This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Este fío arquivouse. Faga unha nova pregunta se precisa axuda.

Can't restore a backup of a profile

  • 3 respostas
  • 1 has this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by Stans

greg.hjelstrom
greg.hjelstrom
more options

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.

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)

Stans
Stans
more options

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.

greg.hjelstrom
greg.hjelstrom Question owner
more options

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

greg.hjelstrom modificouno o

Stans
Stans
more options

Your backup is incomplete then. You should have more folders like ImapMail and Mail in the backup folder, where your messages are actually stored.