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2.1 Multiple Profiles

Samuel FORESTIER edited this page 2020-10-31 21:38:35 +00:00

Table of Contents

• :small_blue_diamond: Thunderbird [Installed] Method 1 [Profile Manager]
• :small_blue_diamond: Thunderbird [Installed] Method 2 [Manual]
• :small_blue_diamond: Loading Profiles

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How to set up, maintain, rename, delete and run profiles.

• For Thunderbird Portable, please refer to 2.2 Multiple Profiles [Thunderbird Portable]
• For more on running concurrent profiles, see 2.3 Concurrent Profiles

🔹 Thunderbird [Installed] Method 1 [Profile Manager]

In order to maintain profiles, you will need to open Thunderbird with a switch to bring up the Profile Manager. Make sure Thunderbird is closed.

• Windows: Press Windows Key + R, type thunderbird.exe -p into the Run dialog that appears, and press Enter.
• Windows: Or create/edit a shortcut and append -p to the Target
  • eg: "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -p
• Mac: Open a Terminal window — press Command+Space, type Terminal, and press Enter to do it from Spotlight. Type /Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/MacOS/thunderbird-bin -profilemanager into the Terminal and press Enter.
• Linux: Open a terminal and run the thunderbird -profilemanager command.

This will bring up the profile manager, where you can create, rename, delete and launch profiles.

In this example, the profile ghacks test was created in the default directory %AppData%\Thunderbird which is C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird.. WARNING: If you choose your own folder location for the profile, select a new or empty folder. If you choose a folder that isn't empty and you later remove the profile and choose the "Delete Files" option, everything inside that folder will be deleted.

For more information see Mozilla Support page: Using Multiple Profiles.

🔹 Thunderbird [Installed] Method 2 [Manual]

In Windows, in your <username>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles directory you will find a profiles.ini. With Thunderbird closed, copy a new default profile, or clone your existing one, and put them anywhere you like (e.g: on a secondary drive). Create as many as you like. Then edit the profiles.ini.

Here is an example

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=Default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/hcac5r43.default

[Profile1]
Name=ghacks test
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/e6xjz6ty.ghacks test
Default=1

[Profile2]
Name=Hardened
IsRelative=0
Path=D:\UserData\Thunderbird Profiles\hardened

🔹 Loading Profiles

Thunderbird only wants you to use a single profile at once. However, you can use concurrent profiles if you like. To do this, you’ll just need to launch Thunderbird with the -no-remote switch. You could do this from the Run dialog or terminal, or just modify an existing Thunderbird shortcut.

• TIP:
  • -p -no-remote will bring up the profile manager
  • -no-remote -p "profile-name" will load a profile directly

You can read more about 2.3 Concurrent Profiles in the next section.