Help Thunderbird Weirdness

[Puddy_Tat]

Something fairly drastic seems to have happened to Thunderbird

Opening it a few minutes ago, it opened, but no accounts / messages or anything were visible.

Tried closing and re-starting it, and same again.

Tried re-starting computer, and only get this



wtf?

it was all working fine yesterday, I've not done any form of computer maintenance today. According to ccleaner, it's version 78.13.0, installed on 11 August.

Anyone else got similar?

Any bright ideas, other than 'see if it's working tomorrow'?

 

[two sheds]

I think - in something totally unrelated - I've lost a lot of emails. My ISP stores them too though so I'm hoping I can restate them.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I think - in something totally unrelated - I've lost a lot of emails. My ISP stores them too though so I'm hoping I can restate them.

my 'profiles' files look OK in 'app data' (and i did a backup of them less than a week ago, so potentially no more than a few days' worth lost if it really is buggered)

 

[keybored]

Fair play for having a recent backup.
Is the profiles.ini file present and pointing to the correct profile folder?

(Mac OS screenshot but it's the same for Windows)

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I've got a profiles.ini file

doesn't look exactly like that (I have 3 separate e-mail accounts on thunderbird), but the file dates from december, which is when i upgraded this computer to windoze 10 and re-installed everything.

 

[keybored]

I'd probably...

• Save the contents of C:\Users\PuddyTat\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird somewhere else (Desktop or USB drive)
• Completely uninstall Thunderbird and delete C:\Users\W10username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
• Reinstall Thunderbird
• Start it, go through the "Set as default for mail and newsgroups" things
• Close Thunderbird, make sure it's no longer running in Task Manager
• Replace the contents of C:\Users\W10username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird with the contents of the same folder you saved in step 1
• Restart Thunderbird, fingers crossed

If that fails, as above but replace the files with the backups you took recently.

If the first bit works, your install was corrupt. If you needed to restore the older backup, your profile was corrupt.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Thanks

I will try all that tomorrow if it doesn't sort itself out overnight once the computer has had a bit of time to contemplate the consequences of its actions

I can't find anything else to suggest that other people are having similar issues, mum-tat isn't (i try to keep her on the same software i've got as it makes tech support easier)

 

[keybored]

I've never seen anything quite like your screenshot but in around 15 years of using TB I've had the vanishing accounts happen a fair few times. It's well worth backing up your profile as you have done (mine is currently about 10GB!). Hope you get it sorted.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I'd probably...

• Save the contents of C:\Users\PuddyTat\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird somewhere else (Desktop or USB drive)
• Completely uninstall Thunderbird and delete C:\Users\W10username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
• Reinstall Thunderbird
• Start it, go through the "Set as default for mail and newsgroups" things
• Close Thunderbird, make sure it's no longer running in Task Manager
• Replace the contents of C:\Users\W10username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird with the contents of the same folder you saved in step 1
• Restart Thunderbird, fingers crossed

If that fails, as above but replace the files with the backups you took recently.

If the first bit works, your install was corrupt. If you needed to restore the older backup, your profile was corrupt.

Thanks.

Still the same today, so obviously the program got scrambled somewhere.

Have done all that and all seems to be working again.

Hmph at computers.