File list for Thunderbird and corruption of profile
Good day from the UK
For private reasons I still run an early version of Thunderbird (around v60) as well as a VERY old version 20 for most internal emails - reason because later versions do not seem to allow a single INBOX for the 20+ email accounts we use and we do not want 20 accounts on the list! I also use 3 versions of Firefox for different internal sites and for testing web designs.
Firefox seems to add data to the Thunderbird profile for version 60 when it is run and I can not find why! It does not add to Version 20 profile. I can not find the profile file list anywhere but can not see why thunderbird needs files in the profile like cookies.sqlite, favicons.sqlite and places.sqlite! plus folders like gmp, startupcache, crashes, datareporting etc. On checking these are identical to the firefox files!
I also notice that Firefox 102.6ESR also seems to update Firefox 56 profile with just the favicons and places database files.
There is nothing in windows registry to account for this and each program has been individually installed and only linked through profile.ini and the -no-remote option and the profile name
A nuisance as can not find why, rather than difficult but as share profiles accross many machines, irritating. Currently solved by using ccleaner to delete all these extra files daily, but why is it happening!
thanks for any technical clues!
All Replies (3)
PS. Windows 7 32 bit, programs in I: drive local to each machine. Profiles in F: Drive on file server
I use the same global inbox for pop mail account in Thunderbird 1.2 as I did in V2, so I think we perhaps need to restrict this discussion to facts.
For a POP account go to server settings > advanced and select the correct folder.
Now for all the rest of your post, I must assume you are unaware of the fact that Thunderbird is built on the Mozilla platform and has been since it's inception, or that Thunderbird has web browser capabilities the same as Firefox.
Mostly these browser functions are normally used internally to the program such as to display add-ons and authenticate with mail servers that require oAuth authentication. Or to display RSS feeds as the original HTML. But still it is a fully functional browser and is used as such in many day to day functions.
Firefox is installing nothing, it is a part of Thunderbird that you are seeing and making assumptions about.
Your assumption about profiles in Firefox may or may not be correct. Since about V60ish Firefox and had a profile per install function that does not use a profile if it is used by an older version, but there are plenty of ways to force them to cohabit and use the same profile, then there is the Firefox sync feature which syncs things across profiles via the sync servers. That will sync some non version critical data between new and old profile versions.
Finally the registry is used solely for system integration, not for storing Thunderbird settings. They live in the profile folder. You will find setting in the registry for the integration for "Send to" in windows context menus for example. You will not find setting for mail or accounts.
Many thanks for reply - perhaps I didn't explain well! Long day here in UK! Using points as easier - not being rude!
1) Re inbox. Just loaded up 60.9.1 to test. Go to account settings. Go to change an existing "spare" account setting and briongs up box "The local directory path "x":\users\"y"\mail is not suitable for message storage. Please choose another directory - this will not allow me to use the standard mail directory where all messages go. (Can be editedited in prefs but messy). At present all mail goes to one foler "x"\users\"y"\mail for drafts, inbox, templates etc. seems later thunderbird wants different directories for each account AND wants to put them various accounts as list in left hand column, whereas we use a single account entry - see screen shot.
Furthermore, if you want to add a new account v60 INSISTS on looking up servers etc and will not create the account unless it can connect to a mail server - which we do not always want to happen - we need to set up an account in TB that will not do anything yet - seems impossible and when we temporary add a valid mail server on our boxes, it creates EXTRA entries that are unwanted in left hand payne. Such a shame the developers didn't seem to actually use the product. See pic2. You can not remove those extra untidy entires in any way I can find!
2) As for this, yes we are aware of the links between products (we do web back end and tech development) however I was unaware that TB has a web browser built in as never, ever used it and in TB20 none of these files appeared.
3) tried Sync but just doesn't work correctly - tried several different accounts as help articles - but whatever I do it never syncs bookmarks in the neat order they are saved on master machine - especially to the Android version - which such a shame doesn't allow you to import bookmarks!
4) appreciate coments about registry - we modify our ones continuously for development issues - but some programs do store settings there. Checked and obviously not there. Profile (prefs.js) is always editable, but sometimes not too clear what is what. (We have issue with latest firefox for example - and possibly TB - that when we access our file server by IP brings up certificate error every time as you can not have a cert on an IP but gives no option to overide - very annoying!)
