This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Hierdie gesprek is in die argief. Vra asseblief 'n nuwe vraag as jy hulp nodig het.

The latest Thunderbird update 52.2.0 (32-bit) has deleted/remove some of my contacts

more options

16th June 2017. The latest Thunderbird update 52.2.0 (32-bit) has deleted/remove some of my contacts, but not all of them. It has retained the contacts in my Personal Address Book and Collected Address Book, however i had created Several other address books and it is these that are no longer appearing. I know the data will still be on my hard drive, but how do i get it back into Thunderbird.

Also, the update deleted my email accounts (all 3 of them). I have to add them back in. I also had to go into my Local Folders account settings and redirect the Local directory address from C:\Users\Stuart\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\byy0ftul.default\Mail\Local Folders (1) back to C:\Users\Stuart\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\byy0ftul.default\Mail\Local Folders.

It's almost like the update was a new install.

16th June 2017. The latest Thunderbird update 52.2.0 (32-bit) has deleted/remove some of my contacts, but not all of them. It has retained the contacts in my Personal Address Book and Collected Address Book, however i had created Several other address books and it is these that are no longer appearing. I know the data will still be on my hard drive, but how do i get it back into Thunderbird. Also, the update deleted my email accounts (all 3 of them). I have to add them back in. I also had to go into my Local Folders account settings and redirect the Local directory address from C:\Users\Stuart\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\byy0ftul.default\Mail\Local Folders (1) back to C:\Users\Stuart\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\byy0ftul.default\Mail\Local Folders. It's almost like the update was a new install.

Gekose oplossing

Stuart_Atkinson said

16th June 2017. The latest Thunderbird update 52.2.0 (32-bit) has deleted/remove some of my contacts, but not all of them. It has retained the contacts in my Personal Address Book and Collected Address Book, however i had created Several other address books and it is these that are no longer appearing. I know the data will still be on my hard drive, but how do i get it back into Thunderbird.
This is the first report I have seen (that I can recall) of CCleaner affecting the Address Book.

User-defined address books are treated slightly differently from the two built-ins, Personal Address Book and Collected Addresses. These are required and will be loaded automatically if present, or new empty files generated if they are absent. User-defined address books need to be created through Thunderbird so it can register them internally; it won't just display them even if the corresponding data files already exist. The registration of these data files is done in prefs.js, which we believe is the file being damaged by CCleaner. Search for filenames with a .mab extension; your user-defined address books will look like abook1.mab and so on. If these still exist, you can re-import them using the MoreFunctionsForAddressBook add-on.

Also, the update deleted my email accounts (all 3 of them). I have to add them back in. I also had to go into my Local Folders account settings and redirect the Local directory address from C:\Users\Stuart\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\byy0ftul.default\Mail\Local Folders (1) back to C:\Users\Stuart\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\byy0ftul.default\Mail\Local Folders. It's almost like the update was a new install.

This is consistent with CCleaner damaging the prefs.js file. This file tells Thunderbird about your accounts. Remove this data and Thunderbird starts over again. Since it is using the same profile, it comes up with exactly the same Local Folders name and has generated a new version, that is, the one with the (1) suffix to its name. So it has deliberately chosen not to overwrite existing data. Under these circumstances, pointing the account to the pre-existing Local Directory was exactly the right thing to do.

Lees dié antwoord in konteks 👍 1

All Replies (6)

more options

Do you use CCleaner?

more options

Hi Zenos,

Yes i do, but only the free version.

It has never previously been a problem in relation to Thunderbird.

more options
more options

Well this answers the question of what happened but doesn't really solve my problem. I am right in thinking that the information is now lost forever.

more options

Gekose oplossing

Stuart_Atkinson said

16th June 2017. The latest Thunderbird update 52.2.0 (32-bit) has deleted/remove some of my contacts, but not all of them. It has retained the contacts in my Personal Address Book and Collected Address Book, however i had created Several other address books and it is these that are no longer appearing. I know the data will still be on my hard drive, but how do i get it back into Thunderbird.
This is the first report I have seen (that I can recall) of CCleaner affecting the Address Book.

User-defined address books are treated slightly differently from the two built-ins, Personal Address Book and Collected Addresses. These are required and will be loaded automatically if present, or new empty files generated if they are absent. User-defined address books need to be created through Thunderbird so it can register them internally; it won't just display them even if the corresponding data files already exist. The registration of these data files is done in prefs.js, which we believe is the file being damaged by CCleaner. Search for filenames with a .mab extension; your user-defined address books will look like abook1.mab and so on. If these still exist, you can re-import them using the MoreFunctionsForAddressBook add-on.

Also, the update deleted my email accounts (all 3 of them). I have to add them back in. I also had to go into my Local Folders account settings and redirect the Local directory address from C:\Users\Stuart\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\byy0ftul.default\Mail\Local Folders (1) back to C:\Users\Stuart\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\byy0ftul.default\Mail\Local Folders. It's almost like the update was a new install.

This is consistent with CCleaner damaging the prefs.js file. This file tells Thunderbird about your accounts. Remove this data and Thunderbird starts over again. Since it is using the same profile, it comes up with exactly the same Local Folders name and has generated a new version, that is, the one with the (1) suffix to its name. So it has deliberately chosen not to overwrite existing data. Under these circumstances, pointing the account to the pre-existing Local Directory was exactly the right thing to do.

Gewysig op deur Zenos

more options

Thanks Zenos,

Contacts restored using the add-on listed above.

Is there a similar add-on to restore the calendar/event/task information.

In the folder C:\Users\Me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\??????.default\calendar-data there is a local.sqlite file that is 1056kb. I am assuming that this is my calendar data.

I just can't find a way to add it back in.