MY late husband's old Mac Mini crashed during a power outage. I can't open his TB inbox.

This is a duplicate. Please do not respond.

The reason I posted it on my email as well is that I wasn't sure that I would receive it on Robert's email since his inbox is not open on his computer. Do you have a solution to the problem?

First, I need to understand the issue. Is email continuing to come in? Or are you wanting to salvage what mail is already on his PC? Are you familiar with accessing files within the Mac file manager? I may be able to assist in recovering existing messages, but reactivating the account may require knowing his id and password. Do you have that? Please share whatever you can to help me understand constraints on resolving this. thank you. I do not know Mac's, but do know Thunderbird. :)

Robert's email are continuing to arrive on places other than his computer. They are (1) in his webmail which I can access by going to the site which handles the POP mailbox and (2) on my iPhone.

TB appears to be locked up on his computer. The email panel mounts on his screen normally, but with an error message saying that it cannot open the inbox because "it is in use by some other operation." But the application does not fully open; the normal headers do not appear at the top of the page, only the one that says Thunderbird, which has under it things like Settings, Account Setting, etc. File, Edit, View, Go, etc do not mount.

His id and password are for the access to the Pop mailbox. I don't have an id and password for TB saved in my computer, unless it comes up differently than accounts.Firefox

I know somebody in Europe with a Russian name solved this problem for me two years ago, but it's archived. Can you unarchive it for me?

I am in a meeting most of today so I will be unable to execute your concepts until tonight or tomorrow.

many thanks for your help.

First, if you click your name on the line, "Question Owner', it opens to a page showing all prior threads, so that post that solved the issue a couple of years ago would be there.

Second, if thunderbird does start, try this to retrieve password:

1. click settings>privacy&security
2. click to savedpasswords and then show passwords. That will let you retrieve what thunderbird stored. I suggest trying his email id and that password on web account to see if it works. That would also let you possibly see his mail. If successful in this, many email providers allow an account to forward copies to another account. If true for that provider, you could set to send all future mail to your account.

If thunderbird starts somewhat, but messages for account can't be viewed, you could try this:

1. start thunderbird on his computer
2. click help>troubleshootinginformation
3. scroll to 'profile folder' and click 'open folder'
4. click the Mail account and then the POP account folder
5. now, search everywhere in that folder for twin file sets, such as inbox, inbox.msf, sent, sent..msf, etc. the msf files are of no use, but the others have the email content.
6. repeat the search process at Mail\Local Folders for any messages he may have saved away from the account
7. now, COPY (not move) all such files to external media
8. now, on YOUR computer, install the addon, importexporttools NG
9. click to Local Folders
10. rightclick and select the importexport option to import mbox file
11. when file manager opens, locate one of the files exported to external media an click OK.
12. repeat the process for all remaining files and you should see all of his message folders' contents.

If the above info about passwords worked, you could now create his account on your computer.

Let me know how it goes.

I found it, but it does not show that anyone answered the question. I was asked on Robert's email I will see if I have any mail saved from around that date in my webmail.

I can't start TB and find Help on his computer. As I said, it is hung up and all the things like File and help do not appear. Just Thunderbird.

I could open a POP box for him on my computer, but I don't really want to have two mailboxes on my computer if I don't have to. Back in the day when I had a Mac G4 I had both our mailboxes. Somehow I worked this problem out two years ago. Don't know how.

I tried looking for my TB password on my computer as well as looking for Robert's on his and I went through all of them and there is a password saved for Firefox but not TB.

Something to try: download the same release here https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/115.18.0/mac/en-US/ install to his computer and start it . If the profile is not corrupted, it may access the account, as password may be in the profile.

If that doesn't work, you can still retrieve his old messages and you can import them to your computer. I do not know the Mac structure, but if you can do a search for files, look for a file named abook.mab or abook.sqlite. Older thunderbird addressbook was abook.mab and laer ones are abook.sqlite. That file isn't important to your issue, but finding it also finds the location of his thunderbird profile. Once, located, click the Mail folder and that should show the POP account folder. Click that and tne next folder usually contains message folders. What you would be seeking are sets, such as inbox, inbox.msf, sent, sent.msf. The msf files are useless, but the other files are thunderbird mbox files containing emails. You may have to look in other folders within that folder to find them. Also, look in the Mail\Local Folders for any messges saved hat are not part of an account. Once you identify the desired files, copy to external media Next, install the addon 'importexporttools NG' Now, highlight Local Folders, rightclick, and select the importexport option to import mbox file and then select and import, one by one, each of the exported files.