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Windows 11 Pro Thunderbird installation has no local profile

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Thunderbird appears to be installed and working correctly. I'd like to backup my profile and be able to repair it if needed. I installed Thunderbird 115.2.3 through the Windows App store. I believe that the program is actually installed at C:\Program Files\WindowsApps, which I cannot access even with elevated authority without disabling permissions I don't understand. I am reluctant to do this.

The Help > Troubleshooting Information page shows a < Open Folder > for my profile, but when I click it it says that C:/users/xxxxxxxx/Appdata/Roaming/Thunderbird/... doesn't exist. The File Explorer shows there is no C:\users\...\Thunderbird folder. How should I proceed?

Additional information:

I discovered this because I wanted to make a shortcut to put in my Startup folder (C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup) and couldn't find the program anywhere. There are 2 executable files ("*.exe") with a size of 0 bytes that I was able to find use to create a shortcut at: C:\Users\xxxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps C:\Users\xxxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\MozillaThunderbird.xxxxxxxx It should be easy to create a shortcut for an executable.

Starting thunderbird at a command prompt to show the profiles says there are 2 profiles labelled < default-release > and <default >. default-release is highlighted.

Thunderbird appears to be installed and working correctly. I'd like to backup my profile and be able to repair it if needed. I installed Thunderbird 115.2.3 through the Windows App store. I believe that the program is actually installed at C:\Program Files\WindowsApps, which I cannot access even with elevated authority without disabling permissions I don't understand. I am reluctant to do this. The Help > Troubleshooting Information page shows a < Open Folder > for my profile, but when I click it it says that C:/users/xxxxxxxx/Appdata/Roaming/Thunderbird/... doesn't exist. The File Explorer shows there is no C:\users\...\Thunderbird folder. How should I proceed? Additional information: I discovered this because I wanted to make a shortcut to put in my Startup folder (C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup) and couldn't find the program anywhere. There are 2 executable files ("*.exe") with a size of 0 bytes that I was able to find use to create a shortcut at: C:\Users\xxxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps C:\Users\xxxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\MozillaThunderbird.xxxxxxxx It should be easy to create a shortcut for an executable. Starting thunderbird at a command prompt to show the profiles says there are 2 profiles labelled < default-release > and <default >. default-release is highlighted.

All Replies (1)

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After some more searching, I believe I have found the profiles at 1) C:\Users\xxxxxxx\AppData\Local\Packages\MozillaThunderbird.xxxxxxx\LocalCache\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxx.default-release and 2) C:\Users\xxxxxxx\AppData\Local\Packages\MozillaThunderbird.xxxxxxx\LocalCache\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxx.default

Also apologies for the wrong slashes in the earlier post - I am coming from Linux.