LarryVif said

gandi.net prevented access to Thunderbird unless I signed up for it.

How did they do that? Gandi is and always had been optional.

On opening Thunderbird, the screen was overlaid with a message box saying that Gandi.net was a partner with Thunderbird and giving two choices. One was to get a new user name with Gandi.net the other to decline and return to Thunderbird. The latter option just brought you back the same screen. So, no way to get a Thunderbird email.

Try File|New|Existing Mail Account.

Or Tools|Options|Account Settings and use the button at the bottom, which may be labelled "Account Actions" or "Add Mail Account…".

When you get the account creation dialogue, do NOT click "Get a new account".

Gandi is optional.

Nothing is "contaminated", so far as I can see. It appears to be working as expected. Put your most recent backup back.

There is a subtle distinction between "account" and "email address", and an unfortunate choice of wording; "File|New|Mail Account" really means, IMHO, "get a new email address", i.e. an address you don't yet have and haven't used before.

In most cases , the user has set up a new email account with a provider and now wishes to add it to Thunderbird. Hence "File|New|Existing Mail Account".

Zenos, thank you for responding. I want to be careful here and understand your message. Part 1: When you refer to "Add Mail Account" actions ... should I set up a new mail account? If so, I it must be different than the current account? Part 2: "Put your most recent backup back" I use Mozbackup to do this? Into the new account?

Thanks again

The backup you made after the gandi message appeared will be useless. But try this. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_a_profile_that_suddenly_disappeared

Matt, thanks for your advice. I am attempting to follow the instructions "Use the Profile Manager to move your profile". I have tried all the suggestions on how to start Profile Manager. No luck. Any advice? I am on Windows 7

Larry

I presume you launch Thunderbird from a desktop short-cut/icon or a Start Menu item. Whatever you use, right-click it and look for Properties. This will show you the command line used to run Thunderbird. Use that as a model and add the -p needed to run the Profile Manager. Note that you need a space before the hyphen.

You could make a copy of your existing startup shortcut and edit it to include the -p on its command line.

OK. I now have restored my "contaminated" profile to a new profile. I am attaching two .jpg screen shots of how it looks. Cannot get at my email apparently without signing up for gandi.net? So, how can I extract my mail files from this profile and copy to a working copy of Thunderbird OR eliminate whatever bug is in the contaminated profile?

Thanks

Here, the left hand button ("skip this and use my existing email") takes me to the regular email account setup wizard.

What version are you using? There was a problem maybe a couple of years ago with this dialogue.

Did you not follow the File|New|Existing Mail Account route I advised previously?

Ahaaa!! OK Zenos. I selected (skip this...) button and entered the info. for my existing account using the original profile (not a new account) and the messages in my Inbox appeared!!! However, the I cannot find the rest of the files (saved read mail messages in various buckets). Those are what I am really wanting to get back. BTW .. if have version 52.5.0 Any suggestions?

Thanks for getting me this far.....

I have restored Thunderbird from a profile using Profile Manager to a new profile name. The inbox with unread messages appeared however none of the Local Folders appeared. Can anyone tell me how to get the Local Folders to appear?

Thanks

The proper place for the Local Folders account is inside the profile, so restoring a complete profile, as you have done, should have recovered it.

The one obvious thing that comes to mind is to ask if you had changed the "Local Directory" setting for Local Folders. Some people do this, thinking it makes backups easier if Thunderbird's data is stored in an "obvious" place such as under My Documents. But when you do this, that data is no longer in the profile and so won't be backed up along with all the other profile-related data. If a user chooses to use a non-standard configuration, it's down to the user to remember this and accommodate it in his backup regime.

Zenos, thanks for your response. I think I used the wrong words again. I have attached a screen shoot of Thunderbird that I am currently running with. Note the folders under in the inbox. The second screen shows the Thunderbird that I restored that I would like to use. Note that the folders are missing?

Are the folders there and how would I get them back?

Thanks

Is this account POP or IMAP?

Sorry for delay in answering. POP account

Can anyone help? Still trying to recover an entire year of emails? I have the .pcv file that was saved with MOZBACKUP before the problem. Can see unread mail but none of the (read) files in folders. This is a POP account. Any suggestions?

Thanks