Can't restore a backup of a profile
My computer had a hardware problem and I had to re-install windows. I have been using a backup system so I have a backup of my thunderbird data in the Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles folder. However the files in my backup profile don't look the same as the files in the profile that gets created when I install thunderbird. I do not know what version of Thunderbird I had but it was obviously much older. I've tried installing many versions in the hopes of finding one that works but so far I cannot get Thunderbird to recognize my data. I've tried creating a new profile and copying the contents from my old profile into it too.
All Replies (3)
How many folders are there in the Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles backup? If you have more than one, then you need to identify the correct one, then open it and inside you'll see a file called compatibility. It's a configuration file, so you can open it using Notepad. Paste its contents in your next reply.
Ok I have a zip file of the AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird folder from the computer when it was working.
The directory structure looks like this:
Thunderbird
- Crash Reports - Profiles - aeinq54q.default - calendar-data - crashes - extensions
In the aeinq54q.default folder there are a bunch of files but they mostly seem to have different names than the files in the profile that was created when I installed thunderbird on the newly reformatted computer. The profile after re-installing is called "8cherwcu.default". I assume because I seem to have used a different user-name when I reinstalled windows.
To the specific question you asked: in my backed-up profile folder there is no file named "compatibility". Here is a list of the filenames contained within my backed up profile:
abook.mab
blist.sqlite
blocklist.xml
calendar-data
cert8.db
cookies.sqlite
crashes
directoryTree.json
extensions
extensions.json
folderTree.json
global-messages-db.sqlite
history.mab
key3.db
mailViews.dat
parent.lock
permissions.sqlite
places.sqlite
pluginreg.dat
prefs.js
revocations.txt
search.json
secmod.db
session.json
sessionCheckpoints.json
SiteSecurityServiceState.txt
times.json
virtualFolders.dat
webappsstore.sqlite
xulstore.json
Thank you for your help!
Greg
Athraithe ag greg.hjelstrom ar
Your backup is incomplete then. You should have more folders like ImapMail and Mail in the backup folder, where your messages are actually stored.