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Profile corrupted? Inbox and Sent empty, folders like abook.mab, addons.jsn showing as local folders but empty.

  • 5 replies
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  • Last reply by christ1

Ray Hayes
Ray Hayes
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I closed Thunderbird on my old computer, copied the Profile folder to the second hard drive. I pasted the profile into the Profile folder in the newly installed Thunderbird file structure on the new computer, then opened Thunderbird. The Inbox and Sent folders are empty, all of my Local Folders are missing, and I have a long list of "Local Folders" with names like abook.mab, addons.jsn, etc. with nothing in them. I opened Thunderbird on my old PC and it has similar issues, Inbox and Sent folders empty, the same list of empty "Local Folders", but further down are my original real Local Folders which appear to have all of my old emails in them, and the Address Book is still populated. Is there a way to retrieve my apparently lost Inbox and Sent emails, and to copy the real Local Folders and Address Book to Thunderbird on my new PC (it currently only has the emails received in the last couple of days in the Inbox.

I closed Thunderbird on my old computer, copied the Profile folder to the second hard drive. I pasted the profile into the Profile folder in the newly installed Thunderbird file structure on the new computer, then opened Thunderbird. The Inbox and Sent folders are empty, all of my Local Folders are missing, and I have a long list of "Local Folders" with names like abook.mab, addons.jsn, etc. with nothing in them. I opened Thunderbird on my old PC and it has similar issues, Inbox and Sent folders empty, the same list of empty "Local Folders", but further down are my original real Local Folders which appear to have all of my old emails in them, and the Address Book is still populated. Is there a way to retrieve my apparently lost Inbox and Sent emails, and to copy the real Local Folders and Address Book to Thunderbird on my new PC (it currently only has the emails received in the last couple of days in the Inbox.

All Replies (5)

christ1
christ1
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on my old computer, copied the Profile folder to the second hard drive.

Please provide the full path including the name of the folder you copied.

I pasted the profile into the Profile folder in the newly installed Thunderbird file structure on the new computer

Please provide the full path where you pasted the profile folder, including the name of the profile folder.

Also, please provide the contents of profiles.ini from the new computer.

Ray Hayes
Ray Hayes Question owner
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C:\Users/Ray\AppData\Ray\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\

C:\Users/User\AppData\Ray\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\

(PC builder left user name as user rather than Ray)

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/5il2zyl0.default Default=1

christ1
christ1
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C:\Users/Ray\AppData\Ray\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\
(PC builder left user name as user rather than Ray)

I don't know what PC builder is and what it does. In any case, your path looks a bit odd. Is it too much to ask to post the exact path, not the one screwed by a tool you may use?

Are you saying you copied the entire 'Profiles' folder? What profile(s) are in there?

Did you copy over profiles.ini from the old computer as well?

Ray Hayes
Ray Hayes Question owner
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By PC builder I mean the guy in the computer business that built my new PC (assembled the ordered case and components and installed Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, the same Windows version that I had in my old PC). If you are able to help please do so, if not - no problem, thanks for posting.

christ1
christ1
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C:\Users/User\AppData\Ray\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\

Windows doesn't use forward slashes, so this can't be right.

I'd expect a path like C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\

If this isn't what you have on the new computer fix it. This would also be the path where your profiles.ini should be, and where you'd need to copy the 'Profiles' folder to.

If you are able to help please do so, if not - no problem, thanks for posting.

Anyone trying to help depends on you to precisely answering the questions being asked. All questions.

Modified by christ1