How to initialize Thunderbird or remove it completely

SC2 2017-07-19

2021-11-14

このサイトを検索 | Search this site

,release information

Thunderbird is an open source email client developed by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation.

The Mozilla Foundation is also famous for developing the web browser Firefox.

Firefox is the only browser to compete with Google Chrome, but Thunderbird is also known as a high share email client.

If you set up a Gmail account on Thunderbird with IMAP4, the mail itself will be stored on the Gmail server, so you can share Gmail with devices other than PC.

Thunderbird is a specification that holds account information, received mail, etc. in [User Profile], so it is possible to use multiple user profiles properly.

Thunderbird can be initialized

Thunderbird can be initialized when it becomes unstable.

There are the following methods.

Create a new profile
Reinstall (this article)

PLAN-A

Please read the related article as the procedure for creating a new profile is written in another article.

PLAN-B (this article)

This article describes the precautions and specific procedure when reinstalling Thunderbird for the purpose of initializing it.

When reinstalling for the purpose of initializing Thunderbird, it is necessary to rename or delete the profile before reinstalling.

Steps to reinstall Thunderbird

Uninstalling Thunderbird from "Programs and Features" does not delete the Thunderbird Profiles folder.

The Profiles folder is an important folder that stores Thunderbird's settings information, data such as emails received so far, so it is not easily deleted.

Therefore, when uninstalling for the purpose of initializing Thunderbird, it is necessary to rename or delete the Profiles folder at the same time.

If you reinstall with the Profiles folder remaining, the setting information just before the uninstallation will be restored, and the initialization purpose cannot be achieved.

As mentioned earlier, it is not recommended to delete the emails you have received so far in the Profiles folder.

We recommend the following steps:

Back up your Profiles
Or rename Profiles

1. Uninstall Thunderbird

Start "Programs and Features" from Control Panel and uninstall Thunderbird.

2. Rename Profiles

Rename Profiles.
Profiles exist in two places.

Profiles

C:\Users\(login user)\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles
C:\Users\(login user)\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

When renaming, it is easy to understand by adding the renamed date to Profiles.

Profiles_yymmdd (yy: year, mm: month, dd: day)

3. Reinstall Thunderbird

Follow the installer message to complete the installation.

4. End of procedure

Start Thunderbird.
If it is initialized, the procedure is successful.

If it is not initialized, you may need to delete profiles.ini in the next section. Make a backup before deleting.

Precautions when deleting Profiles

Please note that if you set up your mail server with POP3, deleting the user profile will also delete the received mail.

IMAP4 is fine.

POP3 | IMAP4

POP3
Please be aware that if you delete Profiles when the receiving server setting of Thunderbird is POP3 and it is not set to "Leave mail on the server", the mail received so far will also be deleted.

IMAP4 (IMAP)
If the receiving server setting is IMAP, the mail is actually stored on the server, so deleting Profiles does not delete the mail.

Profiles

location of profiles.ini
C:\Users\< login user >\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\profiles.ini

Location of Profiles folder
C:\Users\< login user >\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles
C:\Users\< login user >\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

Afterword

How to transfer email

Thunderbird does not have a mail import /export function, so if you want to use the old profile mail with the new profile, use the Thunderbird add-on ImportExportTools.

MozBackup, a famous free backup tool for Thunderbird, can backup /restore the settings of Thunderbird, but there is no mail import /export function.

For information on ImportExportTools, please read the related article.

The information on the official website is reprinted about the profile of Thunderbird.

There are mainly two items stored in the profile of Thunderbird. One is a copy of your local mail and mail on the server. The other is the changes you made to Thunderbird, such as account settings and toolbar customization.
Thunderbird profile

External link