Can't find profile after Windows 8 Refresh
I performed a Windows 8 Refresh (which is supposed to refresh only the system files while leaving all user data intact). As part of this process, Windows uninstalls all third-party software and apps (including Thunderbird) and informs you that you must reinstall the software and apps after the refresh is completed. Unfortunately, when all was done my Thunderbird profile (in %appdata%\thunderbird\profiles was gone and I don't know where else to look for it (or if it's even still anywhere on my system). All my other files (documents, spreadsheets, photos, music, video, etc.) are still here - it appears that only my Thunderbird profile is gone. Can anyone help?
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Sorry to hear you have lost everything.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc Resetting your PC reinstalls Windows but deletes your files, settings and applications – except for the applications that came with your PC.
Windows only keeps files, settings and applications that came with your PC. This does not include Thunderbird.
they state :Refreshing your PC reinstalls Windows and keeps your personal files and settings. keeps your personal files and settings only refers to files you have saved in Windows own folders like 'Documents' or 'My Documents' .
I find the information they offer to be wanting in clarity given the severity of a misunderstanding. They do not make it clear enough that non windows files stored in the roaming folder which includes eg: Thunderbird Profile folder, will be deleted as they are not considered as 'keeps your personal files'.
Most people would consider those files to be 'personal files' and so can be forgiven for not being clear about what a Refresh would do.
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Valgt løsning
Sorry to hear you have lost everything.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc Resetting your PC reinstalls Windows but deletes your files, settings and applications – except for the applications that came with your PC.
Windows only keeps files, settings and applications that came with your PC. This does not include Thunderbird.
they state :Refreshing your PC reinstalls Windows and keeps your personal files and settings. keeps your personal files and settings only refers to files you have saved in Windows own folders like 'Documents' or 'My Documents' .
I find the information they offer to be wanting in clarity given the severity of a misunderstanding. They do not make it clear enough that non windows files stored in the roaming folder which includes eg: Thunderbird Profile folder, will be deleted as they are not considered as 'keeps your personal files'.
Most people would consider those files to be 'personal files' and so can be forgiven for not being clear about what a Refresh would do.
If you used an IMAP mail account then emails are stored on the server, so you could recreate the imap mail account and get access to all those emails again.
POP mail accounts will download anything still in the server Inbox.
If you have a backup stored externally, you could use it to get back anything you had previously backed up.
That is infuriating. The AppData folder is located inside my user profile which seems to me by definition to contain user files and settings. The good news is that I most likely have a backup and even if I don't there wasn't anything critical in the few POP accounts I had set up. Another reason to only use IMAP I guess.
The Thunderbird Data ARE NOT DELETED!
Actually, the same thing happened to me, after refreshing Windows 8.
AppData folder had no Thunderbird in Local or Roaming. But the old AppData folder was inside C:\Windows.old.
To be precise, under C:\Windows.old\Users\MyUserName\Appdata.
I figured that since Outlook also saves the Data in AppData\Local, Microsoft would not delete AppData that easily.
sp-support-mozilla-org Hi, thanks for feedback. You mention AppData\Local, but emails are not stored there. Can you confirm that you located the old Appdata/Roaming/thunderbird/profile on windows.old ?
Outlook stores mailbox in AppData\Local.
Thunderbird stores info on: 1. AppData\Local\Thunderbird (some profile data) 2. AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird (main data)
Both are preserved during the Windows 8 Refresh, in Windows.old I confirm that.
And if I restore those 2 Thunderbird folders, I have my exact old Thunderbird environment, including data, settings, addressbooks, rules, add-ons etc...