Offered new user account setup after 78.10.1 upgrade; all email, account, profile inaccessible
Was running 78.10.0. After the update to 78.10.1 and restart, I was prompted to "Set Up Your Existing Email Address" and a "Welcome to Mozilla Thunderbird" screen consistent with a first time start or new install. I've been using Thunderbird on this system since 2012 (yes, it still works!) with multiple email accounts (7 or 8 currently configured) and tens of thousands of emails.
I've dug into various support and forum posts which seem to point to Thunderbird using a default/empty Profile instead of the existing Profile. The about:profiles page only lists one profile (default) and doesn't have another, previous, or existing profile listed to select (presumably with my data). When I follow the path to the folders containing my profile data, it has an appropriate number of subfolders (mail and IMAP) with folder names corresponding to the correct email providers (gmail, Comcast, etc.) consistent with my existing accounts. File sizes also consistent with data still existing in these files/folders.
I believe all my data does still exist in this (default) Profile, but Thunderbird doesn't seem to recognize, acknowledge, or load any of the email accounts, folders, and data in the profile folders.
What broke in this update? And/or, what do I need to do to nudge Thunderbird to see this as the existing Profile (with data) instead of a new, empty, default Profile? All the data appears to be there, but Thunderbird loads as if all my data, accounts, emails, folders, address books, etc. are all gone. Thunderbird acts as though I've lost everything after the upgrade (or never had it to begin with), but I suspect there is some pointer in an ini file or such that no longer references the data in the profile. Where do I go to fix this? Or is there an update pending which will fix this bug and point back to the existing data in the Profile?
I've tried restarting into Safe Mode with Add-ons disabled, but it still sees this as an empty, default Profile.
Name Thunderbird Version 78.10.1 Build ID 20210503211912 Distribution ID Update Folder C:\ProgramData\Mozilla\updates\8216C80C92C4E828 Update History Thunderbird 78.10.1 (20210503211912) Installed on: May 11, 2021, 11:06:44 AM
Thunderbird 78.10.0 (20210415215055) Installed on: April 25, 2021, 4:29:53 PM
Thunderbird 78.9.1 (20210406220621) Installed on: April 11, 2021, 4:35:57 PM
etc...
Update Channel release User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.10.1 OS Windows_NT 10.0 Application Binary C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe
78.10.1 installed on May 11th, but I hadn't reopened Thunderbird until today (May 25th = handling much of email from my phone; come back to Thunderbird for composing longer messages or attaching files, etc.).
All Replies (6)
reWhen I follow the path to the folders containing my profile data, it has an appropriate number of subfolders (mail and IMAP) with folder names corresponding to the correct email providers (gmail, Comcast, etc.) consistent with my existing accounts.
Exit Thunderbird and access the 'Profile name' folder c48xxxuy.default
In the 'profile name' folder locate the 'prefs.js' file. Do you have more than one 'prefs.js' file ? How many of these 'prefs' files do you see? Do you have one that has a number after it eg: 'prefs-1.js', 'prefs-2.js' If yes, rename the current 'prefs.js' file to a much larger number than you have in the list eg: 'prefs-20.js' Then locate one which has a good file size, perhaps the largest number (obviously not the one you just renamed) and change it's name to 'prefs.js'.
If you have quite a few, you can safely delete any with a 0 size. Only the 'prefs.js' is actually used by Thunderbird. But it is handy to keep a couple of the ones with numbers providing they have a good size.
Restart Thunderbird.
Modified by Toad-Hall
Thanks for your response, Toad-Hall. I have exactly one 'prefs.js' file. No other versions with numbers, etc. While the first lines in the file warn the user not to edit the file, I did take the liberty of reading it. There are appropriate looking references to all of my email accounts (inbox, drafts folders, etc.). The file looks good to me, but Thunderbird doesn't open any of the referenced accounts or data in this file. However, it is updating this file every time I open TB. So it is getting overwritten/saved (new date/timestamp each time I restart TB) but these newer copies still have the references to all my accounts even when saved from a TB instance which opens none of those accounts. ???
Some time ago with an upgrade, there was a case where the global database was causing a problem, so I'm wondering if it is doing it again in your case.
Please try:
Access 'profile name' folder as before. Exit Thunderbird
Delete this file: global-messages-db.sqlite
Start Thunderbird.
Report back on results.
No change after deleting global-messages-db.sqlite and starting Thunderbird. Still looks/acts like a default/new install of TB.
I reported earlier that there were no numbered prefs.js files ('prefs-1.js', 'prefs-2.js', etc.), which was and still is accurate. But while browsing the directory alphabetically looking for global-messages-db.sqlite I saw a file named invalidprefs.js . Could this offer more clues? Or is this likely unrelated? It does look like the invalidprefs file is corrupted (full of garbage characters after a point) while the prefs.js still seems "clean." (It may not be undamaged, but it doesn't have q5u£E?cئÙe÷ø or the like in the file.)
Modified by Kevin Arr
Since I made a copy of the profile folder for troubleshooting, I decided to be bold, close TB, delete the invalidprefs.js file, and restart Thunderbird. No change. Still loads as if this is a new TB load/profile with no email accounts.
Make sure you have a backup copy of the following 'Thunderbird' folder and note Thunderbird must not be running.
C://Users/User Account name/Appdata/Roaming/Thunderbird
I think it is worth a reinstall to see the update did not complete in some way.
Locate: C://Program Files(x86)/Mozilla Thunderbird delete the 'Mozilla Thunderbird' folder
Double check you do not have another installed in C://Program Files/Mozilla Thunderbird If yes delete.
Empty the computer 'Recycle Bin'
As you say the last download was version 78.10.1, then you need to download that same version which is not the current version. You can get it from here:
If computer is Windows OS 64bit then click on 'win64' option Select language option eg: 'en-GB' is English British click on 'Thunderbird Setup 78.10.1.exe' link to download
It may download to your 'Downloads' folder - allow time to ensure fully downloaded then run to install.