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updated program not "seeing" my profile. I followed suggestions for putting old files in new profile.

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by sfhowes

lauraj40
lauraj40
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i read through all the similar questions/replies. I am on Windows xp sp3. (no I am not changing OS) I updated t-bird to version for w-xp. found the old profile, copied all the files from the old profile folder to the new profile folder. T-bird still acts as if it is an entirely new installation and wants to set up accounts.

i read through all the similar questions/replies. I am on Windows xp sp3. (no I am not changing OS) I updated t-bird to version for w-xp. found the old profile, copied all the files from the old profile folder to the new profile folder. T-bird still acts as if it is an entirely new installation and wants to set up accounts.

All Replies (3)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Select Help/Troubleshooting Information, click Open Folder, close TB, go up two levels in Explorer to show the Thunderbird folder (which contains a Profiles subfolder). Open profiles.ini in a text editor and see if the Path points to the new profile folder. An example of a profiles.ini file is:

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/mpftajqe.default Default=1

lauraj40
lauraj40 Question owner
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yes, the path in the .ini files matches the name of the file in the profile folder. t-bird, profile, em67a036.default

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/em67a036.default Default=1

Modified by lauraj40

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Not sure why TB isn't reading the profile, but maybe it will work better if you use Profile Manager to create a new profile, then browse to the old profile.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

To start PM, Winkey+R and type thunderbird.exe -p

It's actually easier to copy an old Thunderbird folder into the location of a new Thunderbird folder, as it includes the correct profiles.ini.