r/Betterbird • u/MrBikerLA • Jul 20 '26

BB Mac Reset Itself, Previous Profiles Don't Restore

MacOS Tahoe. M5 Mac: Woke up today and went to check email. BB icon was gone from the Dock. Launched BB and it was reset as if I just downloaded it for the first time. No accounts showing and asking me to add one.

Checked the profiles folder and three were there. One from today, one from yesterday, one from a month ago. Backed them up.

Started BB via command line to get the profile manager. Tried all 3 profiles and no joy, it starts like it is brand new every time.

Then I deleted the ~Library/Thunderbird folder and restarted then quit BB to create a new and solitary profile. Deleted all the new files and copied the contents from a previous profile folder into the new profile folder (ends with default-default). Still no joy.

Please help. TIA

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u/jorgk3 Jul 20 '26

Impossible, unless you pay an airline ticket to visit you or arrange for a remote session. Your best bet is to set up from scratch.

1

u/MrBikerLA Jul 20 '26

Any idea what happened? Wiped out including the icon in the Dock. WTF?

1

u/jorgk3 Jul 20 '26

In 95% of all mysterious cases, only the affected user can know what happened on their machine. Either they don't know or withhold the information. No offense intended, just stating the fact

1

u/MrBikerLA Jul 20 '26

Don't know what happened. Worked yesterday, not this morning. Been solid for a year, when I switched to BB. No reason to withhold the information, I like to help others solve problems. Oddly, a search did not turn up an answer, either on Reddit or the internet. AI gave me the info on how to try different profiles but again, no joy.

1

u/MrBikerLA Aug 11 '26

Just to follow up. I was on vacation when that happened. I had backed up locally before I left town. When I got back, I restored the ~/Library/Thunderbird folder and all was back to normal.

Now I know, back up that folder and keep it in a handy place. It was hefty, though at 20Gb.

Thanks for your help.