird, I found that my profile was broken and Thunderbird under Windows could not get to my emails.

But, confusingly, with some versions of Thunderbird, the Linux version of Thunderbird did not break my profile on the Windows partition.

I tried asking questions about this issue on the Forum back in 2022 but I received answers saying that what I was trying to do was very "dangerous" and I should not even attempt it (even though it did work sometimes with some versions of Thunderbird).

The last time I tried this was in 2022, and I have not tried it since then.

So, my question is "Is Thunderbird robust enough to allow me to access my Windows Thunderbird profile when I am running Thunderbird using Linux (Fedora) on a different partition?

I am running Thunderbird version 140.3.1esr (64-bit) on a Windows 11 Pro machine. Software and operating system fully up to date.

Followed instructions global junk settings. There simply is no such caption in my privacy settings. What's become Global junk setting?

Hi I was using TB 142 without problems. When upgrading to 143 ou 144.B4 I have problems sending mails to all users after some times. Usually the first mails are sent immediatly but after around 10 mails, I have very slow response (varies from 5 sec to more than 1 minute and sometimes timeout). Usually quitting TB solves the problem but this is very annoying. I went back to 140LTS and sems to have no longer this problem. This was tested on many diffrent networks. I am running under Fedora release 42

Thanks

Hi, I am a Building Inspector so take lots of photos and email a lot of documents. I try and delete all inbox and save sent items to a local folder on my computer, but my I phone storage still says that they are not actually deleting from the email program and are being stored somewhere. How do I reduce this storage? I can't download any more Iphone updates because of this.

I have been trying all week to figure out how to export all of my contacts from my gmail account. I have downloaded Thunderbird and followd the step to export all emails. But, now what? I can't do the simple export contacts through adddress book, because there were no saved contacts in their to begin with. How do I export the addresses in the emails so that I can use those contacts to export into CSV????

Hello:

I'd like to sync my address books across several computers and my Android phone.

I don't know about the security of Carddave or Exchange, like, is the traffic encrypted, and is the database at the cloud end encrypted too.

Since I can log on to my Google account, and see and edit my address book, I expect those address are not encrypted.

Rather, I'd like to use my syncing program (Mega) to sync the sqllite files (I guess T-Bird used to call them MAB files) and any other needed files directly.

Question 1) How do I find the name of the address book (abook-n.sqlite-wal) related to the name like "Family Contacts"?

Question 2) What other files will I need to sync? any index files? a master list?

Question 3) If I install Thunderbird for Android, where should I put these files so Android finds them?

Thanks for taking the time to read this and any help you may offer.

Mark.

I have just installed Thunderbird on Windows 11 and it has two very annoying new habits. When I click on an email it opens it instead of giving me a preview. And when I move an email to another folder it also opens that folder. Neither happened on the old computer so how can I get back to the way it used to be?

Hello, Attached are the messages I have been receiving ever since 6 October 2025. I've tried to read about fixing these myself, to no avail. (I mean, I can Read; I just can't fix this.) I've tried to Compact ALL folders individually. But that seemed to do nothing. (Before 6 October, the Thunderbird window would at least "flicker" a little after compact.) Trash is empty. Tried disabling McAfee AntiVirus & Firewall. And, no, this isn't happening because I'm using McAfee; I've been using McAfee since Windows XP and Thunderbird since before it "broke away" from Mozilla. They have, until 6 October, played nice together. I really like Thunderbird so I do not want to find another email client/program/what-have-you. There are LOTS of saved emails that I cannot move/copy to "save space", so...Help? Please?

Thanking you in advance, tonyg

P.S.-I am not computer illiterate. But, slow, easy to follow, non-BIOS changing, step by step directions would be preferred.

My Spectrum password was changed and now I cannot get direct access to TB. For some reason TB is not linking up with Spectrum password. I get a popup panel saying "Login to server Mail.TWC.Com with username jomar159@hvc.rr.com failed" Retry Enter New password Cancel I have 2 accounts on TB 1 is wmarks1 and the other is jomar159@hvc.rr.com HELP

When sending an email using the keyboard shortcut, the settings tell me that I can set TB to give me a confirmation prompt. Why can't I get a confirmation prompt when using the Send button? Is there any way to make TB do that?

I set TB to run a spell check before sending, and that gives me an opportunity to cancel the Send operation. But it only works if the email contains a misspelling.

Thank you.

Yesterday I upgraded my PC from Windows 10 to 11. Today I discovered my Local Folders are not visible. Searching tells me the messages still exist, but TB does not show the folders. I did the same upgrade a month ago on a laptop (Windows 10 Pro to 11), no problems. I didn't externally back up the messages as I am a dinosaur and don't know how, but at least they are still on the hard drive. Thousands of them though so I need the local folders back. Tried all the fixes I can find on the Community Forum, without success. Can anyone help please? Bob

Lightning Strikes again.

As soon as TB upgraded to 143 I had the following problems:

1. Half my folders disappeared. In this day and age, where emails are "official documents" to prove communications.... 2. I could not delete any email, folder. 3. I could not create a folder.

So, I deleted that installation and reinstalled TB.

Same issues. NO CHANGE with a clean install.

I have a message that is still listed after being deleted. When I highlight the messages listed above it and below it, I can see their contents with no problem. However, when I click on the "ghost message" listing in between them, I will see the contents of the last message viewed, not the contents of the ghost message that is highlighted.

Also, when I first open Thunderbird and highlight that ghost message first, the review pane is blank, like there is no message there. Then if I click on a different message, that message's contents will show in the preview pane. Then when I go back and click on the the ghost message listing, that pane is still showing the previous message's contents.

When I click on "delete" message, I get the constant blue indicator light in the lower right glowing and nothing happens.

Hi,

I just cannot find any information on how Thunderbird designers see the Threads / Threading features to be used. How would I use it ? What are my (individual) choices for configuration ? etc.

The only info I can find is : [how to manage and turn on/off the feature].

...and of course lots unhappy user voices across the forums.

So: How would I use it ? What are my (individual) choices for configuration ? etc. Please link the respective Mozilla resource (blog, help, user design doc, ... whatever).

Ah, to start with, a description of how the feature is meant to behave, can be a start. (Sorry, I was just too stupid to find that)

I am buying a new PC. I would like a 'blank' TB on this machine so I can replan the folders and the email address books. I'd like the current copy on my current PC to be moved to the new PC such that I can access it as I do now but- like a 'sleeping' copy - ie just there to access the emails and address book occasionally/when needed, but not receive new emails.

This will give me a fresh start on the new TB on a new PC, and will save me having to clean up the old TB version. Is this possible? Thankyou