All accounts suddenly gone
Hello,
i have a problem with my thunderbird. All my configured accounts are suddenly gone so i just have a blank thunderbird with nothing to show. I am aware of this article (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_a_profile_that_suddenly_disappeared) but it didn't provide any help for me.
In my profiles directory there was just one profile. The default one which also appeared as the only profile in the profile manager. In this profile folder i can see all my configured accounts in the "Mail" and "ImapMail" subfolders. Also the "Local Folders" directory looks fine. Still they don't appear in thunderbird. I have also copied my profile and created a new one which pointed to the folder holding the copy, but this didn't help either.
Is there any link to the accounts missing in the profile? Where should they be configured? Looks to me as if the data is there but there is some link/configuration missing. Why would this happen and how can i prevent it in the future?
All Replies (9)
Are they gone or just not visible?
"Folder pane not visible?"
On menu bar (If your menu bar is not visible press 'Alt' to make it temporarily appear.) 'View - Layout - (tick) Folder Pane'
If the folder pane IS visible but your accounts are not showing, that is a different problem.
TB-38.3 Win10-PC
No they are gone. Folder pane is empty and Thunderbird keeps trying to help me to set up a new Account.
christ1 said
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_a_profile_that_suddenly_disappeared
Exactly the same link as in my question. That didn't help...
Is the Account Settings actually pointing to the correct location?
'Tools' > Account Settings' > Server Settings' for the mail account. or Right click on mail account in Folder Pane and select 'Settings' then select 'Server Settings' for the mail account.
at the bottom, on the right, you will see 'Local directory:' This points to the mail acount folder in your profile folder name. click on 'Browse' and select the correct mail account.
Typically, it will be here for POP; directory example: C:\Users\User Account name\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\Mail\mail account name
then click on OK.
Confirm the Account Settings are pointing to the correct folder. Please post the directory where they are pointing - like the example above. so the forum knows where it is pointing to.
In Thunderbird: Help > Troubleshooting Information click on 'Show folder'
Go up directory to the 'Profiles' folder. It will show all profile folder names. please post image so the forum can see what is in the 'Profiles' folder.
Go up directory to the AppData/'Thunderbird' folder It will contain the 'Profiles' folder. It should also have a 'profiles.ini' file. Open the 'profiles.ini' file using Notepad. Paste image showing contents of 'profile.ini' file.
Thank you for trying to help. But i think i need to clarify: I have no Accounts anymore in my Folder Pane. They are gone. Therefore they don't appear in account settings (Edit > Account Settings in my Thunderbird, there are no accounts anymore).
Why they are gone i don't know, because the local folders in my profile are still there. [I'm on Ubuntu btw, but i know where the folders are.] I have attached an image with my profiles.ini and the contents of thunderbird folder, but i guess they are not very informative.
Btw. the profiles are linked to the correct folder and also have started thunderbird via thunderbird -profile-manager to chose the profile upfront but with the same result.
Just once more for your info: the profiles have the same contents (the one was just a copy of the other when trying to recover). All the accounts that should be present appear in the corresponding "Mail/***" and "ImapMail/***" folders, also all the local folders that are gone are still present in the "Mail folder". So all the data is there. But for some reason the folder pane is empty, so there might be some configuration missing.
I recently installed the lightning calendar addon. Maybe something to do with that. But starting thunderbird without lightning doesn't help.
Exactly the same link as in my question. That didn't help...
I didn't realize that from your OP. See if this get's you any further. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Recover_Deleted_Account
Why would this happen and how can i prevent it in the future?
Normally accounts don't disappear for no reason. Perhaps there is something you did or something happened? Any updates around the time the accounts disappeared?
I recently installed the lightning calendar addon. Maybe something to do with that.
Doesn't sound very likely to me.
Hi christ1! Thanks for the link and help. Unfortunately this means i have to manually reconfigure all my accounts, but in principle it works. Seems to be only solution to that. Once i have configured the first account i was also able to recover Local Folders by pointing the entry in the account settings to the right folder. Hope there aren't any downsides or confusing when changing the folder link to an existing one holding "old" data.
As far as updates are concerned i did nothing like that. Really just the calendar (actually also the only add-on i ever intsalled).
Investingating this a little bit further: the accounts where gone because the entries where missing in the prefs.js file. My original profiles prefs.js file was lastly edited shortly after installing lightning (timestamp of the addon files) calendar addon, which most likely did add some entries named "calendar.[...]" to my prefs.js file. Seems very likely to me that installing lightning wiped my accounts configuration by confusing something in my prefs.js
Seems very likely to me that installing lightning wiped my accounts configuration by confusing something in my prefs.js
I'm not going to say your problem wasn't caused by installing Lightning. But as far as I can tell you'd be the first one with this problem in this forum.
I did have some issues getting Lightning to install though or getting it enabled after all. Disabling anti-virus software prior to install can help to get it working.