Where did my appdata folder go?

Windows Version number 20H2

This morning I shut down Thunderbird, intending to back up its profile folder. But it had been so long since I last performed a back-up, I couldn't recall where the profile folder was hiding. I checked a Thunderbird help page and found this:

You can...navigate directly to your profile folder at the following path:

C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>\

But when I looked under my user name (which is "user") there was no "AppData" folder:


Can someone guide me back to my missing profile folder?

Will in Seattle
a.k.a. "Clueless"

Hi Ghot! Thanks for that speedy reply!

Yes, you were right. I just checked, and sure enough, it turned out that my "View" option had been changed to "Don't show hidden files, folders, and drives." I did have a Windows 10 update a few days ago, so I suspect that may have been the culprit. My experience has been that those updates have had an annoying habit of resetting my personal settings back to Windows defaults.

However, when I changed that setting and clicked "Apply to Folders," I still couldn't see AppData in File Explorer.

I tried pressing F5, which I've read is supposed to work like the old View Refresh command, but still no AppData.

Hi Bree! Thanks for the help.

Your suggestion worked!


I was able to backup my Thunderbird profile using that trick. Thanks a million.

One more question: If you take a look at my screenshot, you'll notice that the AppData folder icon is much lighter in color that all of the other folder icons. Could that be a signal that that folder is still hidden?

Thanks, Callender, that looks like it could come in handy!

I guess I'll mark this problem as solved, since I did find two ways to get to my AppData folder. But it still leaves unsolved the mystery of why AppData still fails to appear in Windows File Explorer under ThisPC > Local Disk (C:) > Users > user:


Just out of curiosity I tried that path using XYplorer instead of Windows File Explorer, and AppData does show up there:


So the discrepancy would seem to be somewhere in the way Windows File Explorer renders that path.

But it's too nice a day to sit in here at my computer trying to figure why File Explorer doesn't show AppData under This PC, when I've already found two other paths to the AppData folder (Three if we count my using XYplorer). So let's say: "Problem Solved!" shall we?

Many thanks to all of you who contributed,

Will in Seattle
a.k.a. "Clueless"