Thunderbird Support Forum

A long-standing university email account that I accessed through Thunderbird was recently mistakenly deleted by the institutional administrator and all its contents deleted. The institution subsequently established a replacement email account for me, but the institutional Help Desk said the emails from the original account had been erased and could no longer be accessed from their server. Fortunately, I had Thunderbird configured to save all my emails on my local machine, so that even though I can no longer log in to the original email account, I can still view the emails in my Thunderbird installation (i.e., open and read them), even though every instance of starting up Thunderbird calls for me to supply the password for the original account (which I can no longer do). So I just close that dialogue box and can still see the emails stored locally on my machine.

I would like to move (or copy) these emails to a location where I can still access them off line and view them in the original organizational scheme (if possible), under the headings "subject," "correspondents," and "Date." But the Thunderbird "archive" feature seems to require that I be able to log on to the institutional server under the original account, which I can no longer do. The only existence of these emails is on my local computer.

Is there a way for me to preserve these emails as an accessible archive/repository so that I can continue having access to them, even though they are no longer in a functioning email account?

Thanks for any suggestions/help.

I'm running Windows 10 Pro (64-bit). I have two different versions of Thunderbird installed on my system; one is installed in Program Files (64-bit version 125.0.0.0 dated 04/23/2024—old version) and the other is installed in Program Files (x86) (64-bit version 115.12.2.0 dated 06/25/2024—the current version). The shortcut icon on my desktop (which I never use) runs the older version located in the Program Files folder while the shortcut icon on my taskbar (and also the one in my Start menu) runs the updated version located in the Program Files (x86) folder.

As an aside, there are 21 .dll files in the Program Files (x86) folder (all starting with api-ms-win and dated 09/27/2023) while none of those files are in the Program Files folder.

FYI, I have been using Thunderbird on this PC for almost five years.

How do I fix this problem so that I have only the current version of Thunderbird run from the proper folder, Program Files?

TSO Host migrated all my email accounts to a different server. All my emails have stopped downloading to Thunderbird. I cannot find a way to configure my TSO Host email accounts since they upgraded their servers to Cpanel deluxe yesterday and neither can anyone at TSO Host.

The latest update of Thunderbird somehow made this message appear "This is an unsupported version of Thunderbird!!" (see attached picture). Is this a bug? I've checked the version on the homepage and it's the same that's running on my PC (Windows 11).

Do I install the 64bit option or 32bit ?? The installer gives me a choice.

After installation on the new M3 mac, I will be migrating my Thunderbird profile from a 2021 iMac that runs BigSur on Intel silicon.

I'm anticipating updating the iMac to Sonoma, but long experience has shown me that major s/w version upgrades are often very unfriendly to 3rd party s/w apps&data, so I wanted to get my tBird profile (all my mail history) working on the new Mac before doing the major upgrade on my iMac.

I'm porting Thunderbird from my W-10 PC to a new Mac. I tried some things and found help on the net. Heere are the steps I took:

WHAT DOESN'T WORK (but I did): Removed installed Profiles folder and saved on desktop. Transferred PC Profiles folder to same place in Mac.

Deleted PC folder from Mac. Replaced Mac Profiles folder had previously moved. Deleted installs.ini and profiles.ini Started Thunderbird which created new profiles in Profiles folder.

WHAT SHOULD WORK BUT DIDN'T (after above): Removed new contents of Profiles folder. Transferred contents of PC Profiles folder to Profiles folder on Mac. Got the following message: "Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible."

What did I do wrong? Do I need to uninstall Thunderbird and reinstall? Would that solve problems?

Thank you.

Attempts to run Thunderbird 115.12.1 in Windows 11 have failed repeatedly with error message: Unable to log in at server. Probably wrong configuration, username or password.

I lost my previous PC due to an unrecoverable hard drive crash. My current email provider is AOL and I was using the Thunderbird email app prior to the crash. According to some of the O&A posed at this site, I may have to contact AOL directly for assistance.

Please advise what information I need from them to complete the installation. I know you guys are busy and I can receive current emails from AOL at this time so there is no need to rush on my account.

I like Thunderbird a lot.

Thank you. Bob Perry

Hi,

I have changed the provider of e-mail services. The old IMAP account is already expired (not reachable).

I wanted to copy the messages from the old account to the new one. Unfortunately, it turned out that some messages contents are missing* (not downloaded locally). I acknowledge there's nothing I can do anymore to get the message contents.

However, I would definitely want to keep the records of the messages — their subject, correspondents, date and time. Can I get the message list in any form (other than taking screenshots) from Thunderbird? How to do it?

I have tested (not to work): - Copying / moving the directory from the context menu to the new account has no effect. - Dragging the individual messages has no effect as well. - After entering the Offline mode (from `File` menu) those actions result it a prompt informing that messages are not downloaded. - I tried copy-pasting the .msf file, directory and directory.sdb for the IMAP directory (with not-downloaded messages) from "ImapMail" of the profile to the "Mail" (local folders) to see if that would work, but it unfortunately haven't. - The .msf files do not contain the data (subject, correspondents, datetime).

• all the messages in question have been opened in Thunderbird. Therefore I thought I have them all on my local drive. I haven't rushed to copy the messages, because I have backed up the Profile directory (including ImapMail). Perhaps after organizing the mails (i.e. moving to appropriate IMAP directories) the local copies were deleted, and new copies (in target IMAP directories) not downloaded (as I haven't opened them anymore).

I recently converted my POP accounts to iMap. One of my local folders was corrupted. I restored a backup copy of Thunderbird that had the emails in a local folder. By local folder, I mean a folder stored on my iMac and not subject to iMap services. What I would like to do is to export the local folder from the backup TB instance and import it to my "live" TB version. Is this possible?

Is it possible to install TB (or at least the profiles) onto an external SSD (i.e., not the C: drive)? If so, how?

Note: this is not about migration/backup/recovery of profiles.

Windows 11 is consuming nearly all of the C: drive. I badly need to get TB (and Firerfox) onto my E: drive. I further note that the installer gives no options whatsoever as to the destination drive.

I've read everything I could find here and all of that is about using an external drive as a backup. Most of the other help I've found on the web is clearly outdated.

Thanks. jt

Hi, hope someone can help please

By mistake I set up my 89 year old aunties TB using a Beta version. All of her emails are in that profile. I then installed the stable version but I'm told that the stable version is an older versions and can not import from the Beta.

Specifically the Beta version is 127.0b4 (64-bit) and the stable vesrion is 115.11.1 (64-bit).

Is there any way to recover the emails (and if possible the settings) from the Beta profile to the stable release

Thanks in anticipation

Russell

Trying to use my old profile on a fresh install.

After trying a few things I ended up with an error that the profile couldn't be loaded or was inaccessible.

So I did the following:

1) started the profile manager 2) removed all profiles 3) created a new profile 4) changed the name of the folder in the file system 5) copied my old profile folder to the same spot with the same name that the profile manager gave it

When I started thunderbird, I was just expecting it to load with my old profile.

Instead, I got the Account Setup screen.

I don't want to setup my email account, as I'm worried it will start downloading all my emails, and store them in who knows what profile. I could not see a way to start Thunderbird without it successfully connecting to an email server in this setup process.

Any suggestions for just getting mozilla to start and load my old profile please?

Question 1 - Is this a real version? (as dlsplayed in troubleshooting information) Question 2 - How can I upgrade to version 115,, or do I have to delete and start again? Sub question - if I have to delete what is the best method? I just spent a few days installing and then installing 5 gig of settings and mail from Windows 10; I would hate to do it again.

Tired of Apple mail, want to install Thunderbird 78.14.0 on my mac mini. Am running Yosemite 10.10.5.

I can see access to the files on this site but need an installer to load to system.

Am familiar with unix can work off a console but am not a programmer, wouldn't know one end of a compiler from the other.

Can you point me in the right direction?

i have an old win10 machine with a huge thunderbird profile - 37.9GB size / 75.2GB disk. i'd like to move it with Tools Export / Import to a new win11 machine.

on win10 i click thru tools > export > open profile folder

and in ...\thunderbird\profiles i select yhcc00j7.dan and export it to an external ssd.

it runs for hours and then a number of these appear: "Are you sure you want to copy with file without its properties? The file %2B...." has properties that can't be copied to the new location.... Type WDSEML file size 1.02KB....".

so i check "Do this for all current items" and hours later it finishes.

on win11 i click thru tools > import > import from another thunderbird profile > choose a profile and select the folder yhcc00j7.dan on the ssd and import everything > start

for a minute or so it says "importing .... 0%" but no new profile shows up in ...appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles\ and then "import failed unexpectedly" is displayed.

i've tried this twice. both machines have version 115.11.1 "esr update channel". what am i doing wrong?

I have created an entry in my Personal Address Book. When I am in that address book I click on the Import tab. I select CSV file. It provides me a File Dialog to select my CSV file. But then it provides me with a File Dialog to select an address book file. The address book I want to use is the one I am currently "in" in the program. But if I for some reason I wanted to import into another existing address book, I should either have to get "in" that one, or it Mozlla Thunderbird would list the address books it knows about as a selection.

It appears I am supposed to select the file that Mozilla Thunderbird created somewhere. From a search it appears (this is on Windows 11) from the App Store that is somewhere in ..\AppData\Local\MozillaThunder.MZL_h<numbers and letters>\LocalCache\<Roaming | Local>.

I don't understand why I am choosing a file that is already open in Mozilla Thunderbird?

TIA , Time to Migrate TB Portable to new computer : I was advised that all need to do is Copy this Folder C:\ThunderbirdPortable to new computer . But that doesn't bring over all my email accounts . Pls , what else do I need to do ? Thanks...

Hi all. I had a hard drive failure and managed to mostly clone the old drive to a shiny new one. There were errors logged during the clone and TB appears to be a victim of those errors.

Win 11 x64.

When I launch TB I get the icon on the taskbar but no main screen. If I hover over the icon I see a small box with the TB logo top left where you’d expect it, and Home next to it. Clicking it has no effect. TB appears to be functioning because new emails are being filtered according to the Rules, as witnessed on my phone.

I tried reinstalling 115.11.1 with no change. So obviously somethings fubar with my profile. What is the best way to proceed? Obviously I’d like to avoid having to set up all my email accounts plus the associated rules etc if it’s possible. I use IMAP if it’s relevant.

Thanks in advance, Tony

I have added my gmail account to TB and it downloads all the folders and emails correctly, but as soon as I try to move an email with an attachment from a local folder to a folder on the gmail acount I get "Connection to server imap.gmail.com timed out" errors.