Mailboxes Catastrophically Deleted If Thunderbird Opened In Offline Mode After Profile Location Change
06 May 2026 USA Just to inform users:
All mailboxes and all mail in profile are catastrophically and irretrievably deleted when I: 1. Change the location of the profile folder. 2. Make appropriate change in profiles.ini reflecting the location change. 3. Launch Thunderbird in Offline Mode (launching in OFFLINE mode is the fatal event). 4. Mailboxes will appear during this one launched session
but
5. If Thunderbird is closed while still OFFLINE, then a re-launch of Thunderbird in any state will reveal
that all mailboxes and all mail have been deleted.
All mailboxes, and of course, all mail in the profile are catastrophically and irretrievably deleted. I was lucky that I made a backup before changing profile location.
The deletion of mail and mailboxes occur at the close of Thunderbird's OFFLINE state. An examination of the profile folder indicates the destruction has occurred upon closing of Thunderbird in OFFLINE state.
It is not the re-launch of Thunderbird that causes the catastrophic deletion. The deletion occurred when Thunderbird was closed in its OFFLINE state.
To successfully change the profile location I must: 1. Make the change to profile location. 2. Make the appropriate change to profiles.ini 3. BE SURE to make the FIRST LAUNCH of Thunderbird in ONLINE mode--ONLINE only. 4. Once 1,2,3 are done, then Thunderbird does not corrupt the profile folder.
Conditions that MIGHT make my configuration uniquely affected: 1. I use Proton Mail Bridge in conjunction with Thunderbird. 2. My Profile folder is on a network share that is letter-mapped in Windows. 3. I have about 10 email addresses in Thunderbird that are Outlook IMAP, Gmail IMAP, and of course, Proton Mail.
I've been using Thunderbird a couple of years in this configuration with no problems. I just decided to rename my profile. So, this is my first discovery of the problem.
Wot christ1 změnjeny
Wšě wotmołwy (2)
Thanks for sharing, but thunderbird offers safe ways to move the profille. Editing the profiles.ini is never the recommended approach.
After editing the 'profile name' folder - but how did you do it - what process did you use? Please list all steps, so we can replicate in order to test.
IMAP folders do need to be able to synchronise with server on launch because they can only display whatever is held on server. That's not possible if Offline.
If you changed the profile name then it's possible the mail accounts are not looking in the correct location. So after altering things, did you also check the following:
- In Account Settings
- select 'Server Settings'
- look bottom right for 'Local Directory'
- Click on 'Browse'
- Then locate the correct location of the mail account name folder
- select the imap mail account name folder
- click on 'Select Folder' button
Repeat the above for all accounts and the 'Local Folders' account.
re : 3. Launch Thunderbird in Offline Mode (launching in OFFLINE mode is the fatal event). 4. Mailboxes will appear during this one launched session but 5. If Thunderbird is closed while still OFFLINE, then a re-launch of Thunderbird in any state will reveal that all mailboxes and all mail have been deleted.
Did you at any point, go from Offline to Online mode and then back to Offline before Exiting Thunderbird ?
You say you lost everything upon relaunch in any state. Did you check the 'Local directory' was pointing to correct location upon relaunch ? Did you logon to gmail webmail account to see if anything was still on server? That check would be very important.
You say you had a backup... However, simply replacing all the data directly into the imap folders would not have worked if all the data had been lost off the server. It would have need to be imported into Local Folders and then uploaded back onto the server via imap protocol - if you did it via Thunderbird.
How did you 'restore' all the data ? Exact steps please.
Dyrbiće so pola swojeho konta přizjewić, zo byšće na přinoški wotmołwił. Prošu stajće nowe prašenje, jeli hišće wužiwarske konto nimaće.