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Can't properly access my Thunderbird Data located on another Hard Drive Partition

  • 9 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 23 views
  • Last reply by sfhowes

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Hello,

I've been using Thunderbird Email Software for quite some time. The other day when I launched Thunderbird a message came up stating that I have to create another account or use an existing account. Since I have or had an account already set up I filled in the fields requested. After that there were no email messages showing, nothing in Local Folders and nothing in Address Book! Before this I had 5,289 emails in my Inbox, a lot of folders under Local Folders and a bunch of Items in my Address Book.

I have my Thunderbird Data saved on another hard drive and had Thunderbird linked to this Thunderbird Data folder. I've had Thunderbird set up this way for years until the other day when I guess this configuration got messed up. I didn't know what to do so I re-installed Thunderbird, unfortunately this didn't help. I believe Thunderbird has another Profile name: xbtdsdp2.default-release. The Thunderbird Profile I have located on another hard drive I mentioned earlier is named: qe87gii2.default.

I tried to re-link to the qe87gii2.default profile in Thunderbird by going to Account Settings\Server Settings\ and put the following path in the Local Directory: I:\Data\Mozilla Thunderbird Profile\qe87gii2.default\Mail\Local Folders. I restarted Thunderbird and now my 5,289 emails are there but there are only two messages showing at the beginning of my Inbox and three messages showing at the end of my Inbox all other messages are blank there is still nothing in Local Folders or my Address Book. I believe my current Thunderbird Profile looks like this:

[Install8216C80C92C4E828] Default=Profiles/xbtdsdp2.default-release Locked=1

[Profile2] Name=qe87gii2.default IsRelative=0 Path=I:\Data\Mozilla Thunderbird Profile\qe87gii2.default

[Profile1] Name=default-release IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/xbtdsdp2.default-release

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=0 Path=I:\Data\Mozilla Thunderbird Profile\qe87gii2.default Default=1

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1 Version=2

It looks as if the Thunderbird Profile.ini doesn't look right. I have no idea how Thunderbird got corrupted!

Thanks for your time and help!!

Sincerely,

John Eline jeline5608@earthlink.net

P.S. Please reply to my Email Address above!

Hello, I've been using Thunderbird Email Software for quite some time. The other day when I launched Thunderbird a message came up stating that I have to create another account or use an existing account. Since I have or had an account already set up I filled in the fields requested. After that there were no email messages showing, nothing in Local Folders and nothing in Address Book! Before this I had 5,289 emails in my Inbox, a lot of folders under Local Folders and a bunch of Items in my Address Book. I have my Thunderbird Data saved on another hard drive and had Thunderbird linked to this Thunderbird Data folder. I've had Thunderbird set up this way for years until the other day when I guess this configuration got messed up. I didn't know what to do so I re-installed Thunderbird, unfortunately this didn't help. I believe Thunderbird has another Profile name: xbtdsdp2.default-release. The Thunderbird Profile I have located on another hard drive I mentioned earlier is named: qe87gii2.default. I tried to re-link to the qe87gii2.default profile in Thunderbird by going to Account Settings\Server Settings\ and put the following path in the Local Directory: I:\Data\Mozilla Thunderbird Profile\qe87gii2.default\Mail\Local Folders. I restarted Thunderbird and now my 5,289 emails are there but there are only two messages showing at the beginning of my Inbox and three messages showing at the end of my Inbox all other messages are blank there is still nothing in Local Folders or my Address Book. I believe my current Thunderbird Profile looks like this: [Install8216C80C92C4E828] Default=Profiles/xbtdsdp2.default-release Locked=1 [Profile2] Name=qe87gii2.default IsRelative=0 Path=I:\Data\Mozilla Thunderbird Profile\qe87gii2.default [Profile1] Name=default-release IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/xbtdsdp2.default-release [Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=0 Path=I:\Data\Mozilla Thunderbird Profile\qe87gii2.default Default=1 [General] StartWithLastProfile=1 Version=2 It looks as if the Thunderbird Profile.ini doesn't look right. I have no idea how Thunderbird got corrupted! Thanks for your time and help!! Sincerely, John Eline jeline5608@earthlink.net P.S. Please reply to my Email Address above!

Chosen solution

Launch TB and select Help/Troubleshooting, click about:profiles. Can you select the qe87gii2.default profile and then 'Launch in new browser' and see your previous setup?

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All Replies (9)

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Chosen Solution

Launch TB and select Help/Troubleshooting, click about:profiles. Can you select the qe87gii2.default profile and then 'Launch in new browser' and see your previous setup?

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Hello,

I performed the Solution that was sent. And things are much better. It appears that all of listings in My Address Book are back in and my email messages are now appearing again.

However I had a lot of folders created under Local Folders that are still not appearing. I had a bunch of message filters set up in various folders under the Local Folders so these messages aren't being filtered now as these folders can't be found!

Since there seems to be an issue with the 'Local Folders" I went back into Thunderbird and then to Account Settings\Server Settings to check on the file path in the Local Directory. The path is as follows:

I:\Data\Mozilla Thunderbird Profile\qe87gii2.default\Mail\pop.earthlink-2.net

Before I got this problem the path in the Local Directory was:

I:\Data\Mozilla Thunderbird Profile\qe87gii2.default\Mail\Local Folders

I tried to replace pop.earthlink-2.net with Local Folders but a Server Settings Window appeared with: "The directory specified in the Local Directory setting is already used by the "Local Folders" account. Please pick a different directory. These folders that aren't appearing I spent a lot of time creating them over the years, I hate to loose them!

Things are better but not the way it used to be!

Sincerely,

John Eline

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Hello once again,

This is an update from my last reply.

As I was going through my messages that were missing, I noticed some messages are still missing and a bunch of messages are not configued properly. Message sample below:

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It appears the end of my last reply got cut off. But as you can see some messages are not being configured properly!

Sincerely,

John Eline

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The Local Directory in Server Settings for the account is where downloaded mail is stored, i.e. ...Mail\pop.earthlink-2.net. The Local Directory for Local Folders is different, i.e. it's for locally stored mail.

If the mail in Mail\pop.earthlink-2.net doesn't look right, open the profile folder and see if there are folders named Mail\pop.earthlink-1.net or Mail\pop.earthlink.net, and set one of them as Local Directory.

Open the qe87gii2.default\Mail\Local Folders in File Explorer and see if there are mbox files - files with no extension - with the names of the folders you aren't seeing in TB. If the mbox files are there, delete the like-named .msf files, while TB is closed, and see if the folders appear under Local Folders when TB is restarted.

If the mbox files for the missing folders are in some other place, you can copy them into qe87gii2.default\Mail\Local Folders, and they should show under Local Folders when TB is restarted.

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Hello,

This is an update concerning the issue I'm having with Thunderbird.

I purchased a Microsoft Surface Pro 4. Since I was planning to use Thunderbird with my Surface Pro 4 I copied my Thunderbird Profile Folder on to a thumb drive ( my Thunderbird Profile was working fine then) and then pasted on to the Surface Pro 4 and it worked fine!

The other day I deleted the Thunderbird Profile I was having trouble with and replaced it with the working TB Profile. After doing this I got all of those folders I lost and all of my email messages except for the past month! I am also able to use the path I used before in TB Local Directory

I:\Data\Mozilla Thunderbird Profile\qe87gii2.default\Mail\Local Folders

But now I noticed that I don't have any Addresses in my TB Address Book. I had quite a bunch! In my Profile (qe87gii2.default) under Mail\Local Folders I found the "abook.mab" file with a size of 16 KB, and the "History.mab" file with a size of 38 KB. Also I noticed these two files as well as many others Opens with "7-Zip File Manager" I'm not sure this is normal!

My Address Book should still be intact as most everything else was. I don't know how to get it configured however!

Sincerely,

John Eline

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The two mab file, abook.mab (Personal Address Book) and history.mab (Collected Addresses) should be in the qe87gii2.default folder. Just overwrite the (empty) ones in the profile folder with the ones in Local Folders, while TB is closed.

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Hello,

I copied the abook.mab(16 KB) and the History.mab(38 KB) located in Mozilla Thunderbird Profile\qe87gii2.default\Local Folders and pasted both files in Mozilla Thunderbird Profile\qe87gii2.default\Local Folders\ Mail\Local Folders.

There is still nothing showing in Thunderbird Address Book when I clicked on it. Unfortunately I forgot to close Thunderbird before I copied these files but closed Thunderbird right after and then launched Thunderbird again but nothing shows up in my Address Book!

Maybe I didn't copy the correct abook or History files?

Sincerely,

John E.

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The mab files must be in the profile folder qe87gii2.default, not in any subfolder. Also, there should not be a qe87gii2.default\Local Folders; Local Folders is a subfolder of qe87gii2.default\Mail.