TB lost all my profile accounts and only shows blank panes !

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aSchwarzie
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TB lost all my profile accounts and only shows blank panes !

Post by aSchwarzie »

Edit: Initial post title was: "HELP !!! All TB mail files gone and only XUL.mfl remaining"
Has been corrected to reflect actual problem content.

Dear all,

Please help me solve this totally crazy problem. All in a sudden, after booting up the PC (WinXP+SP2) and opening Thunderbird all panes are empty and TB offers to "create a new account", whic I cancelled.

When looking in the windows explorer I find that the folder

c:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Local Settings\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\cnq5pqy8.default

just contains ONE file:

Timestamp: 31/01/2007 22:36
Size: 2.446.656 Bytes
Name: XUL.mfl

While all other files are GONE !!!

The Profiles folder doesn NOT contain any profiles.ini file either, which I have on my other computer with several mail profiles. I've looked at the recycle bin for accidental removal (but HOW ??) but nothing alike there...

Any ideas ?? On the security settings, my PC is behind the router's firewall, and it runs AVG 7.5 free with auto-update.

Thanks for your precious help !

Arnie
Last edited by aSchwarzie on January 31st, 2007, 6:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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aSchwarzie
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Post by aSchwarzie »

Arghhh sorry if I wen too quickly :-(

I found the mail folders under:

c:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\cnq5pqy8.default
(not the one under "Local Settings" -- am so sorry for the confusion!)

But STILL, when opening TB, its sees NO accounts and both panes are blank !
How can I recover my mail account files and what is that XUL.mfl file ?

Thanks for your advice !
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aSchwarzie
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Post by aSchwarzie »

Hmmm, after a google search on the XUL.mfl file a very common suggestion was to remove the file and things would be reset.
Did not work for me : when opening TB its still doesn't see the existing e-mail account... :-(
Any idea ?

Would I *dare* create a new account and overwrite folders ? Sounds the last risky thing to try...

(I still have the file aside XUL.mfl, if needed)
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Daifne
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Post by Daifne »

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aSchwarzie
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Location: Belgium (as long as it stands)

Post by aSchwarzie »

Thank you so much Daifne, i'll look into that immediately !!

I did some keyword search in the kb but I must confess it's not easy at all to find an article based on keywords -- relevance is rather poor, imho.
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Daifne
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Post by Daifne »

I agree. It's a bit better since kerz added the Google search to it, but it is still lacking.
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aSchwarzie
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Post by aSchwarzie »

Gosh, it took a lot of manual manipulations but in the end I could recove almost everything !

The symptom was that the prefs.js file got corrupted (only the ten top lines would appear anymore)
The oddest above all is that none of the 3 methods suggested worked, I had to combine manipulations of the 3 altogether.
Strangely, even the NEW account created with the profile manager got a corrupt prefs.js file too, which took me some time to identify !

But everything seems fine now.

Thanks a lot for pointing me at those atricle Daifne ! Without you, I would be in a terrible situation !

(btw, superb thrunderbird-eye-colored cat !)
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Daifne
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Post by Daifne »

Wonderful. I had the same thing happen once because I hadn't defragged often enough. I ended up creating a new profile and migrating everything over. Not fun either way.

You're very welcome.

His eyes are really neat. The turn orange like that at night. During the day they are gold.
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aSchwarzie
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Post by aSchwarzie »

Wow you mean it's not picture-edited colors ?? I mean the "blue" is sooooo beautiful !

(I had a Siamees with beautiful eyes too)
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Daifne
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Post by Daifne »

The only edit on that was a crop to show just his face. :-)

During the day the blue doesn't show. It must be something to do with the lighting.
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aSchwarzie
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Post by aSchwarzie »

Cool anyway !

Daifne, should I rename the title of the post as it doesn't reflect the actual problem content ?
or is this against forum policy ?
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Daifne
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Post by Daifne »

It's up to you, but it would be more helpful to have it accurate.
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aSchwarzie
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Post by aSchwarzie »

Done ! :-)

A last question: i'm now a user of TB/FF/OO.o since 5 months and have accumulated a lot of notes regarding what should change or questions about weird working of these software.

As far as TB s concerned, should I open one global topic here and let people react -- is it not going to be a mess ? Opening one topic per note would maybe be more relevant but... more daunting (for me) and some might not deserve a separate topic ?

What would be your advice ?
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Daifne
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Post by Daifne »

One topic would be best. To make it easier for us, number your questions. ;-)
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