It does not sound like you are using your old profile, despite your claim otherwise.

please open the troubleshooting information on the help menu and navigate top the about:profiles entry. what profiles are listed there?

hey matt.... as i read, you are now using new methods and storage for the tb versions. when it was downloaded, it did update but it did NOT recognise my profile. i created a new one and then went to restore, re - insert my profile if you will, the one that i was using. thats what i mean with new - old profiles.

Name Thunderbird Version 78.13.0 Build ID 20210802223056

Profile: default-release

Profile: my name - work mail.

goto about:profiles in the troubleshooting information on the help menu.

Is your old profile listed there? Can you launch in in a "new browser"?

more info that i would like in there. the first one, is mine. its located in another drive, both for size and security. it looks, not to be the default one. should i press to start i get the famous update message "a newer version.......changes etc etc , create new profile". come to think of it, thats the reason of my troubles.....

anyway, like, this it has "imported" the previous profile and after waiting to rebuild the index, it carries on, from where it stopped. any other change so far, either places my previous profile in the "local folders" and creates new ones or makes it disappear all together and forces TB to re download ALL messages and reindex them. with about 1 gb stored in the server, thats, no fun, you get the idea.

so you need to start Thunderbird from the command line. There are instructions at the bottom of the linked blog post. The command line switches override the old profile issue.

https://thunderbirdtweaks.blogspot.com/2019/09/i-lost-my-profilemail-on-update-to.html

sorry, was a bit busy at work. and now confused. head scratching here, matt. is there something wrong with this? i mean obviously i use the first profile. on email account settings -> server settings -> message storage -> E:\Thunderbird\Profiles\zz4n3ujx.default\Mail\XXXXXXXXXXX

so when tb starts i get a big big list with all my emails dating back months.

filtering, for an address DOES WORK, however search does not. no matter, how many times i click repair, an email, that IS there, shows up in search, but when clicked on the tab is empty. also, as stated, the contact list of about 3500 emails is empty. so, if this setup is correct, and new mails are still sent to the profile i was using before, i dont get exactly how downgrading helps. suppose this works, some how. wouldnt it upgrade back up again after a few days??

weird update..... if i double click tb to open, i get the version without my contacts list. if i right click a file and choose send to mail, my previous OK profile loads up along with all the settings...

then if you go to about :profiles in the troubleshooting information on the help menu you should be able to set the correct profile for use.