All may still be okay. Profiles are in c:\users\(yourID)\appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles I suggest you start TB, click help>more troubleshooting information. Then scroll down to Profiles, click About:Profiles. Then click 'create profile' and create a name first, and only after that select the browse button to select the profile in the named folder (there may be more than one - yours will be the larger one) and click finish. TB should then be okay if nothing was corrupted. This disassociation sometimes happens when anti-virus programs interact with the software.

Didn't seem to work. I have a non-standard setup. Program is installed normally but my data files are in d:\thunderbird. In that folder are my various email addresses (bossman, bruce, paladin, etc). There's 7 or eight folders under each of the email address folders and lots of files in them including 'inbox' and 'sent' which are fairly large.

I tried creating a profile called 'bossman' and pointed it to the 'bossman' folder in d:\thunderbird. Program opened as before with the 'account setup' page and a 'home' tab. When I view profiles, it shows 'bossman' as the default and root directory of d:\thunderbird\bossman. It shows that profile as in use and cannot be deleted and as default. But I can't get to the normal email screen.

Thoughts??? If I can't get my emails back I'm hosed.  :)

thanks

Can you do a screenshot of the contents of d:\thunderbird\bossman? Somehow, TB isn't seeing what it thinks is a legitimate profile. Maybe also a screenshot of d:\thunderbird. That will help.

Attached. If it would be easier, you can log into my computer and check things out. I can get my [email protected] email directly from the mail server and think I can email from there as well.

Thanks for the help.......  :)

Attachments need to be jpg or png, I think. Nothing came through.

Let's try again... it is a jpg (bossman.jpg ~275k), shows attached.

I think I may see the problem. Please post a screenshot of just d:\thunderbird\

Attached....

Okay, we still haven't found your profile. Please look at c:\users\(yourID)\appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles and let me know if there is a folder with name such as xxxxxxx-default or similar. If there is such a folder, click on it and see if there is a folder called MAIL. Do a screen print of the contents of the 'xxx.default' folder and also of the Mail folder.

Only folder there is c0f770m.bruceN (bruceN was an id i created when trying to your first suggestion)

using 'computer' icon, the appdata folder doesn't show. I can view it with total commander (a file mgmt utility i've used for decades.) attached.

Is there a profiles.ini file in c:\users\yourid\appdata\roaming\thunderbird? if so, it may give a hint if you would open it and post the contents. It is just a text file so Notepad would work.

yup:

[Install8216C80C92C4E828] Default=D:\Thunderbird\Bossman Locked=1

[Profile1] Name=Bossman IsRelative=0 Path=D:\Thunderbird\Bossman

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/mpbe2rhj.default Default=1

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1 Version=2

(had error msg when i sent this, not sure if it went thru ) yup:

[Install8216C80C92C4E828] Default=D:\Thunderbird\Bossman Locked=1

[Profile1] Name=Bossman IsRelative=0 Path=D:\Thunderbird\Bossman

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/mpbe2rhj.default Default=1

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1 Version=2

Okay, I'm at a loss. I'm missing something that I think may be obvious if I were looking at the PC. It seems that each folder is almost a complete profile, yet not. Are you able to access all the mail folders from within one profile? Are the accounts IMAP or POP? I remain hopeful that you might be able to post a screenshot of TB after starting it. Thanks.

I don't understand what you mean by 'access folders from within one profile'. when i start tb i get tb1.jpg. if iclick on 'home' tab i get tb2.jpg

can't get to normal email screen. i'm willing to let you log into my computer (with teamviewer or distant desktop) if you like.

second image didnt load right. here it is

Okay, I know we can salvage the email messages, but I need to ask a few questions first so I can advise of a plan. I had hoped to figure out how you were using TB, but I cannot. These questions should help: 1. Is there one email account and the folders for Bossman, Bruce, etc., just folders for messages? Or are there multiple email accounts, possibly one for each person? 2. I assume the email account(s) are POP. Please confirm. 3. I also assume that the folders for Bruce and others are similar to the Bossman folder. Please show a screenshot of a couple of them to be sure. 4. When you were logged on to TB, did you see all message folders from the main window? Once I have answers to these, I will put together a suggested set of steps to recover your environment.

MUCH THANKS !!!!!!

1) Each 'identity' (bossman, bruce, paladin, etc) has it's own email. Bossman is [email protected], bruce is bruce@TheNeumanFamily. com, etc.

2) Most are POP. The 'bruce' acct is hosted by godaddy and we just changed it to IMAP (or something) a few weeks ago.

3) Yes they are. Attached is a screen shot of one of them. (I tried to get screen shot of 'bruce' but for some reason it hangs when trying to upload. even tried redoing it and same. will try sending it from separate msg.)

4) Attached is a screen shot from my wife's thunderbird. Mine looked like hers (but with different account names)

lets try other image again....

You may want to print this off:

1. start tb to begin with a new profile. That probably means deleting the one there first. You want to start with the email setup wizard. 2. setup one of your POP account. when prompted for password, click cancel. You do NOT want to retrieve new messages yet. You may need to shut down and restart. Goal is to get TB to start, showing main menu. Click Files>>Offline>workoffline. Click 'later' if prompted to download messages. 3. If toolbar isn't showing, right-click and tick 'menu bar'. At this point, TB should look normal, showing one account and input and save folders (and maybe others) 4. Now, repeat the process of setting up POP accounts, omitting passwords when prompted. 5. Now, setup the IMAP account. This will self-propagate the folders when you eventually go online. PAUSE. You now have TB 'looking' like everything is there, even though it is not. 6. Shut TB down. Restart TB. 7. Now, click tools>accountsetting for first account (whether imap or pop doesn't matter). Then click 'server settings. At bottom of right pane is Local Directory. Click it and browse to drive D and select the folder that relates to that account, e.g. Bossman, Bruce, etc. 8. TB will state it needs to restart. Do that. 9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 for each account. 10. Now, for each account, including the IMAP account, go back and locate the abook.sqlite entry in the D: account. This is your address book. Copy that to the profile folder in drive c for that account, overwriting the empty entry. This is NOT in the Mail folder, but in the parent profile folder. 11. Okay, now start TB. You should be able to read the messages for the POP accounts. That would be a good sign. 12. Now, click File>Offline and go online and check for messages and respond to password prompts. The IMAP account should self-populate at this point.

IMPORTANT: copy c:\users\(yourID)\appdata\roaming\thunderbird to a safe place. Then, if this happens again, you can fix it in a minute.