I-Thunderbird Community Forum

I've used Thunderbird for years, and I LOVE it! A few days ago, my hard drive died. I had it replaced, and I've used my data backup to recover much. I did NOT have programs/apps backed up. I need VERY SPECIFIC steps to download and reinstall Thunderbird so that it uses my old profile. Should I first delete EVERYTHING having to do with Thunderbird and start anew? I did download it today and then went to the C:Users/Owner/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird folder. In that folder, I deleted the "new" profile file (I think!). Then I moved my backed up folder called Profiles into that directory. I tried to get Thunderbird to use that profile, but no luck. I'm reasonably intelligent (I've been told!), but I can't figure how to do this, and I truly need a step-by-step blueprint. Do I download Thunderbird first? If so, what do I then do to make it find the old profile. I'm running Windows 11 Home on a PC. Right now, I'm going for a long walk to clear my brain. In the interim, if one of you really smart, nice experts could give me instructions on how to do this, I'd be eternally grateful. I have numerous folders, and some really important old emails in that old profile. I also would like to be able to retrieve my address book and calendars ... which I ASSUME are part of the old profile. Thanks in advance for ANY assistance! Don't assume I know ANYTHING!!

hi

i just recently re-installed a new ver. of TB tonight i go to reply to an e-mail & notice the send function is not avail to send reply see attach

the button is grayed out & there is no send function

i did have my address book avail but it is not visible either ( this is another issue i have ) i did move from another profile

don`t know how to fix either. both profiles have the following files in them which do i have to copy & paste or overwrite see attach

Got up this morning and stared up Thunderbird as I always do but got a 'new account dialog'. All of my emails, folders, settings, etc. are gone. Went through the Help - Trouble shooting process to find the old profile. There are three profiles listed in 'About Profiles' and if I launch with any of them, all I get is a new setup. Freaking out here as I have 10 of thousands of emails, in multiple email accounts, in a relatively complex folder structure which includes online and local folder storage. I have a feeling that Thunderbird updated last night and is the cause of this problem.

Running Windows 10 Pro v 22H2, build 19045.6332 . Thunderbird 140.3.1esr (64-bit)

Thunderbird switched automatic to Freedom. No possibility to avoid. All connections where lost. After input connection data mail where downloaded. But over 2000 old local stored mail are gone.

How to restore all old local mails, structure and archives?

Several years ago, I switched over to the beta path of Thunderbird... In doing so, I created a new profile for the beta installation, leaving the old one behind in case I wanted to abandon beta... So I had two profile folders; I *thought* they were this:

current profile: c:\notes\Thunderbird original backup profile: c:\notes\Thunderbird.b115

Now, I've decided that there is no reason to retain the old Thunderbird profile folder, since I'm clearly committed to the beta path... however, I have discovered an anomaly... *both* the old and new profiles are periodically being updated!! Thunderbird.b115 is apparently actually my active profile, but Thunderbird was updated just a few days ago.

When I look at About Profiles, I actually see *three* profile folders listed:

Profile: Gorlash: (default: no) c:\notes\Thunderbird

Profile: Derell Licht beta: (default: no) c:\notes\Thunderbird

Profile: Thunderbird beta (default: no) c:\notes\Thunderbird.beta (note that this folder does not exist)

Profile: Thunderbird b115: (default: yes) c:\notes\Thunderbird.b115

===========================================

Is there something that I could do to consolidate all of this into just one folder? I don't even *know* what those Gorlash and Derell Licht profiles refer to... Yes, those are both usernames that I use online, in various contexts, but as far as I know, I don't use them in Thunderbird...

Q1: Can I just delete those other profiles where default is NO ?? Q2: Why is c:\notes\Thunderbird still getting periodic updates, even though those profiles are not default??

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

My old Windows10 computer died, but I have an external backup with my Thunderbird profile folder. In the meantime, I have been able to resurrect an old Windows10 computer to continue receiving email, but was not successful transferring the backup profile. Thus, I have "new" profile on this second computer containing only the recent emails not in the backup profile.

I've purchased a new Windows11 computer. My question is: How can I merge my old emails in the backup profile with the recent emails received after the backup was made? In other words, is it possible to merge two separate profiles into one? Thanks.

Illinichip

Hi ... I have carefully followed the instructions but when Icopy and paste ihe file involved - it seems to transfer - but NO PROMPT to overwrite appears. What might I be doing wrong?

I know that there are thousands of threads related to moving a profile, but despite having read many of them I am still struggling to move my profile (and I have been trying to do this for several years)

the Default profile is setting up under my Home directory that that is burning up about 10GB of space.

Folliwing Moderator Matt's excellent suggestions:

"so when you go to the troubleshooting information and select profile folder, where does it put you? In a different newly created profile folder. So copy everything to the new folder from the old one"

I DO finally seem to get all my old TB accounts and messages to show up from the moved location.

However, I can neither send nor receive email. which suggests that my Gmail IMAP and SMTP settings are wrong.

My IMAP settings are showing as: Port 993 Security: SSL/TLS Authentication: OAuth2

my SMTP settings are Port 465 Security: SSL/TLS Authentication: OAuth2

When I close the Newly moved profile and restart and specify the original profile (that is housed under /Home) the server settings there seem to be the same. But I am able to send and receive email under that profile.

what am I doing wrong?

Peter

I have installed Thunderbird on a new computer and copied my profile from the old computer as per instructions on the Mozilla site. However on the install on the new computer the LOCAL FOLDERS, sub folders which I use as archive storage do not contain the messages as per the my old computer. The sub folders are named correctly.

I have attached photos of the sub folders from the old computer showing data in the sub folder and also the new computer showing no data.

Please advise how to retrieve the data for the new computer.

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!

Hello. I recently upgraded from my older MacBook Pro (now factory reset and sold) to a new MacBook Air. I use Thunderbird as my email client and I have many folders that live within my Local Folders. When I transferred all the data from the older Mac to the new Mac via iCloud, and set up my new mail account (IMAP), the folders did not download into the program. I've tried using Subscribe but none of my pre-existing folders show up. Any assistance would be much appreciated. Thanks.

I had to install Windows 11 fresh because of multiple issues with my PC (I upgraded from 10 to 11 6 months ago). I installed Thunderbird fresh, and am trying to get it to see my existing data with is on my D drive. I browsed to the folder in Account Settings, but it's not showing up. I have years of mail and don't want to lose it.

There are too many options in the help for me to know which are actually related to my situation. I thought I was ready to do this, but am surprised at how difficult it is compared to the last time I did something similar.

Any help, even just pointing me to the right place to look for help, is appreciated!

Thanks!

I have problems migrating my Windows 10 Thunderbird profile to a new computer running Linux.

On the new computer, I want to put the profile into a custom folder, not the standard folder (which would be /home/torben/.var/app/net.thunderbird.Thunderbird/.thunderbird in my case)

Here's what I did:

I installed Thunderbird 128.13.0esr under Fedora Linux 42 using flatpak.

Upon first startup, I aborted the mail account setup process

Opened Help/Troubleshooting information ... about:profiles

Create new profile ... Choose folder (I am translating everything from my German language version)

--> That's where an error message occurs: "/home/torben/.thunderbird not found ..." (interestingly, this folder simply does not exist (yes, I know how to view hidden files) although about:profiles also says that the "root folder" of the two already existing profiles default and default-esr is inside /home/torben/.thunderbird !?)

Nevertheless, in the profile assistant I can choose the folder (/home/torben/Dokumente/Gemeinsam/Documents/Briefe/Thunderbird_Profiles/tj63nudj.default) containing my migrated profile

The profile assistant tells me that my personal settings and data will be saved in /run/user/1000/doc/e9915464/tj63nudj.default (?)

After finishing the profile assistant, I can see the newly created profile in about:profiles, but it says "This profile is currently used by another application and therefore cannot be deleted" (what other application?)

I click "normal re-start" in the upper right corner of the about:profiles tab

After restarting, I open the about:profiles tab again. Now I can click on "run profile" under my newly created profile and Thunderbird opens a new window where everything works fine: All the migrated mails are there, I can log into my usual imap accounts etc.

I can close both windows, restart Thunderbird again and again and everything stays fine

BUT after some time (about 10 minutes) Thunderbird won't (re)start anymore and displays this error:

"Thunderbird is already running, but is not responding. To use Thunderbird, you must first close the existing Thunderbird process, restart your device, or use a different profile."

The error persists after rebooting.

This error seems to be related to that whole manual migration process, because when I simply follow that mail account setup assistant after a clean re-install of Thunderbird, I can keep using the program without any issues (although the /home/torben/.thunderbird folder isn't created either) ...

Would be very grateful if someone had an idea how to solve this problem ... Thanks in advance!

Hello,

I need to purchase a new PC because my old PC was not compliant with Windows 11. I've installed Thunderbird and copied over my data, profiles, etc.

I've noticed that there is folder added to my offline Documents folder called "Thunderbird" and in this is another folder and a file.

Is this normal?

Thank you,

Gordon

Hi, In profiles, I have several, many of which are up to date and 2 are large, one which is meant to be my current profile at about 2.5 Gb and another at 3.6 Gb (plus others of about 50 Mb) - see screenshot. What is going on?

Default profile lost / hidden.

For the last few days, I have been getting certificate errors. I decided to move from Pop to Imap which fixed the problem. Somewhere in creating the new IMAP account, it asked me if I want to have messages moved to another account, to which I said yes, which would keep me from having to move all of those folders and re-create the inbox structure. Well, that somehow removed that default profile. I backup regularly, but just found out that the appdata branch is a hidden folder and did not get picked up. Okay, fine. However, my email folders are on a data drive and are fully backed up. I have all of the data, i just need to re-establish the profile. If I go to appdata .... profiles ... , that account is in there. I can't import it. I can't even import the messages. Can you guide me to getting my default account visible again. I'm sure there are already articles and answers, and I browsed but could not find the right one in the many, many answers provided. I'm very tech savvy, so I'm sure I can follow the guidance given.

I closed Thunderbird by the X in the upper corner and my Icon disappeared off the tool bar so I tried again and the Icon was no longer in the trash bin, so I re set up and none of my old emails/folders are there and it downloaded 338 emails off the web server. My address are all gone....HELP

Bonjour, J'ai essayé à plusieurs reprises d'installer Thunderbird (a chaque fois 1 don est requis) mais à chaque fois le même message s'affiche : "Le profil Thunderbird ne peut être chargé. Il est peut-être manquant ou inaccessible". Une première fois l'installation avait fonctionné mas j'ai essayé de modifier le profil afin qu'ils puissent reprendre le carnet existant sur mon ancien ordinateur. Aujourd'hui je suis bloqué. Avez vous 1 solution à me proposer ? Merci