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Thunderbird -new-instance options does not work as expected

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  • Last reply by sfhowes

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I need to start Thunderbird twice with different profiles, but the two links: "C:\Tools\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -new-instance -profile "C:\Users\Hans\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<xxx>.default" "C:\Tools\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -new-instance -profile "C:\Users\Moni\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<yyy>.default" do not work as expected: They work if I start only one of them, but as soon as the first one is started, the second one does not open the profile, but it generates a new mail with attachment "<yyy>.default".

It's a bit better with "-no-remote", but not really usable, because in this case click to a link in a mail does not work: I see error message that Firefox is already running (that's true) and must be closed (this should not be requested).

Is there a known workaround? Is this a known Thunderbird error? If not what is the best way to create an error ticket - or could this post be used as error ticket?

German Thunderbird 60.5.0 (32bit), Win7-Ult

I need to start Thunderbird twice with different profiles, but the two links: "C:\Tools\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -new-instance -profile "C:\Users\Hans\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<xxx>.default" "C:\Tools\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -new-instance -profile "C:\Users\Moni\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<yyy>.default" do not work as expected: They work if I start only one of them, but as soon as the first one is started, the second one does not open the profile, but it generates a new mail with attachment "<yyy>.default". It's a bit better with "-no-remote", but not really usable, because in this case click to a link in a mail does not work: I see error message that Firefox is already running (that's true) and must be closed (this should not be requested). Is there a known workaround? Is this a known Thunderbird error? If not what is the best way to create an error ticket - or could this post be used as error ticket? German Thunderbird 60.5.0 (32bit), Win7-Ult

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The easiest way to manage multiple profiles, including running two at the same time, is with the ProfileSwitcher add-on.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/installing-addon-thunderbird