You must be able to see Windows' hidden folders in order to access the configuration directory

• Windows 10: displaying hidden folders
• Windows 7: displaying hidden folders

You must have started (and exited) TB at least once (in order to initialize the configuration files)

The location of the TB main directory (where all the configuration files are located) depends on your system

• Windows 10 or Windows 7: C:\Users\<your_login>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
• Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<your_login>\Application Data\Thunderbird

Most people can skip this section!

• Starting TB in Safe Mode: hold the Shift key while double-clicking on the TB icon
  • You can disable (and possibly) remove extensions
• If TB behaves strangely and using the Safe Mode does not help, you may have to remove the configuration files mentioned in the following pages. You very probably won't lose your mailbox(es) settings and your local folder!
  • Standard diagnostic
  • Toolbar or windows layout not working
  • corrupt extension files
  • Rebuilding the Global Database

1. Make sure TB is not running!
2. Go to the TB main directory (see the prerequisites above)
3. Locate the TB configuration directory in the Thunderbird\Profiles directory (a sub-directory named <random_string>.default)
4. Are you doing this operation for the first time, or restoring settings from another computer?
   1. Restoring: go to the Restoring a TB configuration directory section just below
   2. Doing a clean configuration for the first time:
      • Copy the <random_string>.default folder to a fixed and known location on the computer, preferably a sub-directory of the manually created user DATA FOLDER and rename the copied directory to give it a more meaningful name
        • We suggest the following copy/rename: <random_string>.default\ ⇒ <disk:>\Users\<your_login>\Thunderbird\Profiles\<your_login>_TB\
5. Edit the Thunderbird\profiles.ini file so that TB knows where to look for the new location of its configuration directory
   • IsRelative=1
     ⇒ IsRelative=0
   • Path=Profiles\<random_string>.default
     ⇒ Path=<disk:>\Users\<your_login>\Thunderbird\Profiles\<your_login>_TB
   • When you are finished, the content of profiles.ini should be the following. If there are other settings defined in the file, you can (safely) erase them, and TB will add them again automatically the next time it is started
     

     [Profile0]
     Name=default
     IsRelative=0
     Path=Path=<disk:>\Users\<your_login>\Thunderbird\Profiles\<your_login>_TB
     Default=1
     
     [General]
     StartWithLastProfile=1
     Version=2

6. Start TB and check that everything is the same as before
7. Later, when things seem to work correctly, remove the original C:\Users\<your_login>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<random_string>.default directory!

You have copied a TB configuration from another computer to your new computer and want to use it! We assume that the copied TB directory is:

• <disk:>\Users\<your_login>\Thunderbird\Profiles\<your_login>_TB

1. Start and exit TB, in order to have it initialize its default configuration
2. Go to the configuration directory:
   • Windows 7 or Windows 10: C:\Users\<your_login>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
3. Do some cleaning:
   1. Remove the the Thunderbird\Profiles\<random_string>.default\ directory that was created when you started TB for the first time on this computer
   2. Remove the Thunderbird\installs.ini file and the Crash Reports and Pending Pings directories (they will be automatically recreated later)
4. Edit the Thunderbird\profiles.ini file so that TB knows where to look for the new location of its configuration directory
   • IsRelative=1
     ⇒ IsRelative=0
   • Path=Profiles\<random_string>.default
     ⇒ Path=<disk:>\Users\<your_login>\Thunderbird\Profiles\<your_login>_TB
   • When you are finished (don't forget to save the profiles.ini configuration file!), the content of profiles.ini should be the following. If there are other settings defined in the file, you can (safely) erase them, and TB will add them again automatically the next time it is started
     

     [Profile0]
     Name=default
     IsRelative=0
     Path=Path=<disk:>\Users\<your_login>\Thunderbird\Profiles\<your_login>_TB
     Default=1
     
     [General]
     StartWithLastProfile=1
     Version=2

5. Start TB and check that everything is OK and that you have access to your existing mailboxes and settings

You should be OK if you correctly followed the steps above! You can get extra information in:

• Thunderbird:
  • Profiles - Where Thunderbird stores your messages and other user data
  • Moving Thunderbird Data to a New Computer
• Firefox:
  • Recovering important data from an old profile
  • Dedicated profiles per Firefox installation

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