Your screenshot shows only one expanded profile folder. Are there any more profile folders not visible in your screenshot? Please post another screenshot with the profile folder(s) collapsed.

Also, please post the contents of your profiles.ini file.

Here you go as requested see attached

Fred

I copied the entire profile and subfolders to a stick.

What's the name of the profile folder you copied?

I uninstalled TBird and then I copied the profile folder back to where it was.

Upon uninstalling Thunderbird the profile is not deleted, unless you explicitly check the corresponding box. Is this what you did? If not, why would you want to copy back a profile which is still there? Re-installing the application usually is a waste of time. It does not change the profile, and typically the problem is with the profile, not the application.

He took the largest of the numerous profiles and somehow got Thunderbird to open.

Which profile was that? The one you used when Thunderbird crashed? And why are there 6 profile folders in the first place? Looks like you created a mess.

Also, there are three profiles with the same name - default-release-1. Why would anyone create profiles like this?

1. Let me explain exactly the sequence:

2. Recently, I needed to delete about 3,000 messages I had mistakenly downloaded through Yahoo. Thunderbird just crashed. Normally when I have a problem with Thunderbird, I usually just download a new version and reinstall Tbird. However, it did not work this time.

3. I copied the entire profile and sub-folders to a stick. I manually uninstalled TBird and the profile folders.

4. Then I copied the profile folder back to where it was. I also installed a new Thunderbird. Unfortunately that didn't do it. TBird started however no files showed up, no index, address books, no nothing just an empty Bird.

5. I hired someone to fix the profile and files which seems to have been corrupted somehow, seemingly with too many sub folders, but I don't have the skills for that. He took the largest of the numerous profiles and somehow got Thunderbird to open with that profile. However, when the list of folders opened in T-Bird, they contained no files. He tried for hours to populate the files to no avail.

6. In Windows explorer I took screenshots so you could actually see all files under /Thunderbird/profiles now proliferating. I have no idea why there are so many profiles. I never created them.

Fred