TB profile fragments in two locations

[grumbledook2]

On Windows, my \Application Data\ directory is not on the C: drive. It has been like this since 2003 and I've never had a problem installing anything, including Firefox: its profile directory is in the expected place and only there.

When I installed TB about six months ago, it also seemed to have worked fine, but today I stumbled by chance on a profile directory with the same name (i.e. vg2nu7ca.default) inside what would be the "normal" location of \Application Data\, on my C: drive. Aside from one empty directory named "safebrowsing", this one contains only directories with "cache" in their name, e.g. "Cache", "cache2", "OfflineCache" and "startupCache". The files in them have various last-access date, including today, so they are indeed being used, and there are no directories with those names in the "real" profile directory (the one that contains all the sqlite files and the "Mail" directory).

I have searched this forum but found no similar question. I found one member who mentioned having his TB profile on a drive other than C: but his question wasn't about having stuff also on the C: drive.

Is there a way I can make TB fully respect the Windows config and not spread itself around?

For reference, the path (which is partly ignored by TB) is stored in "\HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" under the key AppData.

Any hint would be much appreciated.

[tanstaafl]

I suspect Thunderbird doesn't look in the windows registry to find the value of a key specifying the application data directory location. It probably just defaults to using C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>\ if you're using a recent version of Windows, creating any missing directories as necessary. The reason I suspect that is Thunderbird was designed as a cross platform application that doesn't follow many windows conventions.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_p ... hunderbird for how to move a profile.

[frg]

Assuming this Vista or higher. Basically your profile is split. If you use server based profiles everything you need when logging in to another PC is in an appdata\roaming folder. This one is synchronized. Everything specific to a single PC installation is saved under appdata\local. The same layout is used for local profiles too.

You can safely delete the appdata\local folder when TB is not running. It contains only cache information and other temporary stuff like safebrowsing lists. This will all be recreated during startup (which will take longer in this case).

[wsmwk]

I think you should also file a bug report

[grumbledook2]

If you use server based profiles everything you need when logging in to another PC is in an appdata\roaming folder. This one is synchronized. Everything specific to a single PC installation is saved under appdata\local. The same layout is used for local profiles too.

Ok, I went back to the registry and found the keys that correspond to what you are describing. It means that I have been running with this incohrent setup for all those years (at least, with regard to what I meant to do). :oops:

Many thanks!

[wsmwk]

If you use server based profiles everything you need when logging in to another PC is in an appdata\roaming folder. This one is synchronized. Everything specific to a single PC installation is saved under appdata\local. The same layout is used for local profiles too.

Ok, I went back to the registry and found the keys that correspond to what you are describing. It means that I have been running with this incohrent setup for all those years (at least, with regard to what I meant to do). :oops:

Many thanks!

Are you saying the registry wasn't pointing to your "altered", correct location?

[grumbledook2]

Are you saying the registry wasn't pointing to your "altered", correct location?

Yes and no.

I'm saying that I discovered a 2nd registry key, named "Local AppData", which I had never noticed before and that, therefore, I had not changed from its default.

So TB is using it correctly, as are a few other applications.

It is also using correctly the path that is stored in the key I had changed, which is named "AppData".

Now we know that if a TB or Firefox profile looks like it's split into two locations, it's just respecting the Windows config.