Thunderbird Update has lost my folders, emails and address book
Hello!
Recently made the mistake of clicking update Thunderbird. Now all my folders and the relevant content emails, and my address book are all gone.
To be more specific, On our Windows 10 PC, we had Thunderbird portable installed, but when opened on the task bar, a second icon came up next to the pinned thunderbird program.
On inspecting the 'apps' list and the 'uninstall programs' list in control panel, and the start menu, Thunderbird wasn't listed. If I typed thunderbird in the start menu though, I saw 2 versions, Thunderbird, and thunderbird portable. After the update both options lead to the same program.
Thunderbird asked for me to add my account and after that there were none of the needed folders and address book. I was advised to install an older version of thunderbird (version 60), but because there was no option to uninstall previous versions of thunderbird (because they weren't listed in windows apps programs or start menu) I was advised to delete the thunderbird installation folder in my C: drive. (i actually stored its content in a folder just in case). I was then able to install the older version but this didn't recover the files or address book. Updating this version didn't fix it either.
Please Help! Thank you!
Toate răspunsurile (2)
re :Recently made the mistake of clicking update Thunderbird. Now all my folders and the relevant content emails, and my address book are all gone. You do not mention what version of Thunderbird you were using before the update nor what version you updated to, so I'm presuming you updated to the latest version 91.2.0
It's not a mistake to update, but it does depend upon whether this was an updater software on your computer controlling the update or whether it was Thunderbird. I've discovered several people updating at prompt only to discover it was not Thunderbird controlling the update. For a while Thunderbird was not offering an update to 91*, but you could uninstall and reinstall that version. Only updater software would force that upgrade.
Sounds like Thunderbird did not know the profile and so created a new one. Hence why it asked you to create a new mal account and why it did not contain anything like Address Books etc.
re: I was advised to install an older version of thunderbird. Cannot see why you be advised to use an older version. That would serve very little purpose and may make things worse. Thunderbird since version 68 has been designed to be dedicated profile per installation, meaning a current profile gets certain files updated to continue to work with new update, but may not necessarilly work if you try to go back to earlier versions. You cannot just simply use an older version without following a specific procedure to allow downgrade. Perhaps you were advised on how to achieve the downgrade. It also may not work on address books because there has been a load of changes to the format of the database, so old backups may be needed to fix address books. I'm assuming you got a download from the official storage.
re: there was no option to uninstall previous versions of thunderbird Very odd. Thunderbird automatically installs in either the 'Program Files' or the 'Program Files (x86)' folder.
- C://Program Files/Mozilla Thunderbird
- C://Program Files (x86)/Mozilla Thunderbird
So to uninstall you could delete the 'Mozilla Thunderbird' folder and then empty the computer 'Recycle Bin'
At this moment I do not know what version you are using. Each version seems to slightly alter where info is located. Perhaps you have updated since. The latest version is 91.2.0 But it is still possible you have the original profile and just need to tell Thunderbird to use it. So try the following:
In Thunderbird version 78* Menu app icon > Help > Troubleshooting Information Under 'Application Basics' - Scroll down to 'Profiles' and click on 'about:profiles' It opens in a new tab
It will list all the profiles. The one currently set as 'Default Profile :Yes' is the current profile you are using. There may be other profiles listed below.
If you see other profiles below each one there will be a 'set as default profile' button click on that button and then click on 'Launch Profile' This will open in a new window. You can then close the original Thunderbird window. Check to see what it contains. IF you need to check other profiles then use the same procedure.
Thank You Toad-Hall for your help! I seem to have fixed the problem, partially.
It seems I have Thunderbird Portable, and as such this program is not in the programs list and so cant be uninstalled like a regular program. Also somehow I had several versions 'installed'. I found the correct one and all my folders, emails and addresses were there!
Issue is that when I create shortcut to thunderbird(portable) in the taskbar (Using right click on the icon that represents the open program). If i close the program and reopen it, thunderbird asks me to create a new profile instead of showing me my current profile.
There appears to be a way to add a shortcut to the taskbar, If I find the file on my hard drive for the ThunderbirdPortable.exe, right click that and add to task bar, that seems to create a pin that will open thunderbird correctly, however that stopped working yesterday. I redid it today and seams to be working...fingers crossed...despite thunderbird appearing twice on the task bar while its open! not perfect but it'll do!
maybe this will help someone else or maybe someone can tell me how to fix this properly... either way something needs to be done to thunderbird portable program itself at some point
thank you once again for your attention!