https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data

Thanks, Wayne, I found that guide. However there is no such thing as "troubleshooting" under "help," so it is out of date. Nevertheless, I did find a file that is supposed to be my profile, under a strange number as seems appropriate. That's on my Thunderbird account, however. I am trying to locate the local folders, which are on my backup file somewhere, I hope. Right? This doesn't help me find my local folders.

<profile>\Mail\Local Folders

AnniColorado said

However there is no such thing as "troubleshooting" under "help," so it is out of date.

Where are you looking? Hopefully in the Thunderbird menus because Troubleshooting Information exists under Help in both the Menu bar and the AppMenu. menus.

If not in your version of Thunderbird, how old of a version are you running?

Hi, thanks for replying. I did not understand the directions because I clicked on help instead of hovering on it. Ok, so I can find the profile but that does not help me find the local files. Perhaps they are under the profile but I am completely lost. Here's the problem: MSN fouled up my computer with a Windows update, and made a backup of all my files before wiping and replacing Windows. I was able to get my main Thunderbird email account back. But I had used Thunderbird to back up some gmail mail that were crucial records. They were stored in Thunderbird under Local Folders. I can't find Local Folders in the backup file. MSN says it is possible they were under AppData and therefore are missing from the backup. Is that possible? Is it possible this part of my Thunderbird email account is backed up in the cloud somewhere? Thanks for understanding that I need detailed instructions.

Thunderbird stores nothing in the cloud. There is no backup at Mozilla or anywhere other than your mail as it exists on your mail servers. Any backups of your local data are your responsibility.

Thunderbird has always stored profile data in "appdata". It is a hidden folder that Microsoft have recommended for the storage of application data such as mail since windows XP. Somehow though they appear to forget it exists unless you are using Microsoft office.

Basically I would suggest that unless you have a backup of your old appdata folders (often in a folder Windows.old in the root of the C: drive after an operating system reset) then your data is probably lost.

Thank you for the clear answer. When the Microsoft person calls back, I'll see if he can find it there. But I suspect the first Microsoft person who did the backup before wiping the computer didn't bother to copy the appdata, even though he promised he was copying all data files.

Suggestion: Perhaps Thunderbird could have an introduction for new users telling them of such important information, so if they are in my situation they would know to copy that?

You mean with help articles like this. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data

AnniColorado said

Suggestion: Perhaps Thunderbird could have an introduction for new users telling them of such important information, so if they are in my situation they would know to copy that?

I have been blogging about Thunderbird for years and I have only scratched the surface. My feeling at this point is every program when installed should inform the user they have no idea about anything and please do not touch the settings unless you are told to.

It has become very clear to me that most people know absolutely nothing about the hardware or the software they use, they expect it to just "work" and when it does not then they expect someone to volunteer to fill in their ignorance and fix it for them. Funnily enough it appears to be those that charge for their time as consultants and professional advisers that have the greatest expectation of free fixes for their free software.

Matt: Actually, I would prefer the creators (of everything) write an instruction manual so users could look up the answers without bothering nice people like you.

Airmail: Unfortunately, I did not find that article helpful at all. I am one of the 90 percent who don't understand that kind of language. And we find most forum instructions useless as a result.

So the instructions would need to be in simple English, with details on where to find everything. I was stumped on that profile article for the longest time simply because I clicked instead of doing a drop-down, and the next step wasn't there.

And right up at the top should be a warning that a standard back-up will not store certain things - in this case, local folders. Or better yet, the program should be written so a standard back-up does catch everything.

I thank you both for your time and attention to this.

Hi AnniColorado, Thunderbird data is stored in your Windows "user" folder, under the AppData folder. This is a hidden folder by default, so if you were looking around your computer, you might not see it. However, hopefully your backup software was aware that critical data is stored in there and made a copy for you.

Before proceeding, please set Windows to show you hidden files and folders: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14201/windows-show-hidden-files

Next, how is your backup set up? For example, is it on an external hard drive and you can browse through it? Or do you use a backup program to look in the backup to show what files are there?

Either way, try exploring along this standard path in the backup:

C:\Users\your-use-name\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

Can you find that folder in your backup?

If that is not in your backup, did Windows create a folder named

C:\Windows.old\

when you did your system refresh? If it did, look for

C:\Windows.old\Users\your-use-name\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

Can you find that folder?

If you have a profile folder in either of those places, and it has up-to-date contents, then you should be back on track toward finding your old mail folders.