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My Antivirus deleted my TB profile

Thunderbird Profiles
david replied
guy61
guy61

Hi everyone,

My antivirus as quarantined 2 files from my TB profile:

  • d:\internet profiles\thunderbird\profiles\z3rq1w7t.default\prefs.js
  • d:\internet profiles\thunderbird\profiles\z3rq1w7t.default\virtualfolders.dat

I asked the antivirus to restore them, but the damage is done. TB has lost track of everything I’d stored over the years, including my email accounts, emails, preferences, etc. It’s like a fresh install.

But I can see that my profile still contains about 5 bg of data. So everything’s there, but it seems it no longer knows how to access it.

As you can see, my profile isn’t buried in the depths of Windows; it’s on my D drive. Perhaps I just need to ‘reconnect’ TB to the correct profile, but I don’t know how to do that anymore…

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance. Guy

Hi everyone, My antivirus as quarantined 2 files from my TB profile: * d:\internet profiles\thunderbird\profiles\z3rq1w7t.default\prefs.js * d:\internet profiles\thunderbird\profiles\z3rq1w7t.default\virtualfolders.dat I asked the antivirus to restore them, but the damage is done. TB has lost track of everything I’d stored over the years, including my email accounts, emails, preferences, etc. It’s like a fresh install. But I can see that my profile still contains about 5 bg of data. So everything’s there, but it seems it no longer knows how to access it. As you can see, my profile isn’t buried in the depths of Windows; it’s on my D drive. Perhaps I just need to ‘reconnect’ TB to the correct profile, but I don’t know how to do that anymore… Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Guy

All Replies (1)

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor

Here is my suggestion:

  1. save the existing profile, as the message folders are still intact.
  2. create a new profile and set up the accounts
  3. since you appear familiar with Windows File Explorer, locate the mail folder and the mail\Local Folders folder on the old profile. look for message folders (which appear in sets, such as inbox, inbox.msf, sent, sent.msf. COPY all such files, ignoring the msf ones, to the mail\Local Folders folder of the new profile.
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