Profiles

Yes, that's what I do. I wish you good luck. Is it possible that your provider tried to communicate with you, and you did not have the account set up? Can you access your mail at the website, or, at least get some idea of what has been going on?

 

Yes, I can access all of my email from both providers on the web.

I kept the dial up when I went to DSL this past summer so that I could keep my anti virus and Windows Updates up to date. Plus if I ever encountered any problems with DSL I would still have Internet access.

Tomorrow I will concentrate on the dial up issue but if all fails will I can anything by doing a total uninstall and starting from scratch?

 

I don't see why it would help. If you have your dial-up ISP, you should be able to create an account.
What do you mean by:

? You may have to wait till they are around to get the desired information, or as I asked, before, you can give me the name of your ISP, or, best, their website (not you e-mail username).
Since you can access your account as webmail, they did not make changes to your username/password. I must be some other setting.

 

Pat,

Uninstalling and reinstalling the programs will do nothing, as the problems are in your Profile.

For either Thunderbird or Firefox, you can access the Profile Manager by doing this:

Right click the Desktop shortcut
Select: Properties
Click the "Shortcut" tab
To the "Target" path add one space, then add -p
Click: Apply, then OK you way out of Properties
Your Target paths will be similar to this:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -p

If Firefox or Thunderbird can't find the profile folder it will report that the profile is in use or, that it is already running. Firefox and Thunderbird look for the profile folder based on the information stored inside the profiles.ini file. You use a text editor such as Notepad to open the "profiles.ini" file to see what information it contains. The profiles.ini file is located here:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox

The file will be similar to this one:

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/v6zui74n.default

Ensure that this line: Path=Profiles/v6zui74n.default is the correct name of your Profile.

I think that will answer your questions.

Now, this is what I would do to to get you up and running on your new PC:

Move all the profiles from the Profiles folder, located here:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
and
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles
Create a temporary folder for them

Next:

Access the Profile Manager and delete any Firefox Profiles which are listed. If you are asked if you wish to delete the files, answer YES. However, ensure that you do have an empty Profiles folder.

Now create a NEW Profile. Give the profile a unique name, i.e., don't use "default ".

Do the same thing for Thunderbird, with the exception of the Profiles folder which is located here:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles

Here are excellent instructions on transferring data to a new Profile, which includes the files, plus an explanation of their use, for both Firefox and Thunderbird:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferr...e_-_Firefox#Identify_what_you_want_to_salvage
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferr...Thunderbird#Identify_what_you_want_to_salvage

If you have any problems at all, I'll be more than happy to take you step by step on copying the individual files.

 

Ramona and Westside,

I am trying to get some other issues out of the way and still have to get this one solved. I am waiting for my ISP (Dialup) to call and then hopefully with a much clearer mind, try to get all of this profile stuff corrected.

 

Well, good luck. I asked, twice, to give me the name of the ISP, and you have not addressed that question. Nothing that I can do.
If you ask questions, please give an answer!.
Read Ramona's post, and, if you don't get it, tell us what you don't understand.
It is very frustrating to see a new question, every day, which was, most likely, addressed by one of us.

 

Sorry. The ISP is WIN.(WestPlex Information Network.

I've placed several calls to them both Friday and today and so far have gotten nothing from them. I am NOT going downstairs to work on that dial-up problem if this log on thing is only a temporary issue.

This was a local ISP until they were bought out by a company called ISDN and I suspect they are really pushing THEIR DSL at a much higher cost.

The web site is win.org

 

I got this page when I did a search.
I don't know about the first three lines. They should follow from the set up of your mail.
As for the rest, it looks straightforward. Assuming that "you" is your username, Your server settings, and set up should be like this:
POP3 Account: you@mail.win.org
POP3 Username: you
Email Address: you@mail.win.org
Since, like many clueless ISPs, they refer only to
Outlook Express set up , I suggest that you try to set up in OE, and see what happens. Then, it may be possible to tell what's going on.

 

Ramona,

I sure hope you're in for the long haul.

I went down to the XP machine with your instructions. I feel dumber and dumber all the time.

First of all I was working with TB only. I added the "p" but didn't understand what that did.

I did check the ini file again. Someone else had clued me in before why after I deleted my profiles I kept getting the message that TB or FF was still running. At least I learned something there. At that time I restored it from my Recycle Bin. I had made a real mess.

Anyway on with this. I moved the Profile to a temp folder I created.

But you lost me when I got to the part about---Access the Profile Manager and delete any profiles listed.

If I moved the profile to the temp folder what's left to delete?. I'm so sorry and I am more calm than I was so what the heck did I do wrong now.

The PC is still sitting down there waiting for me to come back, armed with more info to carry on.

I finally heard from the ISP and after a long explanation my logon is changed.

 

As I stated in my suggestions above:
For either Thunderbird or Firefox, you can access the Profile Manager by doing this:

Right click the Desktop shortcut
Select: Properties
Click the "Shortcut" tab
To the "Target" path add one space, then add -p

Adding the space -p to the Target Line of the TB Desktop shortcut, takes you directly to the TB Profile Manager. Once you have finished with the Profile Manager, you will either need to remove the -p or create a new shortcut to access TB.

Even if you move the Profile Name folder (xxxxxxxx.profilename) from the Profiles folder, it will still be listed in the Profile Manager, and should be deleted.

That's good to hear, but they certainly took their time?

 

Okay, I'll try again this evening. I just didn't really understand what you meant. i just added the p and closed the window. I've never dealt with any of this stuff before and am not the least bit computer literate about it. I assume you've picked up on that by now. <G>

**Even if you move the Profile Name folder (xxxxxxxx.profilename) from the Profiles folder, it will still be listed in the Profile Manager, and should be deleted.**

Sorry but that still confuses me. I moved that Profile file to another folder and then there was nothing else there. Did you mean simply COPY it to another folder?

 

Ramona,

Can you please explain so that I will understand why there are 2 each profiles in FF and TB?

Only 1 in Firefox has the .slt extension. There is none in Thunderbird that has the .slt extension. What are the defaults all about?

This is on the Vista system. Not the one that is really messed up with Thunderbird.

Thanks.

 

The format of the Firefox Profile is of the same type as Thunderbird, i.e. xxxxxx.default. All program start with a default Profile (I think, but I am not sure). But, additional profiles can be created, and placed anywhere.
Are you saying that you have two profiles for Firefox, and two for Thunderbird? I have three profiles for each, but they were created on purpose. And, all six profiles have names different from default, along with a combination of letters and numbers ( my xxxxxxx). I don't have any .slt folder.
But, I don't have Vista, which I am avoiding like the plague.

 

If you have two profiles in Firefox, and one of them has an .slt extension, then I can only assume that the Profile which has the slt extension is from an older version of Fx, or perhaps was migrated from Netscape when you initially installed Fx. If the Profile is named xxxxxxxx.default, that is the newer profile name, and instead of giving your Profile a unique name, you accepted Fx's default Profile name which is... "default ". You will have to determine which of these is the current Profile.

No, I meant to move the profile to another folder.

But, you also need to open the Profile Manager, where the Profile Names are listed. Then click on the "Delete Profile" Tab. Do this AFTER you move the Profile Name folder out of the Profiles folder, ensuring that the Profiles folder if empty. See this screen shot

 

Well, last night I printed off at least 40 pages of instructions between here and the Mozilla site. I am overwhelmed with the Profile issue.

I starting reading the stuff to see if it would finally sink in. I don't know why I'm having such a difficult time comprehending all of it.

I may just have to ask for one explanation at a time. Will that be okay with you?

Thanks again.

 

40 pages of instructions indicate that you have not tried to find out what is important. Quantity is not a substitute for quality. You may have duplication and more. Of course, you can proceed one step at a time, but, that's not the way to do things. You must have the full picture in front of you.
I am afraid that the reason why you have so much trouble, is, because after finishing with step 1, step 2 is an entirely different story, completely removed and/or disconnected from step 1.

 

Westside,

I would like to suggest that since my lack of knowledge seems to constantly irritate you that you might want to quit following this thread.

I will eventually get my issues resolved. I always do. But I really don't want to be the source of anyone's else's frustration.

Thanks.

 

Pat,

One step at a time will be fine. That's why I asked you to stick with one issue, rather than jumping from one to the other. You tell me where you want to start and then we will go slowly.

 

Ramona,

Some bad news and good news.

Yesterday I went down, armed with your notes and other things I had printed off and started to work on the Profile issue. Well, once again I must have done something incorrectly the day before when I quit and waited for further instructions, because something was wrong.

I simply did not want to keep dwelling on this and un-installed TB, making sure I got rid of the configuration files. I shut the PC down and waited until this morning to start all over.

So I just finished re-installing the program only for the first time I paid extra attention to what the heck I was doing. I also made copies of EACH screen and did learn one thing. It was the name that appears as my account name. I chose a silly name so that if it appeared in the Users folder of Mozilla I could identify it.

I really appreciate all the time and patience you've given me. I have several others questions but later I will start new threads for EACH question so as not to have such long threads that are hard to follow.

Is that your preference?

 

Pat,

If all the questions pertain to the Profile, then one thread would be better.