Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Thunderbird account settings not accessible

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by James-A

James-A
James-A
more options

For unknown reasons, T-bird suddenly can't find the user profile's account settings. T-bird is still pointing at the existing default profile. Checking the profile folder using File Explorer, I can see that the account settings are there in the existing default profile, it's just that T-bird can't find it and wants to setup a whole new account. T-bird is also not finding the existing personal file folders either. If the problem is likely that an initiation file is corrupted, I have access to older generations of c: backups and so can recover any settings file that needs replacing. Can you suggest a recovery solution if that's what is needed?

I'm on Thunderbird 68.8.0 (32 bit) running on Windows 8 Thanks!

For unknown reasons, T-bird suddenly can't find the user profile's account settings. T-bird is still pointing at the existing default profile. Checking the profile folder using File Explorer, I can see that the account settings are there in the existing default profile, it's just that T-bird can't find it and wants to setup a whole new account. T-bird is also not finding the existing personal file folders either. If the problem is likely that an initiation file is corrupted, I have access to older generations of c: backups and so can recover any settings file that needs replacing. Can you suggest a recovery solution if that's what is needed? I'm on Thunderbird 68.8.0 (32 bit) running on Windows 8 Thanks!

Chosen solution

Did this happen after a TB update? One way to fix it might be to replace the prefs.js file in the profile with an earlier, uncorrupted version. Use one from a recent backup, or look for pref-1.js, prefs-2.js.... in the profile folder, rename the current file to prefs.js.bak, then rename e.g. prefs-2 to prefs.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_a_profile_that_suddenly_disappeared

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (2)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Chosen Solution

Did this happen after a TB update? One way to fix it might be to replace the prefs.js file in the profile with an earlier, uncorrupted version. Use one from a recent backup, or look for pref-1.js, prefs-2.js.... in the profile folder, rename the current file to prefs.js.bak, then rename e.g. prefs-2 to prefs.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_a_profile_that_suddenly_disappeared

James-A
James-A Question owner
more options

Thanks so much! Prefs.js was corrupted. Picked up a replacement from backup, then changed the profile name from default as recommended to help prevent this from happening in the future. Cheers, JS