We're calling on all EU-based Mozillians with iOS or iPadOS devices to help us monitor Apple’s new browser choice screens. Join the effort to hold Big Tech to account!

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Saying my profile is missing or inaccessible. This happened right after I moved folder to my documents and changes name

  • 1 reply
  • 1 has this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

RachelP7
RachelP7
more options

I searched for the folder in finder where thunderbird stores its data in hopes it would have all my emails there. I renamed the folder and moved to my documents so I could easily access. (Not sure of its original origin). After I did that, when I went to open Thunderbird an error message popped up saying: Profile Missing Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible.

How do I fix this?

I searched for the folder in finder where thunderbird stores its data in hopes it would have all my emails there. I renamed the folder and moved to my documents so I could easily access. (Not sure of its original origin). After I did that, when I went to open Thunderbird an error message popped up saying: Profile Missing Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible. How do I fix this?

All Replies (1)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

You can move or rename a profile folder of the hard drive as that will make it impossible for Thunderbird to access this folder.
Thunderbird (and Firefox) use the profiles.ini file to map the profile folder as shown in the Profile Manager with the actual folder on the hard drive.
By renaming or moving the profile folder you break this, so you should never do this.

You will have to move the folder to the original location and rename the folder to the name as can be found in the profiles.ini file.