what is a U: drive? It is a long way from the system volume or the appdata folders where Thunderbird stores your profile

Note .mozmsgs are not your email nor are the files they contain as far as Thunderbird is concerned. They are folders and files that exist for the sole purpose of allowing windows search to index your mail.

Basically if you have been changing the local directories in account setting there is no way for someone to assist you. you are the only one that has any idea what you have changes to what or why.

U: drive is a virtual disk I have on a partition of my C: drive. It is for exclusive use and storage of mail by my email client to facilitate easy automatic backups. Matt your answer that my relocation of my local files makes it impossible for anyone to help me is not helpful. Thanks but apparently you are not the one to give me advice. I welcome other feedback from users who have read the Thunderbird documentation and understand that you should be able to relocate your files to any drive you want and they do not need to be restricted to the system app folder. My local files are being found just fine, it is my profile file and the directory it resides in that the profile.ini file is pointing to that does it appears Thunderbird is not accessing and utilizing as the online documentation indicates it should be.

It looks to me as if you have hand crafted this ini file, as it contains errors that would not be there had you made use of the profile manager.

IsRelative needs to be 0, since it uses an absolute pathname. But I think this file is in the wrong place as you shouldn't see it in the folder that Troubleshooting Information takes you to; the ini file being used is in a folder one or or two levels above the data store. The real working ini file is currently pointing you to a location on C:.

But as Matt pointed out, the presence of that Local Folders folder indicates that some adjustment had been made to the mall store location and I will back him up in saying that if you have changed this then only you can unravel it.

I suggest you use the Troubleshooting Information button to locate and enter the working profile. Note its location. Quit Thunderbird, copy this folder to where ever you want it, on U:. Restart Thunderbird with the profile manager and create a new profile, directing it to the new copy on your U: drive.

I think you'll still have a mess with Local Folders, and indeed with any other Local Directory settings that have been moved away from the default location.

Doesn't Windows 10 have a feature to allow you to relocate Users to somewhere of your own choosing, rather than this piecemeal fiddling?

Zenos said

Doesn't Windows 10 have a feature to allow you to relocate Users to somewhere of your own choosing, rather than this piecemeal fiddling?

Windows 10, like all Microsoft products is incredibly fragile. While it is technically possible to relocate the C:\Users using tools like robocopy. It is not recommended and Microsoft goes into all sorts of quaking when it is mentioned.

Having said that, moving the sub folders like appdata, pictures documents etc is fairly straightforward. So, yes it can be done. See http://www.pcworld.com/article/2079571/move-your-libraries-to-a-second-drive-or-partition.html this is primarily a windows 7/8 tutorial, but the folders and tabs also exist on Windows 10.

Symbolic links as in Linux are also an option http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

bigbasinguy said

U: drive is a virtual disk I have on a partition of my C: drive. It is for exclusive use and storage of mail by my email client to facilitate easy automatic backups.

Really, how hard is Backup %appdata%\Thunderbird. I would assume any decent backup software, or even a batch file would manage to do that. The backup that came with windows is managing an automatic backup of mine daily and I do not have it on some other drive for easy automatic backup.

Matt your answer that my relocation of my local files makes it impossible for anyone to help me is not helpful. Thanks but apparently you are not the one to give me advice. I welcome other feedback from users who have read the Thunderbird documentation and understand that you should be able to relocate your files to any drive you want and they do not need to be restricted to the system app folder.

yep understanding you can do it and being able to untangle the mess that can be created by doing so a completely different things. I am sorry, but it is also possible to drive your car on a free way in reverse. That does not make it a good idea.

My local files are being found just fine,

But located outside the main mail profile. Just dandy for backup really. Part of the data here and part of the data there. Just hope you can duplicate the drives and volumes, probably from memory, if you ever have to restore from backup.

it is my profile file and the directory it resides in that the profile.ini file is pointing to that does it appears Thunderbird is not accessing and utilizing as the online documentation indicates it should be.

if your issues are as simple as you say the solution is to fire up the profile manager, tell it to create a new profile and point the location to U:\Thunderbird\Profiles\i02pmzv8.default where you have a profile with data in it.

But I am guessing. I have no idea where your profile data is stored and with all your postings, you have not indicated you know where it is either.

I suggest you locate a folder with a copy of GLobal-messages.db.sqlite and a copy of abook.mab in that have been updated in the recent past. and assume that is the root of your profile.

bigbasinguy: I've a different wrinkle of the same need.

My take: I have @#%%*&^#$$!! errr- outlook. when its files get to some size it starts failing in the most painful ways. One thing it did have the ability to do was open multiple PST files from any addressable store. ALSO running Win10. The reason I have multiple separate file stores: confidential clients. I choose to have one encrypted disk for each, and within that disk, their related email data file. Also, I cannot afford to have client data caught up in the far-too-many breaches in the cloud; That is why I have kept such emails locally to ensure I do not lose control of their disposition. Yes, the backup and availability is my responsibility, but that is my worry.

Zenos: I've yet to attack this effort; I am doing my best to research all of the nuances and gotchas before taking up the task.

From my read of 30-50 postings here on MoSupp, I am not sure how as yet to set it up: it appears there can only be one local store per profile; I need to find a way to distribute from one inbox to several 'client-specific' local stores, each with a separate address. My inbox/IP email is set up IMAP and I am fairly comfortable with its implications and results. it seems that the profile.ini is only able to point to one 'inbox' and one 'local folder' -is that true? that is, there are only addr-0 and addr-1 and that cannot be extended?

To achieve my separate client stores, will I need a separate profile for each? If so, each would have to address the same IP email IMAP inbox, correct? This seems like something that would be much easier if more than just one local store addr was allowed/ supported in INI but then that would require the TB handling to have that N-store function within; I understand if it didn't. I would propose that it be a good idea to allow multiple local stores, as the cloud hacking and breaches -Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, etc. -are putting a lot of small businesses in a very difficult position legally. If we defer to a cloud service, that service is not held liable for clients' data exposure, we are.

BTW: the encrypted drives are achieved thru a drive level tool Cypherix such that every app on the system sees them just as any drive - E:\ (client A) K:\ (client B) ..., a very nice tool for protecting groups of key data. TB would just see the files on these drives as easily and via the same means as they see the %appdata% folder.

I apologize for this possibly being a 2nd issue within one thread; but until I got to this posting, I wasn't sure if my goal could be achieved, nor of the profile.ini restrictions; I now do believe it can be done, and that these threads can help me to do so. I added it here as a vote of support for the original author, and to offer another business-driven need that echoes the same underlying questions.

I've read many of your posts herein, Zenos and Matt, and I thank you for your time, and your clear desire to help us out, the less experienced TB users. I really hope that TB can help me to move off outlook in this regard.

Zenos said

It looks to me as if you have hand crafted this ini file, as it contains errors that would not be there had you made use of the profile manager. IsRelative needs to be 0, since it uses an absolute pathname. But I think this file is in the wrong place as you shouldn't see it in the folder that Troubleshooting Information takes you to; the ini file being used is in a folder one or or two levels above the data store. The real working ini file is currently pointing you to a location on C:. But as Matt pointed out, the presence of that Local Folders folder indicates that some adjustment had been made to the mall store location and I will back him up in saying that if you have changed this then only you can unravel it. I suggest you use the Troubleshooting Information button to locate and enter the working profile. Note its location. Quit Thunderbird, copy this folder to where ever you want it, on U:. Restart Thunderbird with the profile manager and create a new profile, directing it to the new copy on your U: drive. I think you'll still have a mess with Local Folders, and indeed with any other Local Directory settings that have been moved away from the default location. Doesn't Windows 10 have a feature to allow you to relocate Users to somewhere of your own choosing, rather than this piecemeal fiddling?