My suggestion is to: - click help>troubleshootinginformation - scroll down to 'profile folders' and click 'about:profile' - then click the 'create profile' button in upper left - click next and then enter a name, such as, MYPROFILE, and after that click the browse button to locate and select your desired profile.

My suggestion is to: - click help>troubleshootinginformation - scroll down to 'profile folders' and click 'about:profile' - then click the 'create profile' button in upper left - click next and then enter a name, such as, MYPROFILE, and after that click the browse button to locate and select your desired profile.

That...sort of worked. I'm still not seeing my folders under that profile. Also--I followed your suggestion best I could. There is no "profile folders" label. There is "profile folder" (singular) and at the bottom of the list, "profile" which is where the "about:profile" link is found. Used that, did "create profile" then "next", named it, and browsed to the profile I wanted, but it's not seeing all the stuff it should see. I'll try again. This is getting to be a major PITA.

Turns out there's an article on how to get Tbird to show existing folders. Has (3) methods. First one is to delete all .msf files in the mail.servername folders. Tried it, no joy. Continuing to try.

It appears TBird's 'account settings' page has evolved; my email provider has a section on Tbird and it's a tad out of date--f'rinstance there used to be a setting for the inbound server and another for the outbound. Not any more. Inbound was POP3, outbound IMAP.

Where did you get your copy of Thunderbird (please do not say the Microsoft store.)

One of two places: my own D:\downloads folder (I never use the Windows default one) or from Mozilla.org. I don't think I have anything on any of my partitions that came from the M$ store. I suppose I could grab the newest from Mozilla.

Thunderbird.net has been the place to download the software for a number of years now. Mozilla stopped making Thunderbird about a decade ago. Cool hey.

One of the "traps" for folk that insist on placing stuff in non default locations is that they change the account directory in account settings, promptly forget about it, and subsequently don't actually move their mail data for the account, because it is not in the profile folder any longer. It is in the account directory, where ever that was set to.

Then they come to forums looking for why their folders did not make the move. I am not saying that is the case here, but at least have a look at what it is set to for the account with the missing folders.

Matt, I'm not following what you're saying. Just because this is driving me to drink (and I'm not a drinker) I'll download a brand new copy and install it. After, that is, making backups of however many new profile folders I've got now. -d-

Did you ever just try tools>import>import from another thunderbird installation?

No, and that would exacerbate some of my problem, as I do not want those files on my C: drive/partition. I may wind up needing to do that, but first I'll try the latest and greatest from Thunderbird.org and hope it allows me to install it where I choose. Thanks for the suggestion, however. I may need to use that Import.

actually, david, I do not see a Tools header/column or similar. Under Troubleshooting Information I see: Version 115.6.0 Build ID 20231215200246

This evidently, per Google search, is the latest version. I found Tools--import and imported from that older profile, but it doesn't seem to've worked correctly. I shall persevere.

You do not understand. Go to your account settings. Select local folders.

There you will see a local directory. It is the poor mans way of placing storage outside of the profile directory and folk regularly set it to something like a D: drive folder, promptly forget about doing so, and 5 years later they migrate their real profile to a new computer without all the mail that is in the "Local directory" setting. Result. none of the folders for that account migrate.