Author Topic: A few questions about Thunderbird  (Read 3607 times)

Neil Waldhauer

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A few questions about Thunderbird
« on: December 30, 2021, 01:04:03 am »
I have a perfectly working example, and one that is broken. How can I fix the broken Thunderbird?

Spell check isn't working. I checked the options, and it should be on. What could make spell check stop working?

Clicking on a URL does not bring up Firefox. IAI seems to have the right Firefox exe and typing that path at command line does bring up Firefox. What else could stop Firefox?

Just a weird question: Thunderbird suggests prior e-mail addresses as you type. Can I edit that list of e-mail addresses? Where is it stored?

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Dave Yeo

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Re: A few questions about Thunderbird
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2021, 02:35:56 am »
Hi Neil,
Sounds like a broken profile, not easy to fix unless a backup perhaps has an unbroken profile. often just recovering prefs.js may fix it.
If switching to a new profile, after creating your accounts, you can recreate the folders, then with Thunderbird closed, copy the mailboxes over, not the msf files. When afterwards, you click on a folder, the msf file will be recreated.
Before starting, compact all the folders and back up the profile. You may want to disable downloading and deleting the emails from the server. Under the account settings, server settings, tick the "leave messages on server" tickbox until you're finished migrating.
There are some directions on the net how to migrate profiles and files you can move to the new profile, as usual be aware that the directions might be for a newer TB. Usually the ones from kb.mozilla.org are good.

The email addresses are stored in abook.mab (a file you should be able to migrate to the new profile) and accessed through the address book, under the collected addresses book, and yes you can delete items. Once again I suggest backing up your profile first, a simple zip file works. Also once things are how you like, make a copy of prefs.js, you can leave it in your profile. I seem to have 5 of them with the oldest from 2011, it has grown from 15kB to 65Kb over the years.