Further to this question: My local directory in the accounts settings is a folder on my E:/ drive. After clicking apply and restarting many times I check the properties on my inbox and it is pointing to the profile file on my C:/ drive.

why

how do I get the program to do what it is told to do?

If your e: drive is unavailable (switched off perhaps) then setting reset. Just a fact of life, and one of the reasons we don't suggest to folks to put their profile on network shared, usb drives or the cloud. It does not stop them doing it. even thought the software is not tested in any way for that type of install.

You need to decide whether you want to relocate your entire profile to the alternative drive, or just the mail store files. You seem a little confused about the distinction between these two options. The base location for your profile is set in the profiles.ini file, which must be stored in a specific location but can point to a profile just about anywhere else. A significant challenge with a removable drive is ensuring that it is always allocated the same drive identification (which would be a letter in Windows, or something like /dev/sda6 in Linux.)

The alternative to moving the entire profile is to change the location of individual message stores, which is done by adjusting the Local Directory setting in each account.

I would discourage doing the second because it fragments your data storage and makes ongoing maintenance harder, and I suspect this is part of your current predicament.

Both you and the previous poster assume that I don't know what I am doing. I have had my storage out of the profile for many years - it makes it easy to switch machines. I am definiterly not confused about the situation.

This configuration has worked for years. The latest install shows two things one is that the file properties show the INBOX file is situated in the profile and the account settings are pointed to the storage. The INBOX file should be located in the storage.

Obviously the accounts setting is not working - why and how to make it work?

I guess you folks are too busy condescending to other poor saps who have real problems to get to the bottom of this really easy question.

You should know I have use TB for over a decade now and each upgrade makes it worse and sluggish.

I'm off to find another email client.

I can't reproduce your problem. Having experimentally switched an account to store its Local Directory on a USB stick, it all works just fine.

Is your residual profile on the c:\ drive in a writeable location?

I can't see any advantage in storing just your mail stores on the external drive. Why wouldn't you also want to keep your Address Book, account settings, filters, add-ons and customizations? That is, why not just put the entire profile on the external drive?

cobourgladdie said

I guess you folks are too busy condescending to other poor saps who have real problems to get to the bottom of this really easy question.

No I am not to busy. Nor am I being condescending. I am ignoring you.