Fix Thunderbird Error: Profile Missing or Inaccessible | Lost Connection to Profile

Mozilla Thunderbird is one of the most commonly used open-source application. It is preferred for both the personal and the business use and provides all basic services like any other email client. However, if users encounter any error while working on Thunderbird, it becomes difficult for them to continue their work. These errors can be occurred due to any possible reasons like corruption, Thunderbird crash, Windows crash, etc. One such type of error message that is encountered by the users is “Thunderbird lost connection to profile” or “ Thunderbird Profile missing or inaccessible ”. However, when the Mozilla Thunderbird forget the existing profile with a default name and suddenly begin with a new account window it seems like a user lost all its important data. But, it is not the case, it simply lost the track of profile or unable to locate it. Therefore, in this post, we have discussed all possible solutions to resolve these type of errors in Mozilla Thunderbird.

Possible Reasons Behind “Thunderbird Profile Missing or Inaccessible” Error

There is always a reason behind the occurrence of any error, so is the case with Thunderbird errors. Therefore, all major causes of this error are listed below:

• If a user has renamed, moved or deleted the profile folder from the Thunderbird application, then the user will encounter this error.
• If a user tries to run the program from the removable media, then also there are chances that this error will occur.
• Another major cause of this error is profile folder is saved on the network drive.
• Another possible reason is empty or corrupt prefs.js file due to Thunderbird or Windows crashing.
• However, before jumping to the solution directly, a user first understand the reason behind the error. After that, follow the solution according to that only.

Methods to Fix “Thunderbird Lost Connection to Profile” Error

In order to solve error Thunderbird Profile missing or inaccessible a user is advised to recreate the Thunderbird profile and restore all old data into new one. To this manually, follow the steps mentioned below:

Method1 : Steps to Recreate Thunderbird Profile

One can easily recreate the account in Thunderbird application by using the Profile Manager. Therefore, to begin the process, a user must start the Profile Manager and open Choose User Profile window. After that, follow the steps mentioned below:

1. First of all, click on Create Profile option in the Profile Manager to open the Create Profile Wizard
2. After that, click on Next button and type the name of the new profile.

Tip: Use a descriptive a profile name like user’s personal name. The profile name is not visible on the Internet.

3. If a user wants, can choose the storage location of the profile on the local machine. To do the same, click on the Choose Folder option

Note: If a user wants to select the desired folder location for the profile, it is advised to choose a new or empty folder. If a user selects a folder, which is not empty and he/ she later delete the profile. Select the Delete Files option and everything in that folder will get deleted.

4. Now, to create a new profile to resolve the error: Thunderbird Profile missing or inaccessible, you need to click on the Finish button

After all this, the Profile Manager window will open again. Here, a user can either start Firefox or close the Profile Manager window.

Method 2: Recover Data from the Old Profile

All folder of Thunderbird profile is stored in MBOX format. They are basically the text files with no file extension just folders name. For example, inbox folder is “inbox.”, sent folder as “sent.”. Apart from all this, there are some other files having .msf as a file extension. A user can simply ignore them, as they don’t contain any messages. Now, the question arises, how to import emails from old Thunderbird profile?

As there are various free tools available online to import emails (MBOX file) to Thunderbird profile. But, all of them have some limitations like they take lots of time and hard to perform. Therefore, a user is advised to switch to a professional solution named as Thunderbird Import Wizard.

One-step Solution for : Thunderbird Profile missing or inaccessible

In order to move multiple MBOX file to Thunderbird Account at once , a user can simply use this tool. The tool is programmed in such a manner that it import all emails along with attachments to Mozilla Thunderbird. It preserves on-disk folder structure also and can be run on any version of MS Windows. In addition, if a user wants can import selective emails also from MBOX file without any hassle using this tool.

Suggestion: One can easily backup profile data using SysTools Thunderbird Backup & Restore Tool to prevent “Thunderbird lost connection to profile” error. This software also helps in restoring data back to Thunderbird profile without any hassle.

The Final Note

Any error while working on Thunderbird can create lots of issue for the users. “Thunderbird lost connection to profile” is one such type of error, which create problems for the users. This error occurs when Thunderbird profile missing or inaccessible. Therefore, to resolve this error, we have discussed a simple method to recreate a Thunderbird profile. However, to restore old emails, one can use the Thunderbird Import Wizard tool suggested above.