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ThunderbirdPortable updated (31 May 2021) and all email accounts have vanished; how to recover profile?

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June 2, 2021 - 9:02am
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ThunderbirdPortable updated (31 May 2021) and all email accounts have vanished; how to recover profile?

ThunderbirdPortable updated and all accounts have vanished, when executed it appears like a fresh install. Profile folder is still the expected size n GB. Checking this forum I have already tried:

(1) replacing the prefs.js file with one from a (much older) back-up, which made no difference
(2) Copy-pasting the data folder into the appropriate folder for a Thunderbird 78.0.1 desktop application, again not successful, the profile does not appear

Can anyone help guide me on how to recover my profile & emails? Thank you in advance

CW

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June 2, 2021 - 10:04am
John T. Haller
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How Starting

How are you starting Thunderbird Portable? Via ThunderbirdPortable.exe or the PA.c Platform?

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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June 2, 2021 - 10:58am
(Reply to #2)
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Via ThunderbirdPortable.exe

Via ThunderbirdPortable.exe

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June 2, 2021 - 12:23pm
(Reply to #3)
John T. Haller
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Full Paths, Update

What's the full path to your install? How did it update? What version did you update from?

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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June 2, 2021 - 2:54pm
(Reply to #4)
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Full path: D:

Full path: D:\ThunderbirdPortable\ThunderbirdPortable.exe

Update: I'm not certain, if it askes to update I do so, and I use it every day. I ran into the issue on Monday morning (31MAY21). ThunderbirdPortable was open when the laptop was automatically restarted by a windows 10 update I believe. I vaguely remember Thunderbird being updated that day, or the update being suggested. I'm not sure if the program had been restarted or not.

My memory stick (D:\) seems to be working fine, no errors detected by Windows.

I transferred a (very) old backup of the entire ThunderbirdPortable folder to the same memory stick and it all loads up just fine.

I tried transferring the current version of my Profile folder into backup of the ThunderbirdPortable folder, but sadly I got an error message saying the current profile was not compatible with that (older) version of Thunderbird.

The Profile folder is a meaty 15 GB, if that make a difference.

Thanks for responding to my post!

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June 2, 2021 - 4:40pm
(Reply to #5)
John T. Haller
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Update Thunderbird Portable itself?

I think you're referring to Thunderbird's built in updater, yes? If so, that just updates Thunderbird itself but not Thunderbird Portable's launcher. Have you updated that in a while? https://portableapps.com/support/portable_app#upgrading

Thunderbird changed the way it handles profiles a while ago which breaks the older ThunderbirdPortable.exe launcher.

If it's very out of date, maybe make a backup to another drive temporarily just in case.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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June 3, 2021 - 10:42am
(Reply to #6)
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Hi John,

Hi John,

I believe you're correct, I previously just downloaded the updates Thunderbird recommended on its splash screen, not the Thunderbird Portable launcher.

I have updated the Thunderbird Portable launcher according to the standalone instructions (https://portableapps.com/support/portable_app#upgrading) but still no joy:

01 My USB directory:- https://imgur.com/KvFXEBH
02 Installing/Updating:- https://imgur.com/B4Ajq4J
03 No luck, still looks like a fresh install when running ThunderbirdPortable.exe from the USB:- https://imgur.com/XD6tbbz
04: I have two prefs.js files, not sure if that's relevant? I tried swapping the file names and running again, that made no apparent difference:- https://imgur.com/SWT47mU

I have made extensive use of the label system for thousands of emails, so recovery is the goal if it's possible. Any ideas what could be causing the issue?

Thanks again, CW

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June 3, 2021 - 12:44pm
(Reply to #7)
John T. Haller
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Typically Launch

Have you always used ThunderbirdPortable.exe to launch it directly? No pinning to the taskbar or anything, right? No setting it as the default mail client?

The platform can't update ThunderbirdPortable in that location. You have to manually download Thunderbird Portable and install it. You'd select the base path of your drive in the directory selector and it'll add ThunderbirdPortable to the end of it.

Do you have a ThunderbirdPortable.ini file setup within the ThunderbirdPortable directory? If so, what are the contents.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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June 3, 2021 - 1:57pm
(Reply to #8)
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Yes, always launching

Yes, always launching ThunderbirdPortable.exe directly or a desktop shortcut created to point to it, but always executing directly from the memory stick for everything you've suggested.

Thunderbird is not selected as the default email application in Windows 10 (just the default MS "Mail" is selected)

"You'd select the base path of your drive in the directory selector and it'll add ThunderbirdPortable to the end of it." - I believe this is what I did in these steps:
01 My USB directory:- https://imgur.com/KvFXEBH
02 Installing/Updating:- https://imgur.com/B4Ajq4J
Does that look OK? It seemed to install OK... Or should I select simply D:\ ?

ThunderbirdPortableSettings.ini contents look unchanged:
[ThunderbirdPortableSettings]
AgreedToLicense=YES
LastProfileDirectory=D:\ThunderbirdPortable\Data\profile

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June 3, 2021 - 2:06pm
(Reply to #9)
John T. Haller
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Different File

Check this one instead: "Do you have a ThunderbirdPortable.ini file setup within the ThunderbirdPortable directory? If so, what are the contents."

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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June 4, 2021 - 8:43am
(Reply to #10)
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ThunderbirdPortableSettings

ThunderbirdPortableSettings.ini search; I can find the following files:

D:\ThunderbirdPortable\App\DefaultData\settings\ThunderbirdPortableSettings.ini

Its contents are:

[ThunderbirdPortableSettings]
LastProfileDirectory=NONE

---

D:\ThunderbirdPortable\Other\Source\ThunderbirdPortable.ini

Its contents are:

[ThunderbirdPortable]
ThunderbirdDirectory=App\thunderbird
ThunderbirdExecutable=thunderbird.exe
AdditionalParameters=
ProfileDirectory=Data\profile
PluginsDirectory=Data\plugins
RegistryDirectory=Data\registry
SettingsDirectory=Data\settings
DisableSplashScreen=false
AllowMultipleInstances=false
DisableIntelligentStart=false
SkipCompregFix=false
RunLocally=false

# The above options are explained in the included readme.txt
# This INI file is an example only and is not used unless it is placed as described in the included readme.txt

---

The D:\ThunderbirdPortable\App\DefaultData\settings\ folder contains two other files and looks like this: https://imgur.com/pflhy3T

This is a list of all the .ini files present in the ThunderbirdPortable folder: https://imgur.com/i8KRUVq

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June 4, 2021 - 11:05am
(Reply to #11)
John T. Haller
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No, then

That's a no, then. The ThunderbirdPortable.ini file can be used to specify different settings to the ThunderbirdPortable.exe launcher but it must be in the same directory (the ThunderbirdPortable directory). The one in Other\Source is an example and isn't used in that location. So, you're using the launcher in its default mode.

So, your ThunderbirdPortable\Data\profile directory is 15GB? And it contains a prefs.js. And you launch it with ThunderbirdPortable.exe. And it comes up blank. And even if you replace the prefs.js within ThunderbirdPortable\Data\profile with your older backup that contains your proper mail setups, it still comes up blank. And you've tried rebooting your PC. And checked the drive for errors. Yes to all?

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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June 8, 2021 - 8:41am
(Reply to #12)
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Now working with an old prefs.js

Hi John, yes to all, but I found another back-up of the ThunderbirdPortable folder on a external drive, swapped its prefs.js into the current version and that did the trick. It's working except email accounts added since 2020 don't appear and recent email signatures do not appear, but crucially the labels assigned to emails are intact & up to date, which is close enough. Thank you for taking the time to look at the issue, I've made a small donation for your trouble.

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June 8, 2021 - 11:32am
(Reply to #13)
John T. Haller
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Glad to Hear

I'm glad you were able to recover it. As long as your drive has no other issues, I'd chalk it up to a simple prefs.js corruption. It can happen to both local and portable which is why Firefox and Thunderbird keep a built in backup. Sometimes, as you've seen, that can fail. Once you have it as you'd like, make a backup just in case this happens a couple years down the road. And thanks for the donation. Always appreciated.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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June 3, 2021 - 9:08am
kevbentz
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I just updated

I just updated ThunderbirdPortable today via the PortableApps updater and now the program won't start. ThunderbirdPortable starts and then exits.

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