Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

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aaaaaah
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Joined: July 12th, 2005, 10:43 am

Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by aaaaaah »

for the record, this all of sudden started happening to me too after updating to 24.0. shame on me for updating to an uh-oh release. So, the work around is creating a new profile folder and copying all the existing stuff from original folder into it?
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Lee_Dailey
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Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by Lee_Dailey »

howdy aaaaaah,

yes, the workaround is to use a different folder for your profile and then copy only the things you are sure need to be there. if you copy _everything_ there is a chance that you will bring along the source of the problem.

that last presumes i have actually understood what it going on here. [*grin*] some of the folks posting here are pretty sure that the problem is the actual profile location while i think it's one or more of the folders or files in the profile.

i could _very_ easily be oh-so-wrong about that! [*grin*]

take care,
lee
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Banditz71
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Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by Banditz71 »

What I did was this.......copied the contents of C:\Users\****\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\48xopmcr.TB 24\Mail\Local Folders.......made a new folder and called it Local Mail (name doesn't matter of course)........I placed this new folder here: C:\Users\Richard Haire\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\Local Mail......then, of course, went into Account Settings and changed the path.
Richard H.
morat
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Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by morat »

@aaaaaah

Are you using the default local directory path like Banditz71?

Does the problem go away in safe mode?
jtruchon
Posts: 37
Joined: September 21st, 2003, 11:07 pm

Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by jtruchon »

Hello All;

I'm have a very similar problem that also just started when I upgraded to 24.0. I get the following error message when I try to view any of the my account settings:
"A parent directory of the directory specified in the Local Directory setting is already used by the "GMail" account. Please pick a different directory"

My Local Directory is T:\Mail and my accounts are stored in folders there, example: T:\Mail\gmail.com
- JohnT
aaaaaah
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Joined: July 12th, 2005, 10:43 am

Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by aaaaaah »

thanks guys. well I will need to dig deeper after work or this weekend...
@morat: no, I am not using the default path when I get the error.

I copied the entire contents of the existing folder to a new folder, pointed to the new folder in Account Settings, and it works fine. I'm betting that it has something to do with the dot in the path name. I noticed that Banditz71 had a dot in his original path too. Something in 24.0 triggered code or something that doesn't like the dot, that is my guess. BUT.....

My original path that gave error: D:\_LOCAL_DATA\App Profiles\Mozilla Thunderbird\profile\ni4h803o.slt\Mail\Local Folders
New path without dot: D:\_LOCAL_DATA\App Profiles\Mozilla Thunderbird\profile\sltprofile\Mail\Local Folders

I tried renaming the path to D:\_LOCAL_DATA\App Profiles\Mozilla Thunderbird\profile\sltprofile.tst\Mail\Local Folders
and it worked fine.

So I dunno what the heck is going on.

If there is one good side effect to this, it caused me to realize that I have some cleanup to do in my profile directory. I have Mail folders that aren't used, and I have accounts pointing to mail folders with weird names. So I'll create new folders that match the account names for clarity. What better way to spend my Saturday morning lol
morat
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Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by morat »

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Eckard
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Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by Eckard »

Two similar threads here:
http://www.thunderbird-mail.de/forum/vi ... 26#p349426
http://forums.mozfr.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=115173
Several users in the German Thunderbird forum solved the problem by deleting, in the prefs.js file, the "mail.root.xxxx" options which seemed to point to a profile folder no longer in use.
If you want to give it a try, please first make a backup copy of your prefs.js file ;)
morat
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Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by morat »

@Eckard

Yep. I can reproduce the problem with the mail.root.*-rel preferences.

Code: Select all

- user_pref("mail.root.imap-rel", "[ProfD]ImapMail");
+ user_pref("mail.root.imap-rel", "[ProfD]../../C:/Documents and Settings/User/Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/12345678.default/ImapMail");

- user_pref("mail.root.none-rel", "[ProfD]Mail");
+ user_pref("mail.root.none-rel", "[ProfD]../../C:/Documents and Settings/User/Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/12345678.default/Mail");

- user_pref("mail.root.pop3-rel", "[ProfD]Mail");
+ user_pref("mail.root.pop3-rel", "[ProfD]../../C:/Documents and Settings/User/Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/12345678.default/Mail");

The mail.root.none-rel preference is for the "Local Folders" server settings.

=D>
jtruchon
Posts: 37
Joined: September 21st, 2003, 11:07 pm

Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by jtruchon »

@morat, thanks for the code.

I made the changes in my prefs.js for the "mail.root..." but it didn't fix the problem I'm having when trying to access/make changes to account setting...getting:

"A parent directory of the directory specified in the Local Directory setting is already used by the "XXX" account. Please pick a different directory"
- JohnT
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Eckard
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Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by Eckard »

Banditz71 wrote:All of a sudden I'm getting this message while in Account Settings......in fact, I can't do anything (click off of Local Folders) without that message popping up. What could be causing this? Thanks!

See "Thunderbird 24 for developers" => "Further Changes"
https://developer.mozilla.org/fr/docs/M ... er_changes
jtruchon
Posts: 37
Joined: September 21st, 2003, 11:07 pm

Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by jtruchon »

@Eckard; I check the link you provided and see the update: "directoryUsedByOtherAccount renamed to directoryAlreadyUsedByOtherAccount" However, I didn't get any error in version prior to 24. So does this mean you can no longer have a directory structure where LocalFolders and account folders are in the same sub directory?

LocalFolders: X:\Mail
Account (say GMail) X:\Mail\gmail.com

Thanks
- JohnT
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Eckard
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Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by Eckard »

jtruchon wrote:So does this mean you can no longer have a directory structure where LocalFolders and account folders are in the same sub directory?

No, the default directory structure in TB 24 is the same as before.
"Mail" is a sub-folder of the xxxxxxxx.default profile folder and it contains the "Local Folders" folder and the pop*** account folders.
But you still can choose another location for the message storage than the default in the profile folder and keep "Local Folders" and account folders in the same sub directory.
LocalFolders: X:\Mail
Account (say GMail) X:\Mail\gmail.com

If your structure is like this, it won't work.
By changing the path of the "Local Folders" to the new local directory X:\Mail the default mbox files Outbox and Trash will be created in your X:\Mail folder.
So TB 24 won't let you set the path for your GMail account (or any other account) to X:\Mail since it already serves as a message storage directory for "Local Folders".

If you want to move your message storage to another directory than the default, you'll first have to copy your "Local Folders" folder and your GMail account folder into the X:\Mail folder and then in "Server Settings" point the paths for "Local Folders" and the GMail account to the new location in X:\Mail\

But in general (except for very special cases) it is advised not to "split" a profile by moving the message storage to another location. This is a frequent cause of dysfunction, e.g when one wants to move a profile, and certain add-ons also may interfere in the message storage paths. This is one of the reasons why the verification of suitable and not suitable directories for message storage has been added to the AccountManager.js in TB 24.

BTW, it is much easier and safer to move the entire profile folder to another location, e.g. another partition or an external drive, then create a new profile in the TB profile manager and point to the profile folder in the new location.
FoxyFanny
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Joined: May 2nd, 2005, 5:05 am

Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by FoxyFanny »

Eckard wrote:Two similar threads here:
http://www.thunderbird-mail.de/forum/vi ... 26#p349426
http://forums.mozfr.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=115173
Several users in the German Thunderbird forum solved the problem by deleting, in the prefs.js file, the "mail.root.xxxx" options which seemed to point to a profile folder no longer in use.
If you want to give it a try, please first make a backup copy of your prefs.js file ;)


I too am having this problem sporadically, running 64-bit Win 7 Ultimate, and after the 24.0 upgrade.

My Tbird profile is in:-
C:\Users\Peter\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\84aux5xn.default\

Looking at the mail.root. section of the prefs.js, it contains:-

user_pref("mail.root.imap", "C:\\WINDOWS\\Application Data\\Thunderbird\\Profiles\\n2u8elsp.default\\ImapMail");
user_pref("mail.root.imap-rel", "[ProfD]ImapMail");
user_pref("mail.root.nntp", "C:\\Documents and Settings\\Peter\\Application Data\\Thunderbird\\Profiles\\041005.brd\\News");
user_pref("mail.root.nntp-rel", "[ProfD]News");
user_pref("mail.root.none", "C:\\WINDOWS\\Application Data\\Thunderbird\\Profiles\\n2u8elsp.default\\Mail");
user_pref("mail.root.none-rel", "[ProfD]Mail");
user_pref("mail.root.pop3", "C:\\WINDOWS\\Application Data\\Thunderbird\\Profiles\\n2u8elsp.default\\Mail");
user_pref("mail.root.pop3-rel", "[ProfD]Mail");

The "n2u8elsp.default" profile doesn't exist (at least not any longer) but I vaguely recognise "041005.brd" as being a profile from 2005.

Is this suggested fix to delete all these lines from prefs.js, and forget about them, or should they be edited to contain the correct and current folder name "84aux5xn.default"? Or is it a case of empirical testing?
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Eckard
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Re: Local Directory Path Is Not Suitable For Message Storage

Post by Eckard »

@ FoxFan100,
Just delete the obsolete prefs, either directly in the prefs.js file while TB is shut down
or in the config editor (Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General) with a right-click on the pref -> "Reset".
Do not delete the ...-rel", "[ProfD] prefs.
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