Had Invalidprefs.

What does this mean?

Have tried all advisories.

What advisories? Please post links.

Started TB and a screen came up asking me if I wanted a new email address.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_a_profile_that_suddenly_disappeared

Hi, thanks for this but I already followed this advisory and it didn't help. Because I don't have a backup, I dropped to option 4 of 'corrupt or empty prefs.js'. However, making another account using the same email just hangs and I'm left looking at a GOOGLE screen that says 'Sign in to continue to Mozilla Thunderbird Email'. There's a NEXT button but it doesn't do anything. The reference to invalidprefs file is stated in this record and indicates a problem with the prefs.js file, probably a crash. http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1908509 Much appreciate your advice. If I need to add more information let me know. Thanks

Gmail has changed it's sign in method, causing problems as described by you (Next button doesn't work) for OAuth2 with Thunderbird version before 52.2. Please upgrade to the latest version of Thunderbird or revert to normal password as sign-in option (you have to enable access for less secure apps in Gmali in order to do this).

Hi Onno, thanks much for the tip. I upgraded as you suggested and then rebooted TB. Unfortunately I aimed it at a new profile I'd created on advice of an advisory I'd seen before I opened the error record. It didn't do a lot because there wasn't a lot in the profile. I checked my ini file and where default was pointing and replaced the prefs.js file with one which had the pointers to mail files. After I'd followed the gmail login stuff TB came up. However, it didn't reload the inbox I'd had when I lost TB in the first place; it reloaded the inbox from gmail. Also, I've lost all my local files with drafts I need and some other folders with address and stuff. I can live with the inbox; it just needs cleaning out. But can you help me link in the local files? When I look at the prefs.js file, there's a local folder in MAIL and it seems to have the folders I want but the profile is pointing at local-1, no idea why. There's an advisory http://kb.mozillazine.org/Local_Folders suggesting use of the config editor but I don't think I'm brave enough to use that.

Hi ferdia, If I read your comment right, you still have the old profile on your hard drive and it's only a matter of starting thunderbird with the right profile. Just start Thunderbird with argument -P and choose the right profile (it usually has default in the name). First close Thunderbird and then start it again the following by pressing Windows+R to Run a command and then type "thunderbird -P" and press enter to execute it. Thunderbird remembers the last used profile, so the next time you can start it the normal way again. Onno

Hi again Onno, appreciate you sticking in there with me. I think I'm in trouble. As I said earlier I had already pointed to the default when I rebooted a second time. So I went back to my 'newest' prefs.js copy dated around the time I lost TB and copied that across to the profile. While the copy refers to googlemail for mail, the prefs file after TB initiates show gmail-1 and while the copy points to local folders the file after initiation shows local folders-1. I dunno what happened but it's sure mixed up now.

The Config Editor isn't that hard to use, despite the warning message you get on starting it that it may void your warranty, which is there more like a joke, I guess. Reading your comment, I'm not quite sure which are the right folders, gmail or gmail-1. Maybe look in your Profile folder and see which folder contains your messages. (Look at file size or maybe the file dates.) In the Config Editor you'll have to search/filter for gmail-1 and change those preferences to gmail and do likewise for local folders-1. Restarting Thunderbird should make those changes active. You can also close Thunderbird and edit the prefs.js file manually to make those changes. It's really the same thing, but if you feel more comfortable that way, you can do it like that.

Hi Onno, forgive the delay in responding. I will close this with yes this helped, so many thanks to you for all your efforts. Some added detail. Seems GMAIL now defaults to imap and my stuff was from pop with the local files on hard drive. I recreated an account for pop and I hard wired LOCAL FOLDERS (as opposed to local folders-1) in the PREFS.JS. I now have all my inbox which I will happily prune and I have access to my local files. I also note, from other sources, that I really need to run compact now and again which I will do in future. Star man. Thanks much