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104.9.0esr 64-bit: - Profile? What profile? (Lots of email, but the Thunderbird profile is MIA...and the app itself is hiding from me!))

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Have been using the 104.9.0esr 64-bit release on Windows 11 for some time now (mostly for email, involving a number of email accounts) and have been generally satisfied...

...but discovered when I started looking into switching over to the 145 default release that I have a capital-P Problem. The first thing recommended on making that change is - sensibly - to back up one's Thunderbird profile. Only as far as I can tell, I don't *have* any such file anywhere on my system. [To answer the obvious question - yes, I've got "View" set in File Explorer such that it should be showing me hidden files.]

I have drilled downward through all the USERS subdirectories on my C: drive. "Default" and "Public" have nothing at all (as one might expect). My personal subdirectory has a Mozilla directory under "Roaming", and both a Firefox and a Thunderbird directory therein, but the only things in the Thunderbird directory are an empty folder labeled "Crash Reports" and a tiny "desktop.ini" file.

There is a "Mozilla Firefox" directory under Program Files, but nothing in that hierarchy looks applicable. There is a "Mozilla Maintenance Service" directory under "Program Files (x86)", but nothing there appears relevant. There is a "Mozilla [alpahnumeric hash]" subdirectory under "Program Data", but nothing there appears relevant.

And in fact, I begin to think I have a bigger issue than I thought I did...because the more I poke at my C: drive, the less I'm seeing...to the extent that I'm not at all sure where the Thunderbird program itself (not to mention a quite large accumulation of associated email) is being kept.

Which would be nice to know if one were attempting to back up one's mail before changing program versions....

Have been using the 104.9.0esr 64-bit release on Windows 11 for some time now (mostly for email, involving a number of email accounts) and have been generally satisfied... ...but discovered when I started looking into switching over to the 145 default release that I have a capital-P Problem. The first thing recommended on making that change is - sensibly - to back up one's Thunderbird profile. Only as far as I can tell, I don't *have* any such file anywhere on my system. [To answer the obvious question - yes, I've got "View" set in File Explorer such that it should be showing me hidden files.] I have drilled downward through all the USERS subdirectories on my C: drive. "Default" and "Public" have nothing at all (as one might expect). My personal subdirectory has a Mozilla directory under "Roaming", and both a Firefox and a Thunderbird directory therein, but the only things in the Thunderbird directory are an empty folder labeled "Crash Reports" and a tiny "desktop.ini" file. There is a "Mozilla Firefox" directory under Program Files, but nothing in that hierarchy looks applicable. There is a "Mozilla Maintenance Service" directory under "Program Files (x86)", but nothing there appears relevant. There is a "Mozilla [alpahnumeric hash]" subdirectory under "Program Data", but nothing there appears relevant. And in fact, I begin to think I have a bigger issue than I thought I did...because the more I poke at my C: drive, the less I'm seeing...to the extent that I'm not at all sure where the Thunderbird program itself (not to mention a quite large accumulation of associated email) is being kept. Which would be nice to know if one were attempting to back up one's mail before changing program versions....

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I will assume you use Windows If you installed from Thunderbird.net, the profile is normally at

c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird 

A simple way to locate it is to follow these steps;

  1. click help>troubleshootinginformation
  2. scroll down left side to 'profile folder' and click 'open folder'
  3. that will normally show the profile in the place described earlier.

If that is true, here are sample steps to backup and restore profile:

BACKUP

  1. ensure thunderbird is not running
  2. enter %appdata% in search window on task bar and press Enter key
  3. this should open windows file explorer in Appdata\roaming folder
  4. highlight the Thunderbird folder and copy to external media

To locate Thunderbird, if there is a desktop icon, rightclick and select 'properties.

RESTORE

  1. ensure thunderbird is installed and NOT running
  2. enter %appdata% in search window on task bar and press Enter key
  3. delete the thunderbird folder
  4. you should be in Appdata\roaming folder , copy&paste the exported Thunderbird folder there.
  5. start thunderbird and all should be there
Jụọ ajụjụ

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