Thunderbird/MozBackup failure, am in desperate straits!

I have used MozBackup for years to restore Thunderbird after a new laptop or a reinstall of Windows, but this time it has failed, over and over.

First, it couldn't find the pcv but it could when I went into Browse and re-selected the file. Also, I don't remember seeing this "default-release" option before.



Eventually it went thru the process successfully but when I open Thunderbird this is what I see - I'm sure that in the past Thunderbird opens as it was when I backed it up, not as a new blank program that needs the email a/c setting up :-/



I've gone round in circles - I saw (paraphrasing) "after you've installed Thunderbird open it once to make sure profiles.ini is created" but there's no profiles.ini to be found in the x86 folder. Somewhere else it said the same thing, almost, but it was registry.dat that should have been created and that's not there either.

Then I read that MozBackup 1.5.1 has problems and that 1.5.2 beta is preferable - I've always used 1.5.1. Could I install 1.5.2 beta on top of 1.5.1, or uninstall the latter and install the former? The backed up files are on D-drive, completely separate from program files, and this has always been the case.

I also found a suggested fix - the pcv file should be changed to zip and unzipped, which I've done after copying the pcv into a separate folder... but what then? I can't understand how to go about it.

I started using Thunderbird to replace Outlook Express, so you can imagine there's a heckuva lot of history to be lost

Sorry if I haven't been clear enough - am so frazzled and just can't keep stopping all ongoing "work" to install/uninstall/reboot this 'n that. I do hope someone can recommend a step-by-step.

(And to make matters worse, I'm getting the same problem that made me reinstall Win10 in the first place, that's going to be another question to TenForums!)

Thunderbird normally lives in C:\users\your user name\appdata\roaming\Thunderbird

I think that's a hidden folder.

Have you attempted to back up the entire roaming folder on your original installation manually? Or the Thunderbird folder within it? By an ordinary drag and drop. I think that's about all Mozbackup does.

My original installation doesn't exist any more, I reinstalled Windows and now need to restore the backup I did with MozBackup.

Thank you for thinking about it, Ignatzatsonic :) I'm off to sleep now, probably will have Mozzie nightmares

After days of distraughtness, especially because none of the (usually) fantastically helpful gurus here have responded, and after lots of fruitless uninstalls/reinstalls and attempted restorations and extension addings-on, I suddenly decided to install an older version of T'Bird instead, it's 52.* which I happened to have in a D-drive folder where I keep all exe files ... and lo&behold! when I double-clicked the shortcut on the desktop it opened up with all my folders and emails in it

That's without me having attempted to restore from MozBackup. What has been hiding, and where's it been hiding?

I shall have to hit Solved even tho there may be no helpful solution for others with this problem.

This is from the developers web site
:MozBackup is not being developed anymore. There are known issues and there is no time on my side to fix all issues and develop new features. Use MozBackup only on your risk. Thanks for understanding. Source code is available on GitHub.

Dugly said:

This is from the developers web site
:MozBackup is not being developed anymore. There are known issues and there is no time on my side to fix all issues and develop new features. Use MozBackup only on your risk. Thanks for understanding. Source code is available on GitHub.

Thanks, Dugly :) Yes, I know - but I didn't until I had to start frantic googling after MozBackup failed for the first time ever :'(

Now looking for a T'Bird replacement which has easy, reliable backup/restore feature.

Look at:

eMclient

GMX (German, but in English)

Zoho

Mail.com

I've never tried any of them, but the above are what I've seen recommended. I'm still on Tbird as long as it works.

I don't remember ever seeing default:Release before, I was scared to touch it! It must have been a coincidence that I wasn't trying to restore to the same version of T'bird as I'd backed up from only hours before... ???

Ah well, it's over now and I won't forget, maybe in future I'll back up with Moz and Hekasoft - belt 'n braces

Thank you, Josey.