Thunderbird Community Forum

I have a backup.bak file.

My computer was re-set and I lost everything.

How can I restore my new downloaded Thunderbird, using this backup.bak file.

Thanks.

Rik

When I had my internet provider help me change the ports so I could set up thunderbird, some of my email and folders were automatically imported from Outlook. But I cannot see most of them. If I try to create a new folder from the top level (above inbox), I can see ALL my folders to choose from, but I can't when in the inbox. Why and how do I change this. I am not a techie so I can't understand answers that aren't broken into simple steps.

My (our) ISP started using new 'bigger/better' software. grrr

The ISP's tech support had me close (? delete ?) my Thunderbird e-mail account & start a new one.

I cannot access - use any of the ?17-19? folders. How do I, if I can, recover the folders so I can start moving relevant messages to them?

Good luck, remain WELL & be SAFE!

THANKS!

Robin

I've installed Thunderbird on new computer, and moved over from the old computer emails and Address Books (including customized ones). But when I start a new message, I can't get any e-addresses to appear in the To box.

What do I need to do to access Addresses?

Thunderbird being used as IMAP client for Gmail - with no issues, until recently when an existing email recipient, who sits behind the Barracuda Networks system, fails to receive mail from Thunderbird's recent versions because it is rejected and blocked by Barracuda. I have tried using plain text formats and checked that SMTP server accounts are correct all to no avail, a 550 blocked is the result. The Thunderbird ver is 143 64 bit - However mail from an earlier 32 bit version 115.5 was successfully delivered, later 32 bit ver 140 failed to deliver through the Barracuda system.

Email from Google's own Web client gets delivered and mail from the Android mobile phone app likewise arrives. A simpler IMAP client (MailSpring) manages to get mail thru Barracuda so what has Thunderbird done to appear a threat to Barracuda ? BTW Mailspring is sort of 'Ok' - but it just isn't Thunderbird - it was installed only as a test vehicle !

My c: disk is getting full, so I decided to transfer my Thunderbird profile to d: . My old Tbird profile has profile folders for two POP accounts and two IMAP accounts. I managed to copy the profile and set up new accounts and now emails work, but in the process I disconnected the old profile on c: . When trying to create a new account on c: (so that I can access the old profile to delete old mails and get more space) I run into either "incoming server already exists" or I am asked a password which I can't find.

Any help would be highly appreciated! Should I just delete the old profile, or is there a procedure to safely remove it? Or is a Tbird reinstall in order? Thanks!

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

I have over 17,000 emails in my inbox and Thunderbird won't let me send any more out. I tried to cull blocks of emails (e.g., all before 2024) but it wouldn't let me do that; it made me do one at a time.

Is there no way I can delete a whole lot in one go? SW

I am looking to archive old folders from mail addresses that I don't use anymore, but don't want to delete the folders. And once those are gone- I would like the rearrange the order of the folders. This second one seems like it should be easy but I am having trouble finding how to do that. Thank you

Hello- I have the drafts being saved locally to a draft account but in the last week, drafts are disappearing rather than being saved. I did change severs over the summer and have had a slew of issues since then, but this is a new issue as of this week. I have multiple email accounts and this is happening on all of them. I am on a mac 140.3.1esr (aarch64). Thanks for any help- this is a debilitating issue.

Hi, Thunderbird : Under Windows 10 and Ubuntu, I have a vertical taskbar on the left. but once installed under Widows 11 no taskbar and no way to make it appear. Do you know a solution? Thank you

I noticed that I can't see the end of any longer email messages and realized that the Status bar is missing in the email window, too. Changing the relevant setting in the menu didn't do anything. The Status bar is visible in other tabs. When I hid the Today Pane (Events & Tasks), the status bar came back. When I displayed it, Status bar disappeared again. With longer email messages, it is impossible to view the complete message, because the message window seems to extend below the screen bottom. Hiding Windows task bar doesn't help.

Help, how can I have my status bar and read the messages without opening them in a new window, without having to hide the Today pane?

I have an MS email account which is passwordless and only uses fingerprint/passkey authentication.

How do I get TB to use this security method to gain access to my email? Currently, every time I try to add the email address/account, it asks for a password, which obviously I don't have.

adelphiaUK (Chris)

Please excuse misspellings and anything that may not make sense or cause offence as the medication I take can have an adverse effect on my mind.

I'm on Windows 11, I've archived my gmails to a 3GB zip and extracted it to a local MBOX file. I want to sue Thunderbird only to be able to conveniently see these emails. I don't want any accounts, nor to connect Thunderbird to the internet - I juust want to see the gmails.

I've installed Thunderbird, and the import/export Tools NG add-on. It won't let me import to a unified folder, so I deleted the unified folder. I have no "local folders", so I can't right click on one and select import. I can't see how to make one either, and the help is of no help.

I wonder if somebody could tell me, without assuming knowledge I don't have, how to do this please.

Thanks Chris

My cat laid too close to my keyboard (i.e., by the control, shift, and windows button) and I am now unable to send messages from any of my email address in Thunderbird. I've checked the server settings and they all appear to be correct, but I keep getting the error message that connecting to the smtp failed. I'm receiving emails, but can't send them. Is there anything else that I might be missing apart from checking the server settings.

Hi I am using thunderbird with the integrated events connected to various google domains. My calendar looks synchronized and notifications show up. I am on popos on a laptop. The thing is that a lot of time the notifications show up late; like not hours late, but let's say 5 minutes late and sometimes they don't re-appear after the initial reminder. So it's not 100% sure that you will get reminded or pinged at the right time. I have not figured out any specific rule when it works and when it won't. Curious if anyone else is running into such problems. Thanks Andreas

Dear Thunderbird Team,

I am writing to report a critical issue with the Thunderbird Extension API where it returns stale, cached data instead of live folder contents for Gmail IMAP accounts.

Issue Description The browser.messages.list() and browser.messages.query() APIs are returning outdated message data from 2016-2021, completely ignoring the actual current contents of my Gmail IMAP inbox. While Thunderbird's UI displays current emails correctly, the extension API serves permanently cached old data.

Evidence of the Bug What Thunderbird UI Shows: Current inbox with emails from today and recent weeks

Real-time folder contents

Proper folder synchronization

What Extension API Returns: Only 100 messages total (artificial limit)

Messages exclusively from 2016-2021

No emails from 2022-2025 present

Completely ignores current folder contents

Technical Details: Profile: /Volumes/Data/Mail Files/Thunderbird/Profiles/aq8q4la7.default-release/

Account: Gmail IMAP (imap.googlemail.com)

Folder: account1://INBOX

API Used: browser.messages.list(folderId) and browser.messages.query()

Steps to Reproduce Set up Gmail IMAP account in Thunderbird

Write extension using browser.messages.list() API

Compare API results with actual folder contents

Observe API returns stale cached data from years ago

Debugging Attempted We have tried:

Deleting all .msf index files

Clearing folderCache.json and global-messages-db.sqlite

Removing cache folders (cache/, cache2/, startupCache/)

Rebuilding folder indexes

Using different API methods (messages.query vs messages.list)

None of these resolved the issue - the API continues to return the same stale dataset.

Impact This completely breaks any extension that needs to access current folder contents, such as email tracking, automation, or filtering extensions.

Request Please investigate why the Extension API serves different (and outdated) data compared to Thunderbird's main UI, and fix the API to return actual live folder contents.

Thank you for your attention to this critical issue.

Best regards, Hasan

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

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