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What just happened to my Thunderbird profile and why won't it start properly?

  • 2 replies
  • 0 have this problem
  • Last reply by qhorque

qhorque
qhorque
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Ok, I just had issues with Thunderbird after a very long time of no problems. Last was the "Assembling message" prompt that seems to have gone away. Today, however, I have a brand new one that makes no sense to me.

On the PC this morning with no issues and e-mail was fine. Thunderbird told me there was an update so I applied it and shut down the PC. Came back about 6:30PM and fired up the PC and, when I started Thunderbird, it prompted me to create a new e-mail account! What? I checked my profile and it was still there and I even compared it to my last differential backup and it appears to be right. Not corrupted.

Using the profile manager, I see it still knows where the profile is located and I even clicked it, selected it and said use it but it again started with the "create a new account"! Tried the usual methods of creating a new profile, renaming, using the old data, etc. but, every time I try, it only gets me to the "create new account" interface.

I even went so far as to revert to a previous Windows restore point to get back to the previous version of Thunderbird but it STILL does not want to use the existing profile. Uninstalled and reinstalled Thunderbird and again tried to point to the old profile and no joy. It simply does not want to use the existing profile.

Normally when I build a new PC or reload Windows to start fresh, I am always able to point Thunderbird at my old profile like nothing changed and it always worked. Today, however, it does not want to use what I was using this morning.

Anyone else get this today?

Ok, I just had issues with Thunderbird after a very long time of no problems. Last was the "Assembling message" prompt that seems to have gone away. Today, however, I have a brand new one that makes no sense to me. On the PC this morning with no issues and e-mail was fine. Thunderbird told me there was an update so I applied it and shut down the PC. Came back about 6:30PM and fired up the PC and, when I started Thunderbird, it prompted me to create a new e-mail account! What? I checked my profile and it was still there and I even compared it to my last differential backup and it appears to be right. Not corrupted. Using the profile manager, I see it still knows where the profile is located and I even clicked it, selected it and said use it but it again started with the "create a new account"! Tried the usual methods of creating a new profile, renaming, using the old data, etc. but, every time I try, it only gets me to the "create new account" interface. I even went so far as to revert to a previous Windows restore point to get back to the previous version of Thunderbird but it STILL does not want to use the existing profile. Uninstalled and reinstalled Thunderbird and again tried to point to the old profile and no joy. It simply does not want to use the existing profile. Normally when I build a new PC or reload Windows to start fresh, I am always able to point Thunderbird at my old profile like nothing changed and it always worked. Today, however, it does not want to use what I was using this morning. Anyone else get this today?

All Replies (2)

Matt
Matt
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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I suggest you have a look as the prefs.js file in your profile. My guess in bitdefender has treated it as some sort of threat (it is after all a javascript file) and it is just not there or is totally corrupt or there are loads of copies with numbers and the one you need without the numbers is corrupt. Restoring that file from a backup might work.

I still think you need to curb your antivirus product.

Helpful?

qhorque
qhorque Question owner
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Thanks for the suggestion Matt. I checked and the prefs.js files were identical. Also checked profile.ini and installs.ini and several other Thunderbird files and they all seemed to be in order. I did check AV logs and did not see anything about any actions taken against any files yesterday much less any changes to Thunderbird or my profiles folder.

After several hours of trying to remove, reinstall, copy folders from my spare PC (which has the same v115 version of Thunderbird on it) to the main PC, etc., I gave up and restored my last Macrium Reflect image from Sunday (lucky I created a full only 4 days earlier) and that seemed to fire Thunderbird right up pointing to my profile! So the profile was definitely good.

I don't think it was AV. I think it was a failed Thunderbird update to the latest version. This new v128 didn't like my v115 profile. So I set Thunderbird to not update anymore (registry hack.)

I'll move on now and see how it goes.

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