Thunderbird Community Forum

Hi Folks,

I hope you can help me with my little problem.

Thunderbird was damaged during the migration to the new Mac, so I installed a new version of Thunderbird on the new Mac and now want to get the emails from my old Mac into the new Thunderbird. I think I know where the files for the new Thunderbird are: /Users//Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/xxxxxxx.default-release/imapMail/map.xxx.net, so is it as easy as replacing those files with the files in the equivalent folder on the old Mac?

Alternatively, I just discovered this function within Thunderbird itself: "Import Settings and Data from a Thunderbird Profile." Might this be useful, and if so, how would I go about it?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Cheers! Chris

Hello. I'm unable to delete or rename template folders except for the most recent created folder "Tampos", see the attached image. How to fix this? (Using version 128.10.0esr).

Hello, All of a sudden when turning Thunderbird on, I have found that all messages in my Inbox have gone ( except a few for last day or two). Looking around Thunderbird I have found all Inbox emails have bee dumped into my Trash folder! Please help - how can I get emails back where they belong and get Thunderbird back into working order? Very grateful for any help' Thank you, kindest regards Brian Benger PS where will I get your reply if my email not working??

I want to save a PDF from Thunderbird under a slightly different name from what is already existing within the directory. This would save me from repeatedly typing filenames.

For example my directory already contains "version1.pdf". I want to save an attached file as "version2.pdf". To do this I first search for "version" and highlight the file. Then I want to just change the 1 to a 2.

But the moment I highlight "version1.pdf" in the file list, the REPLACE button is greyed out. Is this intended behaviour?

TB 128.9.1esr, Ubuntu 25.04

I have replaced Windows 10 on my laptop with Linux Mint 22 Cinnamon. I installed Thunderbird and, with a little diificulty with passwords, have my gmail accounts working. However I have a freenetname email address which appears to be installed. However when I seek to use it I am asked for a password. I enter the password that I use on my desktop for the same account but it is not recognised. I looked at the saved passwords (on my laptop) in Settings. None are displayed for the freenetname account and I can't see how to install passwords here to, perhaps, solve the problem. Some help would be very welcome. Thank you

While using Thunderbird as I do regularly, it suddenly showed not responding. I left it like that for a few minutes, and when I opened my window later, to my shock, my inbox was empty, except for the last email I had received a few minutes prior to that. My sent emails, draft etc. are untouched, and the same as they were before.

Can anyone kindly advise how I can retrieve my inbox? I have no clue how this happened, in the first place.

Dear All

Unfortunately Thunderbird crashed and deleted ALL my emails in my inbox, decades worth, and nothing in deleted folder. Same when checking on webmail. Sent, drafts, etc still have the emails present.

Oddly only some accounts were affected.

Please let me know if there is any way to recover the emails. This happened less than 35mins back.

Greatly appreciate any help.

FYI I tried the below but since missing on webmail as well I dont think this helps as when I check the file size is very small:

hunderbird stores your emails locally in a profile folder. Here's how to find it:

Open Thunderbird.

Go to: Menu (☰) > Help > More Troubleshooting Information

Scroll to "Profile Folder", and click "Open Folder" (on Windows) or "Show in Finder" (on Mac).

Once inside:

Navigate to: Mail > [Your Mail Server Name] > Inbox or for IMAP: ImapMail > [Your Mail Server Name] > Inbox

Look for files:

Inbox (no extension) – this is your actual email data.

Upgraded from 128 to 138 recently

Previously I would have an INBOX tab open and several pdf documents from attachments open using the inbuilt viewer.

After closing Thunderbird and restarting it at a later time my tabs would load the open pdf attachments.

Now it still has the tab open but isn't able to load the pdf attatchment. I get the message below:

The address wasn’t understood

One of the following (imap) is not a registered protocol or is not allowed in this context.

You might need to install other software to open this address.

Address bar looks like this imap://[email protected].:993/fetch%3EUID%3E.INBOX%3E6339?part=1.4&filename=spec.of%20UFO-B%20series.pdf&type=application/pdf

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

Greetings,

I had issues with creating folders in TB client with Proton Mail Account it would not create folders so Proton Support to try this if this would work,and it did resolver my issue.

If anyone is having issues,if you have a proton mail account with TB you may try this

(ProtonMail)

May 5, 2025, 12:57 GMT+2 Hello,

Thank you for your message.

In the Bridge, all folders are shown under the "Folders" group, and all your labels are shown under the "Labels" group.

This is because IMAP does not support labels, and they have to be shown as folders.

To create a folder or label, you need to create it under "Folders" or "Labels".

Can you try this and let us know if it will work?

Let us know if we can provide any further assistance.

When using "Compact Folders," the compacting will stop on a certain folder (it changes) and says that I do not have enough space to complete the action. I usually ignore it, close that command, then Compact the folder in question by itself. Then it works, so all Folders are compacted.

About every five minutes, this message pops up obliterating anything I'm doing on my computer, whether in email or on the internet and I have to go to the task bar and highlight Thunderbird until that message appears on the task bar, then I can delete. Many times, it immediately comes right back on the screen and I have to do it a second time.

                                      'Mozilla Thunderbird wants to Access your Google Account'

                                                                 My Gmail Address Appears here

                                                          This will allow Mozilla Thunderbird Email to:

                                              See, edit, share and permanently delete all the calendars
                                              you can access using Google Calendar

                       By clicking Allow, you allow this app and Google to use your information in accordance
                       with their respective privacy policies.  You can change this and other account
                        permissions anytime.

But you CAN'T change anything like it says.

These are most annoying and come up at the most inopportune times when I'm trying to work on something on my computer and it obliterates the entire screen.

Joe - Oklahoma

Here is an image explaining the issue I've been suffering from the last two days. Before everything was fine :-(

Any search gives me "strange" results. The worst is when there are at least 25 emails in the folders and no one is found, and the list is empty... ... or if it finds some while the others are lost in the void and you're not aware of that??

Already, I've Rebuilt the index twice... no satisfaction.

I need that feature to work perfectly, otherwise I'm lost !!!!!

( Local folder is populated by at least 25 root folders + a lot of subfolders with many sub-sub-folders )

PS: 2° pic "Agrip" should give a result > I was searching "agrip"'s mails not yet moved in that Sub-Sub-folder

Since yesterday the tag pane no longer shows tagged messages. The tags are visible on the messages, and I can filter and search by tags, but the unified tag folders no longer work. I have looked in my profile folder. I saw one thread that recommended deleting the 'virtualFolders.dat' file and the Mail/SmartMailboxes folder from the profile and starting again, but that did not solve the problem.

Any suggestions would be welcome, are there any other files or folder where tag information is stored?

If you answer, thank you!

Thunderbird 115.10.1 (32-bit) Windows 10 laptop

I have several sub folders in the local folder list not showing up. I tried to recreate one and receive the error that the folder already exist. How do I retrieve them?

Thanks

On support page accesible at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/configuration-options-accounts, it says in "Leave messages on server" paragraph as below:

"Set Until I delete them to delete messages from the server when you delete them from Thunderbird."

When I do so Thunderbird initiates server delete immediately upon moving the message from inbox to Trash either via delete key or moving to that folder specifically. I was expecting it would initiate delete once the message is deleted from Trash folder as my previous e-mail client prior to installing Thunderbird. I like it but this is either a confusing behavior not explained well in manuals or ssettings screen or there might be a bug. Please let me know which is the case.

PS: I use Thunderbird Mac 128.10

I have 2 different emails on the same page in Thunderbird.

I am not receiving any mail in inbox to my fist email address. However I am receiving inbox mail to my second email address.

This has just happened and I cannot find an answer to the problem. I am synced to my mobile phone and it has the same problem ie only receiving mail to the second email address.

I should be grateful for any assistance.e

Hi :-)

Thunderbird is blocked, and I'm not able to force to leave (Ubuntu tells me that I can force Thunderbird to leave - or wait a little more. But when I click on "Force to leave", nothing happens). The only way to close Thunderbird is to restart the computer.

I already tried the "troubleshooting mode" (is it right? "mode de dépannage" in french), but it's the same.

It's urgent, since I can no longer access my emails.

Is there a way to push my full config online but not public, so Thunderbird contributors would be able to: - find what's wrong, and send me a coherent config to get the current version of Thunderbird working with it, without data loss, - make future versions of Thunderbird able to make this kind of correction automatically?

I just see that this goes against the "Avoid support scams" warning, even if that's my own suggestion. I suppose you don't have a place for that. Is there something else which I could do?

incoming messages more than 24 days old are automatically removed from the inbox. Cannot see where they are moved to. Not in delete or archives. Sent messages do not appear to be removed at all. I would like to keep all incoming messages until I delete them.

Thanks for your help David