Thunderbird Version 102 - Automatic download HOSED my PROFILE - Accounts, emails GONE!
The QUICK version is that Thunderbird automatically downloaded and installed 102.1.2, it "updated" my profile, completely corrupted it and NOW It's acting like a NEW install - NO accounts or emails, it's demanding that I enter my first email account information.
I've tried going back to version 91 and it can't read EITHER of my saved profiles because 102 "upgraded" them. Version 102 IMPORT routine DOES NOT WORK EITHER. Probably thinks that profile is already at 102 even though it WON'T utilize it.
I'm entirely HOSED - all email accounts and all emails GONE GONE GONE.
Here's a summary of my futile attempts to get help since this occurred Monday AM -
Thunderbird Wack-A-Mole:
8/15/2022
Version 102 COMPLETELY HOSED MY EMAIL.
It's demanding that I setup a new email account before it will allow me to do anything!
Meanwhile I have two dozen email accounts and thousands of emails THAT I CAN'T GET TO!
I've just spent a half hour trying to find a copy of version 92.
VERSION 102 hosed my email.
What NOW?
It demands that I setup a new email account and from what I read here my 2 dozen email accounts and thousands of emails may not be accessible any more anyway.
WHERE CAN I GET A COPY OF 92????
"Mark Lang":
From what you are describing, it seems like your TB is not recognizing your profile -- which would cause it to ask you to set up a new one. I would be more specific about exactly what you did to get to this point. You also might want to check what the profile manager is saying. Select the 3 bars in the upper right corner of TB, then Help>more troubleshooting information. Near the bottom of the first table that appears you can click on about:profiles. It should list any profiles TB recognizes. If more than one profile is listed, you might try switching to another one to see if that recovers what you missing. At any rate, more information about specifically what you did, the exact version of 102, etc. will help folks on this forum to give you assistance. The problems described in this thread seem to have been fixed by the versions of 102 at least from 102.1.xxx. At any rate, your emails should still be there on the servers.
8/16/2022:
VERSION 102.2 has DESTROYED ME!!!
When it automatically updated on BOTH my laptop and desktop, I could no longer access my email profile - NO EMAILS and ALL of my 20 email accounts are GONE GONE GONE.
I tried updating with earlier version - doesn't work because 102.2 RUINED MY PROFILE.
I tried updating with 102.2 again and then IMPORTING my accounts and messages from profile and It's STILL demanding that I setup from start again.
I didn't see your response at first, my previous email details what happened. I'll add other steps here:
Getting ready to go on the road for a week. Copied my entire Thundebird profile (26 Gig) to an SSD USB Drive.
Had older version on my laptop - not sure which version - connected to profile, got new emails but NO message bodies would appear in the message window.
Thunderbird automatically "updated" on laptop and then email was hosed - acts like new install.
Then the SAME thing happened on my desktop.
Now ALL of my profiles are screwed! I'm on the road so I don't have ANY email setup information.
"Mark Lang": The TB team recently changed the settings so that that internal updating function would upgrade users to version 102.1.2. Previously, you only got version 102 (instead of the 91.xx series) if you specifically downloaded the new version from the website. Version 102 is a major upgrade and does change the profile folder. It seems like, for some reason, your TB install is not recognizing the folder as changed. This will likely require some work from the development team to track down. Perhaps something is not working with the internal upgrade function. One user reported that he simply downloaded the full install file for version 102.1.2 from the website and reinstalled it, and it then worked fine. You might try that.
Thanks for the quick answer.
I downloaded a complete install for 102.1.2 TODAY and installed it on my laptop.
Then I ran the import from my old profile. It SAID it imported Although it seemed to happen rather fast...
Then SAME THING!!!
I start Thunderbird and it Demands I enter email account to setup.
I won't be able to do much with your tech guys until I fly back home - I'll be home in Hawai'i by Thursday (8/18).
The "updates" that hosed my email were automatic. I DID NOT request them.
My problem is I can't get to my email - EVERYTHING is HOSED in my Profile. I've tried running the import, it says it imports from old profile and doesn't. We're talking at least a dozen email accounts.
It's as if I had NEVER had TB on my computer and I am starting from scratch.
This F.U. occurred just as I was leaving home to go on a trip.
I was a professional computer programmer, consultant, systems designer from 1965 until 2006. It's amazing how techies don't realize that their "mistakes" can really mess up someone's life. I gotta' admit it took quite a few years before I realized what I was doing.
"Mark Lang":
You are saying you imported from your old profile. (NO - IMPORT DID NOT WORK!)
When TB did the update to 102.1.2, it should have converted the profile in place and opened with everything as it was already set up. (IT DID CONVERT - then accounts were gone, email was gone, got NOTHING as described above. Acts like a new install on computer that never had Tbird on it before.)
You should not have to import anything. I am not quite sure how you are importing unless you exported the profile earlier. Perhaps the import process is what is messing up your profile. If you tried an import process that did not work for some reason, that might be why it is asking you to set up everything again. Perhaps the import created a new profile that is blank because it did not import properly. I would go to about:profiles like I suggested earlier. Maybe your original profile is still there. If you see multiple profiles, try switching to the other ones to see if your old profile with all your emails is there, just not selected as the current profile.
I have COMPLETE "corrupted" profiles saved on 2 computers - my desktop and laptop. All of the files are there but Version 102 has corrupted them so they won't work on 102 and won't work on earlier version 91.12.0 that I downloaded and installed either - of course.
"Wayne Mery - moderator":
Chetdude,
Your issue is completely unrelated to the original poster, therefore I am locking this topic because it is very hard to properly support multiple issues within the same topic. Please post your own new topic.
Did you really just update to version 102 immediately prior to going on a trip? Old Thunderbird releases can be found at https://releases.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/ Available profiles can be listed by doing Help > More Troubleshooting Info > about:profiles
(DIDN'T HELP.)
All Replies (2)
Continuing from previous comment.....Then open the 'compatibility.ini' file using Notepad and post an image of contents. Now Click on 'Mail' folder If you see pop mail account name folders then the accounts are still there. Click on each pop mail account to see if there are any mbox files. They are files with no extension and they contain emails. Do you see those files, if yes then emails are still there.
Then we see if there are many prefs files and whether we can use one. If we can use then it is a simple fix.
If not then I can advise on how to get all mail etc into a new profile.
What I don't get is why Thunderbird insists upon creating an entirely new profile when I'm loading a version just a Point Release higher. Trying to troubleshoot broken search in 102.2.0, I downloaded 102.3.3, extracted to it's own directory, and ran from there. The only big difference between the two is 102.2 is an RPM install, while 102.3 was a tar.bz2 file (it's a test, so I'm not overwriting the older package).
I ended up deleting the new profile I didn't want, removed it from the profile.ini file, then started Thunderbird with --ProfileManager. But really, it's a point release, it shouldn't need to create a new profile.
This is on Fedora 36.
(as it is I'd like it if the MSWin version still had the option to disable checking for new versions, as for any MSWin systems I manage updates through Chocolatey. And there really needs to be a configuration export tool for backing up/transferring all the account settings)
Okulungisiwe