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Unexpected re-installation deleted all local folders

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  • Last reply by Matt

eduardstomp
eduardstomp
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For whatever reason Thunderbird closed and it was impossible to open the e-mail program again. After restarting the computer I received a totally new and blank Thunderbird, without any accounts configured. I also lost all my local folders. I want to restore the original settings (e-mail accounts and local folders); how do I do that? I work on Windows 10 and have been using Thunderbird for years without problems.

For whatever reason Thunderbird closed and it was impossible to open the e-mail program again. After restarting the computer I received a totally new and blank Thunderbird, without any accounts configured. I also lost all my local folders. I want to restore the original settings (e-mail accounts and local folders); how do I do that? I work on Windows 10 and have been using Thunderbird for years without problems.

Chosen solution

No the profiles.ini file that points to the profile was damaged, probably by a system crash when it was being updated.

anything that you have done that did not correct the location of the actual profile is likely to come back and bite you when you try and move to a new computer.

This article cover how to use the profile manager to create a new profile, using the old location and restore things. I hope you did something very similar. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

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Zenos
Zenos
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Have you done a hard disk check recently? That sounds like a rather drastic loss of data has happened. Both the program and its profile…

eduardstomp
eduardstomp Question owner
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Zenos said

Have you done a hard disk check recently? That sounds like a rather drastic loss of data has happened. Both the program and its profile…

I was able to retrieve the local folders, they were still on the harddisk, but the newly installed Thunderbird was using new (not the existing) paths. Manually I was able to redirect the new Thunderbird to the old paths. Nevertheless, I was not able to identify why Thunderbird was re-installed and created new paths, overlooking the old local folders. I also was not able to repair the paths in a way that everything (all e-mailaccounts, all agendas, tasks, local folders) was restored in full. So I have the local folders, it is not a harddisk problem, the problem is that for whatever reason Thunderbird re-installed itself and started from scratch.

Modified by eduardstomp

Matt
Matt
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Chosen Solution

No the profiles.ini file that points to the profile was damaged, probably by a system crash when it was being updated.

anything that you have done that did not correct the location of the actual profile is likely to come back and bite you when you try and move to a new computer.

This article cover how to use the profile manager to create a new profile, using the old location and restore things. I hope you did something very similar. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird