Hi there!
I'm quite new to TB Portable core features, though I've been using it happily for months, launching it from a USB external hard disk.
Today I quitted TB Portable and immediately after I disconnected the USB cable.
Few minutes ago I reconnected the USB external hard disk and started TBP again.
The sad surprise was that TBP asked me to create new accounts (with the new account set up windows) as it forgot everything of the past usage and data.
I checked the data and the rest (in ...\TBP\App, ...\TBP\Data, ...\TBP\Other), and it seems to me everything is still there, just the ThunderbirdPortableSettings.ini has been reset.
What can I do to reverse back to the previous configuration?
Thanks for any kind advise,
Guido
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You probably pulled the drive while Thunderbird was writing its settings file: prefs.js, so it's probably corrupted. ALWAYS SAFELY EJECT.
You can restore your prefs.js from a recent or even not recent backup (it doesn't change unless you add/remove accounts usually). It's located in ThunderbirdPortable\Data\profile
All your mail is probably still there.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
what if i have no back up? I did just that, I pulled out before ejecting properly, I can still see my mail in the folders, but I have no way of accessing it now. Is there a 'modify by hand' way of configing the .ini ?
You need to manually recreate your mail settings in a new profile and then copy your mail from the old profile. There are details here:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Folder#What_do_I_do_if_my_profile_is_c...
To create a new profile, just rename your ThunderbirdPortable\Data directory to DataOld. Your old profile will be there, the new one in Data. Create the new settings and then copy the mail in.
In the future, always do backups regularly (they're really easy with the included PortableApps.com Backup tool) and never eject without safely ejecting (the menu will even pull up the safe eject window for you when you click eject).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!