Please provide more details. If a profile is intact and placed in wrong location, it can be moved elsewhere without loss. If the profile is accessible, one option is to click help>troubleshootinginformation, scroll down to 'profiles' and click 'about:profiles' and then click 'create profile' then click next, then enter a name for profile, e.g, MYPROFILE, and then click the browse button to locate and select the profile wherever you stored it.

Thanks for the reply - I will try creating a new profile.

However, whenever I back up or copy the profile it does not have all the messages after October 2023 especially in pop3 accounts. In previous installations the profile was in home/.thunderbird and backing up was no problem.

The profiles listed in this computer are below. I have backed up root but it only contains 71 folders instead of a about 150. the Local profile appears to have very little data in it.

Root /home/oem/snap/thunderbird/common/.thunderbird/26pphmrb.default Local /home/oem/snap/thunderbird/common/.cache/thunderbird/26pphmrb.default

It seems to me that even the root profile does not contain all the data and nor does the local but I cannot find another profile.

If all the folders are not in the profile, then it is probable that you have defined some accounts or folders elsewhere. You can verify this by clicking each account's server setting pane and viewing the bottom line to see where the account is located. Do this also for Local Folders. That should provide a better picture of where your folders are.

Thanks David - All the profiles in my multiple accounts are in the root directory on the sever setting page under Local Directory. Including Local. The root directory is the one I have been backing up. This profile now only hold 71 items and previously there were double that.

I wonder why there are 2 profiles and also as there are 2 profiles root and local do I need to back up both? In other words is TBird using both profiles? If it is can I put them back together as one profile?

Many Thanks

Thunderbird uses only one, although prior or unused profiles may appear on disc. To confirm which is the one being used, one approach is this: - check help>troubleshootinginformation and scroll down to 'profiles' and click 'about profiles' and that will show you the default profile.

Thank you David

Just to recap and confirm then :-

Each account is set in server settings to the default profile eg.

/home/oem/snap/thunderbird/common/.thunderbird/26pphmrb.default/Mail/Local Folders

This is the folder I back up. It only holds about 71 items - the old profile has 140 plus. You are telling me I do not need to back up the local directory?

When backed up or copied this folder does not hold all the information especially for POP3 accounts. If I have the data on screen why does it not copy/back up?

I really need to solve this and be able to restore and use my computer which I have not been able to do for 6 months. If I create a new profile will that automatically move all the data into the new profile? If I did that I would probably set the profile back where it lived before - in home .thunderbird

Could I install an older version on my main/other computer would that work? Can you recommend one that worked properly?

Thanks for your help

This location that you mention is only a subset of the profile: .thunderbird/26pphmrb.default/Mail/Local Folders The complete profile is .thunderbird/26pphmrb.default and IMAP accounts will be in the Imapmail folder and POP message folders in the Mail folder and local folders in Mail\Local Folders. So, it may be that you are not counting all the message folders. I would NOT remove anything until all of this is resolved. If possible, it might be useful to do screenprint of the contents of the profile folder to show the Mail folder, the Mail\Local folders, and the Imapmail folder (if there are IMAP accounts).

Thank you David

Yes - this would normally be the folder I would back up but as you will see from the screen prints it has not updated since the 31 October 20023 which has left me searching everywhere else for another profile which does not appear to exist.

So while everything on this computer seems to be normal I cannot find the profile which would allow me to back up my main computer.

I hope this helps and Thanks Again.

What would happen if I change the default profile to this one /home/oem/.thunderbird/8ug42dp8.default-release-1

Well, it looks old, but since you cannot locate any other profile, it wouldn't hurt to try it.

Having thought about it - it would be stupid to do that because I would loose this profile which I am not even sure actually exists and it seems certain that I would never recover it.

In reality I have already tried it as I have used that profile to back up to my other computer and it is not complete.

The only thing that is safe to do is play with the profiles on my other computer unless you have some other ideas.

This is a really major disaster and I am surprised that I am the only person with this problem - apparently.

Originally you had a Thunderbird installation which you probably got from the official download website :

• https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/all/

and it auto created a profile in the default location which you used for ages:

• /home/oem/.thunderbird/8ug42dp8.default-release-1

Then you got a download of Thunderbird from the 'snap' directory which uses an entirely different location for it's default set of profile folders meaning your current version is now looking here:

• /home/oem/snap/thunderbird/common/.thunderbird/26pphmrb.default

In this location: /home/oem/.thunderbird/8ug42dp8.default-release-1

Profile called '8ug42dp8.default-release-1' - It will store a load of previously downloaded emails in the 'Mail' folder which contains all the Pop accounts and 'Local Folders' mail account.

You must exit Thunderbird before you do the following.

You can easily copy the 'Local Folders' from one profile to another: Access: /home/oem/.thunderbird/8ug42dp8.default-release-1/Mail/'Local Folders' Copy the folder called 'Local Folders'

Access: /home/oem/snap/thunderbird/common/.thunderbird/26pphmrb.default/Mail folder Remove the 'Local Folders' folder assuming you haven't put anything it OR rename it. Paste in the copied 'Local Folders' folder.

If you have emails in actual Pop accounts: You can use the Import function within Thunderbird.

• Tools > Import
• Select Import from another Thunderbird installation
• click on 'Continue'
• Select: Import from profile : /home/oem/.thunderbird/8ug42dp8.default-release-1
• OR select 'Choose a profile folder' and select the original profile folder as listed above.
• Click on 'Continue'
• Choose what to import
• Select 'Mail Messages'
• Click on 'Continue'
• Keep following instructions.
• When completed - restart Thunderbird.

This should mean you now have all the old emails installed into the new profile.

Thank you for your reply. I am not sure I completely understand what options this might provide but please advise on the best way to correct the problem and set up for the future.

To go back to my problem - I use 2 computers and keep them cloned when I switch. I installed from snap on this one and flatpack on the other which compounds the problem. I cannot get the whole profile on my other computer working either from the old profile or the snap profile.

This computer appears to currently hold all the email data but when I back up from the snap profile it is missing pop3 emails. When I back up /home/oem/.thunderbird/8ug42dp8.default-release-1 it only contains emails up to Oct 23.

If I understand you correctly I could update one profile with the missing emails by importing the emails.

In this case it seems best to update /home/oem/.thunderbird/8ug42dp8.default-release-1 by importing anything after 31 Oct 23 - is it possible to import selective emails?

On the other computer - it also seems like a good idea to re-install Thunderbird from the official download website and keep the profile in file:///home/oem/.thunderbird/ for that computer

In that case would it be a good idea to create a new profile for this computer in /home/oem/.thunderbird/ and 1 - keep it simple and B - ensure that the profile does not get segmented when I back up between both computers in future.

I hope this makes sense if not please let me know.

It has taken some time for me to find enough time to work on this - sorry about the delay.

I have uninstalled Thunderbird and re-installed direct so he new profile is in /home/oem/.thunderbird.

There are 10 email accounts and the profile is 48 GB so I cannot export.

It seems my only option will be to restore my old profile which is now 9 months old and some how copy the emails across - possibly by creating new local folders?

Please can anyone let me know if there is an easier way to do this.

Thank you Mark

Adding to the above - The new install seems to have worked except for the sent files on the POP3 accounts.

There are now several hundred sent POP 3 emails missing from the new profile. For the time being I have copied these into folders in LOCAL FOLDERS.

I now need to transfer these across to the other profile on the other computer.

Is there an easy way to do this?

Thank You

Actually I have managed to do it by creating a folder in Local folders and copying that.

It is a masterpiece in programming - rather like the address book debacle - there is never any warning and the user has to dig himself out of the hole.

All that is left for me to do now is delete the SNAP profile and do an new install on this computer and I will be back to a standard fully operational system again.

Thanks again for the days wasted on this one.