Windows 10: Thunderbird profile folder in windows.old after updates

Installed W11pro new from scratch with media from MS, installed all available updates and thunderbird. February 2024Now, I'm looking for the Thunderbird Profile Folder. It's located in the windows.old-folder!?!? Any idea why this happened and how to change it back to usual without reinstalling everything?Many thanks for your help

:)

 

Windows Live Issue & Thunderbird folders

Hi Allan

Windows Live Mail

Could be a corrupt WLM database. I suggest you try the following (assuming you use the default location of the WLM data).

Warning - this process will remove your email accounts and all emails in the mail boxes and Storage Folders

• Close Windows Live Mail
• In File Explorer, navigate to C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Local\Microsoft, locate the Windows Live Mail folder
• Make a backup of the Windows Live Mail folder on a flash drive or somewhere else. (With this backup you will at least be able to view individual mail messages)
• Delete the Windows Live Mail Folder
• Restart Windows Live Mail - it should behave like when it first installed, requesting your account details etc.

Thunderbird

Which INI files did you rename? If you didn't rename any ini files in the folder C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles, do the following:

• Close Thunderbird
• Make a backup copy of C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles
• Delete the folder
• Uninstall Thunderbird
• Reinstall Thunderbird but don't start it
• Restore the above folder fro the backup
• Start Thunderbird.

If that doesn't work try playing around with the Thunderbird Profile Manager

• Hold Windows key and tap R, enter the following exactly with quotes etc. in the "Open" box, OK
• "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -P
• If you see "Default User", select it and tick "Use the selected profile without asking at startup"
• Click Start Thunderbird and see if your profile (messages, accounts, contacts) appears
• If not, close Thunderbird, Start the Thunderbird Profile Manager again
• This time click "Create profile" to start a wizard, click Next
• Enter a profile name, click Choose folder
• See if you can locate your profile folder, select it. Start Thunderbird

 

Recover Thunderbird profile after Windows 10 Creators Update failed completely

Hello,

I would like to recover my Thunderbird profile folder after the Windows 10 Creators Update failed, along with all Windows 10 built-in rescue and / or recovery options.

I have been able to recover almost all my document, photo, video and audio files using the method described here: "Rescue Files when Windows Won't Start," which can be found at Redirecting

However, I cannot get to my T'bird profile folder, which Thunderbird stores in the \users\username\appdata\Roaming folder.

I can get to the Users folder, but it does not contain the Thunderbird profile folder as it does when Win 10 is properly installed.

I've tried unsuccessfully navigating through the command prompt, which launches at x:\windows\system32

But the update process recreated the drive structure, and I am not able to change to another directory, although I can move up a level to x:\windows and get a dir listing. I admit I have forgotten nearly every DOS command I ever
learned years ago.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Tim

 

Thunderbird 68.1.0 Update

Update on this for anyone else who encounters it - unfortunately not really well solved.
I submitted a bug report to Mozilla, and apart from some suggestions never really got any useful help.
So, I looked myself:

• Created a new profile - added one email address. Worked fine - messages downloaded on start-up.
• Copied my profile to the new profile - stopped working - no messages downloaded.
• Created another new profile - and then added all my email addresses and customisations manually. Worked fine.
• Now using the new profile as my Thunderbird default, and keeping the old one in case I forgot anything!

Got back to Mozilla, explained what I had done, and they closed my report as resolved, as a new profile solves it!

I am not a software developer, but I would have thought that they would like to have delved deeper themselves to see if this was/is a bug or something!

Anyway, solution is to create a new Thunderbird profile.