How do I start again when I have deleted Thunderbird profiles and Thunderbird will not open on a new downlaod

What is your operating system?

Please quote all error messages you see, in full, verbatim. Screen shots would suffice.

What do you mean by "I deleted Thunderbird from my desktop"? Do you mean you uninstalled it? How did you do so?

What specifically are you doing that makes you say that "Thunderbird will not reopen"?

I am using windows 11. I uninstalled Thunderbird from my desktop using the uninstall function under Settings Apps. I also deleted the profile files from the folder by going through File Explorer. I was trying to create a clean slate as I had uninstalled Thunderbird and reinstalled only to have the same folder problem. I have reinstalled Thunderbird now but when I go to open it I get the message "Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible". Is there anyway forward?

Did you install Thunderbird using the installer downloaded from https://www.thunderbird.net/ or from the Microsoft store?

I'm sure this can be resolved.

Hi Lin, I downloaded from www.thunderbird.net. The programme seems to know that it has been loaded before rather than trying to create a new install. There must be some files somewhere on my computer that inform the new install of this.

OK, that's good. I think what happened is that you deleted your profile, but you left the folder that contains the profiles. That folder has a file called PROFILES.INI that has a reference to your old profile name and location. Since it's not there any more Thunderbird complains.

To make it start up like a fresh install:

- Make sure Thunderbird is closed.

- Start up a Windows File Explorer window. In the Address Bar, type "%APPDATA% (no quotes, not case sensitive.) This opens the AppData folder, which contains personal settings for most of the programs on your computer.

- find the folder named "Thunderbird", Rename it to whatever you want - I suggest "Thunderbird.OLD".

When you next start Thunderbird, it should act like a fresh install and prompt you through the process of setting up an email account. Once you're satisfied that it's working the way you want, you can delete the Thunderbird.OLD folder.

Thank you for your help. I now have Thunderbird back, however I'm still stuck with the issue that I was trying to solve before I started deleting the Profiles. There is a sub folder missing in one of my folders. I have checked that it is still showing in Outlook with its associated emails and it is there. Is there a way of getting this subfolder to appear in Thunderbird? Thank you

Who is the email provider?

Try this:

- right-click on the account name in the Folder Pane; choose "Subscribe" from the context menu. You'll see a list of all the folders. If your missing folder is listed but there's no check mark, check it. If you don't see your missing folder there, click the "Refresh" button and it may reappear and be available for subscribing.