Follow the instructions to use the profile manager to move your profile. This will point Thunderbird to your existing profile. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird#Use_the_Profile_Manager_to_move_your_profile

Thanks for the pointer I only have the default profile on the computer however and by changing the pop3 file in the account tools I can now see what has gone before but I would like to be able to combine the info from all the various Pop3 files that are lurking in the mail folder as there is a years worth of sent and received between the views

by changing the pop3 file in the account tools I can now see what has gone before

I have no idea what that means.

I would like to be able to combine the info from all the various Pop3 files that are lurking in the mail folder as there is a years worth of sent and received between the views

Same here, not sure what you're trying to achieve. It doesn't sound like being related to your original problem, so you may want to start a new topic for this.

You sent the link for moving a profile however I only have one profile. At the end of the instructional there is a sentence that says if folders seem empty go to account settings and browse for the file that contains your mail I have accumulated 5 different Pop3 files due to Tbird updates selecting any of these files and restarting Tbird shows a differing set of records non of which are complete as they are time related. I think that I may be able to export all records from each of four pop files and then combine the emls and import them into Pop3-5 so giving a complete record which can be edited using archive or delete

You sent the link for moving a profile however I only have one profile.

The information you provided suggests you do have two profiles:

• one which Thunderbird 'forgot' (for whatever reason), and
• a new, empty one

The procedure suggested would point Thunderbird to your 'forgotten' profile again.

Here are screen shots showing path and default profile and a second shot showing mail folder content with the FIVE pop3 folders which I have to swap over in order to see the various configurations and mail from times gone by pre thunderbird updates I do not know why thunderbird makes a new file from time to time but when it does records get hidden. I thank you for inadvertently pointing me to a work-around but if I knew how to combine all five folders into one without losing any data it would be good. I had hoped to export /edit and import but so far the Export tool does not seem to work as I hoped

The funny thing is that with those numeric suffixes, Thunderbird hasn't lost sight of your profile, in that those numbers indicate that it appears to have added multiple instances of the one account. In the classic "lost profile" situation, Thunderbird loses the reference to the working profile so creates a new empty profile, and looking like a new clean installation, prompts you to set up an account. Yours isn't like that; all the folders you're showing us are inside the one profile. It hasn't (as far as I can see) created a new profile.

I wonder if something like a disk cleaner utility is damaging your prefs.js file, so that Thunderbird wakes up, can't find the account settings, and therefore prompts you to add an account. It would seem it hasn't lost the messages themselves, but has lost the configuration settings for the account. Messages and settings are stored separately.

You could trying copying each of the numbered folders into the un-numbered folder, and then set Thunderbird's Local Directory setting to the un-numbered folder's name. Or copy all your numbered folders into Local Folders.

But before doing anything like that, backup your whole profile first so you can revert to where you are now if it doesn't get any better. And close Thunderbird before working in on its profile.

If this idea works, then you should see in Thunderbird a lot of new subfolders containing the lost messages. Then you can start moving the lost messages into the principal folders, and then delete the now-empty imported folders

To help decide whether christ1's approach is the right one to follow, or if my hunch is right, you could paste here the contents of your profiles.ini file. If I'm wrong and it has been creating multiple profiles, we would see them listed in your profiles.ini file.

As I have said there is only one profile. The problem seems to coincide with updates when Tbird seems to lose sight of the path and I am presented with the new account dialogue I choose to use the old settings and re-enter the name and password so email starts working again and anything left on the server downloads but to a new pop3 folder created by tbird when I enter the existing settings to allow access. I will follow your advice re combining the pop3 folders and report back Meanwhile thanks for the push in the direction of a solution. here is a picture of the profile ini file opened in notebook