I forgot to mention, when I run thunderbird -p I get that same message about the Newer version made changes (see attached). It gives me three profiles to pick from: default default-release default-release-1

Here is my profiles.ini:

[Profile2] Name=default-release-1 IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/ucuwjwtj.default-release-1

[InstallD78BF5DD33499EC2] Default=Profiles/f3ecgzez.default-release Locked=1

[Profile1] Name=default-release IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/f3ecgzez.default-release

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/xzi4blv2.default Default=1

[General] Version=2

[Install83378BA3C83DEE54] Default=Profiles/xzi4blv2.default

The backup with 102 should work. How do you do backups?

I use a backup program Paragon. I only restored the profile file: xzi4blv2.default, not all of TB102. I have since reinstalled 102 over the existing 102 and always get the Profile Missing window. If I wanted to restore all of 102, what folders do I restore, just the Mozilla Thunderbird folder in Program Files or are there others in other folders.

Would uninstalling 102 be useful or dangerous?

Damn Mozilla has me wasting many hours on this terrible 115.

The profiles.ini file at c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird points to the name of the profile. If you dropped in a profile folder, you would need to edit that file to prevent the profile not found error. Also, if Paragon does backups while TB is running, the backup might be corrupt.

The file that I dropped is named xzi4blv2.default same as the last two entries in profiles.ini.

During a backup I stop all programs that might change any files, including TB because I understand paragon keeps checking back to see if any file changed since it was backed up. When it has the latest of every file it ends the backup.

It used to be frustrating on Windows 8 because there was some daemon that would restart TB periodically during the backup. I always forgot to stop it and would suddenly see TB restart during the BU.

Does my profile.ini look OK? It is in the second post on this topic.

Any gut feeling that if I uninstalled TB 102 and reinstalled it would be better then running Thunderbird Setup 102.15.1.exe with TB still installed. Or could I muck things up by uninstalling TB totally.

If TB states that it cannot find profile, then the odds are that the profile is totally corrupt. To confirm this, use Profile Manager to set up the profile. You can press windows key and 'r' key and enter thunderbird.exe -p and then select 'create profile' and then click next and then enter a name (e.g., myprofile), and then click the browse button to locate and select the profile. That ensures that TB is looking at the desired profile. If the profile is corrupt, I am not the one to know how to make it right. If the accounts are IMAP, I would suggest starting over at some point, or by copying message files if POP and reconstructing. If you still have the profile as it worked in 115, that is another option. 115 does look different, but with a few setting changes, it is similar to 102.

That worked....sort of. But I kept hammering, trying things until it worked. Kinda went like this: Creating a profile from the existing one caused that "Made by newer version" error. The existing one was the one 115 touched. I went back to my Friday night backup that was made minutes before 115 blew in. That created a new profile but when TB opened, my folders were there but there were many INBOX-1 's and it didn't have any passwords. I looked at the size of the new profile and it was 10.1 GB. The one from the back up was 16.1 GB so the whole thing didn't get rebuilt. I went back to Profile Manager and just selected default which was actually the one from backup. TB started and everything was back (I think, still checking). Of course I was using 115 for a day or so before hating it. So things that I did during that time might be lost. Also my first reverting to 102 worked and I used it for a few days before stupidly permitting 115 again. So changes during that period may be lost also.

Now I have to remember to reject any new updates. Maybe there is a way in TB to set that.

To summarize: I had started Profile Manager before but always stopped because I didn't understand that I could build a new profile from an existing one. I tried that because of your info but built the new one from the 115 profile. That didn't work. Luckily I had a nearly current backup of the profile. I could have just replaced it in Profiles folder and run the manager. I am sure I did just replacing before a few times and it failed. Maybe because I didn't run the Profile Manager?????

BTW, if your solution didn't work and I couldn't find a solution I was seriously considering dumping TB because of 115. If I couldn't find a new client I planned just use web based mail. Web based mail has come a long way since Microsoft abandoned Outlook Express and forced me to TB. And I was thinking of dumping FireFox also just to get Mozilla out of my life. The DuckDuckGo browser seems to be a viable alternative.

Yes, TB has always had a setting to NOT update automatically. Yes, Duckduckgo is a good browser; I've used it for years. Yes, web mail works well, but doesn't have the management tools that email clients provide.

I found a way to stop updates (I think). Rename Updater.exe. If that doesn't work, I'll try another. There seems to be many. Thanks for all the help.

I had started Profile Manager before but always stopped because I didn't understand that I could build a new profile from an existing one. I tried that because of your info but built the new one from the 115 profile. That didn't work. Luckily I had a nearly current backup of the profile. I could have just replaced it in Profiles folder and run the manager. I am sure I did just replacing before a few times and it failed. Maybe because I didn't run the Profile Manager?" I'd love more info on this. I'm trying to revert to 102 from 115 (which I also feel is SHTF) I followed the profile management instructions and made my 24 GB profile the default one for 102. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-thunderbird-profiles Then I followed the other instructions and pointed the profile manager to my 24 GB profile (that was used in v102 just days ago) But when I launch 102 now, it still says that the profile was created in a newer version. So there's some additional file that informs older apps of the version of the app that last used the profile. Otherwise how would it know about a "newer" version of the app that didn't exist when 102 was made. You know? I just need to find out what that file is and change the version text in it. Or rebuild my profile in 102? But when I open the Profile Manager* the only options I have are Create Profile Rename Profile Delete Profile. There's no rebuild?

=

• It's actually kinda creepy that there's this extra profile management tool,

separate from Thunderbird, that calls itself Thunderbird, that needs to be launched by the terminal, and when running, doesn't even have an "About.... whatever the hell the name of this app is" in its menu.

At this point, my suggestion is to reinstall 102 and use tools>import>import from another installation and then select a copy of the paragon backup from 102.