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Thunderbird choking on deleted domain

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  • Last reply by david

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Hello:

I allowed one of my domains to expire recently, but forgot to remove the account from Thunderbird (TB). Since the domain no longer exists, TB is choking--to the extent that I am unable to access the menu (i.e, File | Work Offline or Settings.)

I have been trying to start TB offline using the Profile Manager, setting the default profile to Work Offline, but that doesn't work. I have use the command line parameter "-safe-mode", but that has no effect. I found an ancient (18 years old) forum post that mentioned a "-offline" parameter, but that too had no effect.

I've been looking for a way to manually edit the profile, but haven't found anything.

I am really stumped. Any assistance/insights into this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Patrick

Hello: I allowed one of my domains to expire recently, but forgot to remove the account from Thunderbird (TB). Since the domain no longer exists, TB is choking--to the extent that I am unable to access the menu (i.e, File | Work Offline or Settings.) I have been trying to start TB offline using the Profile Manager, setting the default profile to Work Offline, but that doesn't work. I have use the command line parameter "-safe-mode", but that has no effect. I found an ancient (18 years old) forum post that mentioned a "-offline" parameter, but that too had no effect. I've been looking for a way to manually edit the profile, but haven't found anything. I am really stumped. Any assistance/insights into this issue would be greatly appreciated. Patrick

Chosen solution

Ok, I tend to be down and dirty sometimes, but this works for me. - first, go to profile at c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird and open profiles.ini. this is a simple text file, do NOT change it. it will give you the name of your profile folder. -now click the profiles folder under thunderbird folder and locate your profile. - open profile and COPY the prefs.js file somewhere else for safety - now, open prefs.js with a text editor such as notepad - do a search for the account - the first hit is probably on a line with identity.id with a number such as identity.id1. - highlight all the rows with that identity code and delete - continue search and another hit will be on a line wit server.serverx such as server.server3 - highlight and delete all rows with that server number - save and exit - now, if account was imap, open the imapmail folder and delete that account. If POP, look in the Mail folder - now restart thunderbird and it should be okay.

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Chosen Solution

Ok, I tend to be down and dirty sometimes, but this works for me. - first, go to profile at c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird and open profiles.ini. this is a simple text file, do NOT change it. it will give you the name of your profile folder. -now click the profiles folder under thunderbird folder and locate your profile. - open profile and COPY the prefs.js file somewhere else for safety - now, open prefs.js with a text editor such as notepad - do a search for the account - the first hit is probably on a line with identity.id with a number such as identity.id1. - highlight all the rows with that identity code and delete - continue search and another hit will be on a line wit server.serverx such as server.server3 - highlight and delete all rows with that server number - save and exit - now, if account was imap, open the imapmail folder and delete that account. If POP, look in the Mail folder - now restart thunderbird and it should be okay.

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Thanks David for your prompt reply.

When I examine profiles.ini, I find the following:

[Profile1] Name=default-release IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/stwr5yxw.default-release

It's been nearly 3 years since i set this up, so I forget what the path is relative to. Could you remind me?

Thanks.

Patrick

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So...I figured what the relative means. However, once I make the changes you suggested and restarted Thunderbird, TB is still mostly unresponsive. I can scroll the Folder window but that's about it. Menus, hamburger, message view are all misbehaving.

Still stumped.

Patrick

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please be more specific on the misbehaving. At least, thunderbird is starting so I hope the other issues can be resolved.

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David:

Thank you very much for your assistance to this point. I've never poked around the TB profiles before so this has been a learning experience for me.

Once TB starts:

  • When I start TB, my various email accounts update. However, once TB is running they don't update.
  • I can scroll the folder window, but cannot select anything
  • The tabs respond when I select them (see image2)
  • the menu is unresponsive
  • If I select an email, nothing appears in the message window (see attached image1)
  • There are several tasks that should have generated reminders, but they haven't

At this point, I'm leaning to:

  • Running the installer to update TB, or
  • uninstall/reinstall. My biggest worry is the Local Folder. There are messages in there that are ancient, going back as far as 2005. If I can recover the local folder then I may just bite the bullet and do an install from scratch.

Thanks again.

Patrick

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installing thunderbird again over the top of current install may work, but the instructions I gave wouldn't cause all of what you are seeing.

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Hello David:

Your suggestion for removing the account for the defunct domain did in fact clear it out of TB. Restarting TB and my system seems to have corrected TB's wonkiness. It's now running as it should.

Thank you so much for your assistance...and patience.

Patrick

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You're quite welcome. :)

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