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Receiving error message: Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible.

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  • Last reply by 42skidoo

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I am using Windows 10 Home on an HP laptop. Some months ago, I began getting this error message when trying to start Thunderbird: Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible. I've been slogging along using my Gmail reader since then but I need my address books from TB for my business. I really need to get this fixed.

I've read all the questions/replies on this and have uninstalled and reinstalled TB. My Appdata/Roaming/TB file only has 5 files in it: Crash Reports, Pending Pings and Profiles plus a couple of 1 KB config files. Don't know if this is right or not.

When I search the Profiles folder using .ini, I get this Notepad info:

[Install8216C80C92C4E828] Default=C:\Users\*\Documents\yvfr1fi4.default Locked=1

[Profile3] Name=thunderbird IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/kavosmqu.thunderbird

I have this yvfr file on a thumb drive and I tried uploading that into the roaming/TB file but I still get the same error message.

Any help greatly appreciated! Thank you.

I am using Windows 10 Home on an HP laptop. Some months ago, I began getting this error message when trying to start Thunderbird: Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible. I've been slogging along using my Gmail reader since then but I need my address books from TB for my business. I really need to get this fixed. I've read all the questions/replies on this and have uninstalled and reinstalled TB. My Appdata/Roaming/TB file only has 5 files in it: Crash Reports, Pending Pings and Profiles plus a couple of 1 KB config files. Don't know if this is right or not. When I search the Profiles folder using .ini, I get this Notepad info: [Install8216C80C92C4E828] Default=C:\Users\*\Documents\yvfr1fi4.default Locked=1 [Profile3] Name=thunderbird IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/kavosmqu.thunderbird I have this yvfr file on a thumb drive and I tried uploading that into the roaming/TB file but I still get the same error message. Any help greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Chosen solution

Assuming you know where the real profile is, you could do this: - at windows desktop, click the windows key and the 'r' key. a small window opens - enter thunderbird -p to start profile manager - click the button to create a profile, then click 'next', then enter a short name, and then click the choose button to locate and select your profile.

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Chosen Solution

Assuming you know where the real profile is, you could do this: - at windows desktop, click the windows key and the 'r' key. a small window opens - enter thunderbird -p to start profile manager - click the button to create a profile, then click 'next', then enter a short name, and then click the choose button to locate and select your profile.

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Hi David,

Thank you,thank you! This worked and I can now see all of my Thunderbird email accounts, saved messages, and address books.

One more thing to work out: I have 6 email accounts. When I view them in Thunderbird, only two of them are showing all the messages up to today's date. The other 4 cut off on random dates ranging from 2021 to 2023. Can you help me find a way to bring those other messages into Thunderbird up to the current date? (I can see all the messages up to today's date when I access my accounts in Gmail, but they're not all appearing in Thunderbird.)

Thank you!

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I'm glad it's mostly working. If the missing accounts are POP, then you could try rightclicking each message folder, clicking properties and then clicking repair. That sometimes works if the index is corrupt. If IMAP, sometimes closing and restarting Thunderbird works, as IMAP accounts are designed to self-populate. I have had success by exiting TB, deleting the inbox, inbox.msf within the account, restarting TB and seeing the account populated. That issue is not one where I have much experience, as it seldom surfaces. You mentioned this is a business. Be sure to backup regularly. Here's how: - exit TB - copy c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird to external media. Do this on a regular schedule. I do it at least weekly. - then, if you ever need to restore, just - install thunderbird and exit (if needed) - copy the backed up thunderbird folder to c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming to overwrite the existing thunderbird folder - restart tb.

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Two of the accounts are POP; clicking repair didn't bring any new messages up.

The other two are IMAP and exiting and restarting didn't change anything, either. I don't know where to go to delete the inbox as you suggest.

Another thing that's happening is that one of the POP accounts delivers an error message on startup: The STAT command did not succeed. Error getting message number and sizes. Mail server pop.gmail.com responded: [AUTH] Invalid credentials.

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