Thunderbird Community Forum

After some Windows Updates installation, my computer behaved very erratically, and I had to reset it. After selecting the option to keep all files, it appears to be a joke, as I have ended up having to reinstall almost everything. Regarding Thunderbird, all the files have disappeared including the folder with the profiles, however I did a back of that folder on a separate disk and I need to know if that can be used and how to go about it.

Have been using Thunderbird for years. Tried to set it up so my wife could also use it but the profile was the same as mine so when I deleted her profile, it also deleted mine and now I do not have access. How can I recover my profile so I can have access to all my previous emails and email addresses??? Also, since I cannot access the profile it will not open the app menu so I do not have access to the version.

Hi, I am hoping that the community can help me find an answer to this. I have two computers that I use for work. The one in the office has TB running all the time and before I leave for the weekend/vacation I would close TB, copy the profile folder to a USB (or copy it to cloud) and then paste the profile folder on my work laptop (at home). While all the settings get copied (local folders structure, addons etc.) as I use IMAP, it downloads all the mail on the new system regardless. I thought that it should have the latest mail downloaded as part of the profile folder, is that not the case? The bigger issue is that none of the Completed Tasks Lists, Templates, etc. get updated. It still shows all the older stuff on the work laptop and no updates carry over from the PC (at work). Going through the profile folder I see multiple copies of the files prefs.js, folderCache.json, global-messages-db.sqlite appended as: prefs-computername.js and folderCache-computername.json etc. (The computername is the name of the PC - office/laptop) The profile name is the same between the two computers. TB is only started after the profile is copied locally. TB version is the same between systems. I am left scratching my head why somethings are copied but not others. Hoping that the community can help me here. Thanks!

I had to log in this morning, the first time as its automatic, and when i did all my folders and emails have gone. Where are they as there is important information in there which i need. The page layout is different too as i can't delete anything. HELP

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....

I'm having a connectivity issues. Did some searching which directed me to the Appdata Profiles folder. When looking inside I see Mail and ImapMail. Both have numerous folders inside. Too may I believe. Based upon the screen prints of the folder's contents, do you see conflicts?

I have three email addresses with Outlook.com.

Pop.windstream I have not used in many years. Not sure what others I could possible delete.

Thanks.

Thunderbird has started acting as if it is the first time being opened after entering in all account info. All the folders expand down the left side (as if it's just finding them for the first time) and all email is re-downloaded.

Thunderbird is up-to-date using 151.0.1 on Microsoft Windows 11.

I have setup the same accounts in Microsoft Outlook, the issue is not happening in Outlook.

The email server is Ubuntu Linux, Postfix, Dovecot.

I've used thunderbird for years. Now I can't get it back. I tried a clean uninstall/reinstall. Downloaded from the thunderbird site. Seems to install fine, but then says no profile recognized. I put some old profiles in the appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles in desperation, but still no luck. My clean uninstall did involve registry entries (Revo-Uninstall). So I'd like to get a clean start with Thunderbird, but it won't let me. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. I dread the idea of using another email after all these years!

I just installed a new router and all of a sudden nothing is working properly on my PC. Among other things, I need to fix Thunderbird, and for that I need to find where my thunderbird profile is. The instructions I've seen say to go to troubleshooting information, find profile folder, and click on "open folder." When I do that, nothing happens. (I told you installing the router appears to have broken everything--I don't know how that happened, especially since I was on the phone with tech support for the router for install), and I'm no closer to finding the profile file. I can enter %appdata%\roaming\thunderbird\profiles but that shows me two different profile directories and I don't know which one is the right one. How can I find the correct file and why doesn't troubleshooting information just show me that?

Dell windows 11 computer self destructed and crashed hard. Lost Thunderbird emails but have an Acronis cloud backup. Have purchased a new Dell EBT 2250 computer with windows 11 pro.

QUESTION 1: What are the proper procedures of installing Thunderbird and recovering my past "stuff" which was located at C:\users\My-Username\AppData\Roaming where Thunderbird kept my email data..If I install Thunderbird on the box, it would create that structure to create the Thunderbird data folder.

QUESTION 2: What are the proper procedures in recovering Thunderbird past data before I open it to my email server (Yahoo) where I have directly been maintaining my new emails via browser. I was going to install Thunderbird, then replace the Thunderbird folder under the user/username/AppData/Roaming, but when installing TB forces you to give an email account and P/W to log into your email. I do NOT want to have the email at Yahoo brought down before I can confirm I have restored all my past emails from my backup Thunderbird fold.

Question 3: Is there a way of installing TB in order to get the structure it uses, then overlay the TB structure under my user id?

I didn't want to restore my new Desktop with the OS recovery method because of the completely different hardware that OS would encounter once it tried to come up under a completely different hardware environment.

Thanks to anyone who can help me in what I should do, Floyd Smith

I have moved my Thunderbird data from drive C:\xxx\Thunderbird to N:\xxx\Thunderbird. The Thunderbird program remains on "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird" How do I tell Thunderbird to find its data on the N: drive?

     Thank you,    Art Lieberman

Yesterday I was having trouble sending emails from one of my email accounts. I had not fixed that when I shut down for the night. Today when I turned my computer on, both my email accounts and my address book was gone

06 May 2026 USA Just to inform users:

All mailboxes and all mail in profile are catastrophically and irretrievably deleted when I: 1. Change the location of the profile folder. 2. Make appropriate change in profiles.ini reflecting the location change. 3. Launch Thunderbird in Offline Mode (launching in OFFLINE mode is the fatal event). 4. Mailboxes will appear during this one launched session

    but

5. If Thunderbird is closed while still OFFLINE, then a re-launch of Thunderbird in any state will reveal

     that all mailboxes and all mail have been deleted.

All mailboxes, and of course, all mail in the profile are catastrophically and irretrievably deleted. I was lucky that I made a backup before changing profile location.

The deletion of mail and mailboxes occur at the close of Thunderbird's OFFLINE state. An examination of the profile folder indicates the destruction has occurred upon closing of Thunderbird in OFFLINE state.

It is not the re-launch of Thunderbird that causes the catastrophic deletion. The deletion occurred when Thunderbird was closed in its OFFLINE state.

To successfully change the profile location I must: 1. Make the change to profile location. 2. Make the appropriate change to profiles.ini 3. BE SURE to make the FIRST LAUNCH of Thunderbird in ONLINE mode--ONLINE only. 4. Once 1,2,3 are done, then Thunderbird does not corrupt the profile folder.

Conditions that MIGHT make my configuration uniquely affected: 1. I use Proton Mail Bridge in conjunction with Thunderbird. 2. My Profile folder is on a network share that is letter-mapped in Windows. 3. I have about 10 email addresses in Thunderbird that are Outlook IMAP, Gmail IMAP, and of course, Proton Mail.

I've been using Thunderbird a couple of years in this configuration with no problems. I just decided to rename my profile. So, this is my first discovery of the problem.

My wife and I both have Thunderbird accounts. The issue is that when we open Thunderbird, both accounts show on one screen. Is there any way to separate logins and only show each of our accounts on the screen?

Thanks, Sam Orner

When I opened Thunderbird two days ago it came up with the following message: To use your current email address, fill in your credentials. Thunderbird will automattically search for working and recommended server configurations. It asked for Full Name; Email: and Password. Fearing it was a scam I filled in my server settings manually. My server is Centurylink but my email address is embarqmail.com so when I filled in my info the send was smpt.centurylink.net port 587 (which was fine) The problem was with receive: I guess my old setup was pop.embarqmail.com port 110 and I put in pop.centurylink.net port 995 which is what Centurylink's website called for. Well this one worked and it downloaded 800 messages but no saved folders and the Thunderbird screen layout looks different from the one I am used to. A few minutes later the pop.embarqmail setup downloaded the same messages but still no saved messages. It looks like I have 2 profiles. Did the last one I entered override the old and wipe out files I had stored. Is there a fix for this mess I have created and can I retreive my old folders and messages? I tried doing a system restore and it didn't work due to corrupted files. Oh, I'm still using windows 7. Thanks

Thunderbird is suddenly opening without any of my emails or folders, and asking me to set up an email account - so I put in my email details (I'm with aol) - and it connects to the aol server and my folders re-appear (initially without emails in them, but when I click on the folders the emails start downloading afresh from aol). So it seems that all will be well when the emails are all downloaded again. HOWEVER, after closing Thunderbird and opening it again, all my emails are gone again, and Thunderbird is yet again asking me to set up an account. I can do this again, and the same thing will happen again. Everything is lost again when Thunderbird is closed, and when I start it again, I will be asked to set up an account, and all my emails are gone yet again. I have been using Thunderbird for years and years and years. Suddenly out of the blue this happens, and I'm stuck with using aol's web mail platform directly (not great!!!) Also, Thunderbird suddenly looks different - like it's been updated (which I assumed initially had happened) but the update history still only shows the final release for Windows 7, so this is a bit puzzling, and an odd coincidence that the layout and appearance of Thunderbird has changed at the very same time it stops working for me.

I cannot get thunderbird to run on my computer (it runs fine on my wife's computer). I keep getting the profile can't be loaded error. I have tried the fixes recommend here but none worked.

Hello,

In my Thunderbird Profiles folder, I can drill down to ImapMail. I see multiple subfolders prefixed with my imap server name. eg:

- imap.server-5.com 10.85GB - imap.server-3.com 8.83 GB

and so on. The datestamp on each is different.

Within the two examples above is a large Inbox folder taking up ~8.8GB.

The size doesn't concern me as much as the fact of having two of these. I'd like to understand what Thunderbird is doing under the hood here. Does it create new imap.server-#.com folders periodically as backup/recovery folders?

I'd like to recover space where possible but if these are protective measures, I could live with that. However, if it creates future folders and replicates 8+GB of data multiple times, I'd like to know what steps I can take to free up disk space.

Thanks,

Thunderbird installed a new version and would not open until I created a new profile. Now all my locally saved email is missing. The only profile I can find is the new one for my email account, dated April 2026. Where is the old profile with all my saved emails? I have no email older than April 2026 in my Inbox. POP3 email, saved to my desktop computer, is gone. Please help me find them.