1664578 - Thunderbird 78.2.2 Profile Manager Create Profile should allow both the path and the profile name to be entered into the "Enter new profile name" field.

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Description

[dr.duane.thresher]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/85.0.4183.102 Safari/537.36

Steps to reproduce:

Thunderbird Setup 78.2.2.exe
Windows 10 Home, Version 2004 on bottom-of-the-line Dell Inspiron.

Trying to see if can install all Thunderbird programs, config directories, and profiles on removable SDHC (D: drive), which would thus be very secure. Successfully installed main Thunderbird program on D:\Mozilla Thunderbird\

Ran Profile Manager to create a profile to work with:

C:\Users\me> "D:\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -p

Create Profile

Welcome to the Create Profile Wizard
Next

Completing the Create Profile Wizard
Enter new profile name: Default User
Your user settings, preferences, and other user-related data will be stored in:
C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dnbfxot0.Default User
->
Enter new profile name: default
Your user settings, preferences, and other user-related data will be stored in:
C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dnbfxot0.default

Choose Folder

Since folder dnbfxot0.default didn't exist yet anywhere could only choose
D:\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

Completing the Create Profile Wizard
Enter new profile name: default
Your user settings, preferences, and other user-related data will be stored in:
D:\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

Finish

This results in all profile files being in (no dnbfxot0.default folder)
D:\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

Then tried:

Completing the Create Profile Wizard
Enter new profile name: dnbfxot0.default
Your user settings, preferences, and other user-related data will be stored in:
D:\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\dnbfxot0.default

This results in all profile files being in (no Profiles folder)
D:\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\dnbfxot0.default

As a workaround, manually created
D:\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dnbfxot0.default

and chose that. This finally results in all profile files being in
D:\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dnbfxot0.default

This is clearly a bug that needs fixing.

While we are on the subject, I could not figure out how to get these directories to install on the removable D: drive:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Maintenance Service [optional but wanted]
C:\ProgramData\Mozilla
C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Thunderbird
C:\Users\me\AppData\LocalLow\Mozilla
C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla

In particular C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird contains profiles.ini, which contains the path to the profile, which is a security risk.

I would request that during Thunderbird installation, the user be allowed to choose where these directories are installed just as for the main Thunderbird program:

Double-clicked Thunderbird Setup 78.2.2.exe
Yes to changes to device
Mozilla Thunderbird Setup
Next
Setup Type
checked Custom
Next
Choose Install Location
D:\Mozilla Thunderbird
Next

Otherwise, Thunderbird 78.2.2 seems very good so far. I will be testing out the built-in OpenPGP -- one of the reasons I installed Thunderbird 78.2.2, having used Enigmail up to Thunderbird 68.4.1.

Thanks.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

profiles.ini is part of the architecture and will not change.

Alex, TCW, can you reproduce the other bit?

Comment 2

[Arthur K. (he/him)]

This doesn't sound like it should work because this isn't a fixed disk and it's path might not be D:\ next time it's inserted. As I am reading the STR, it sounds like you're trying to not only force a different location of where your profile is to be stored but also where TB itself is installed a la "C:\Users\me> "D:\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -p". Windows registry will always spank you when you try to go off the reservation like this.

Windows should fall over and complain because, by default, C:\Users*\Appdata is a set path at that location and you can't have D:\Users*\AppData because it's hard coded to exist at C:\ only which is why it's not letting you do what you're trying to do. There cannot be two "Users*\Appdata" locations.

As I look at it, you're trying to force TB to be portable for a version that isn't portable. Portable TB from Portable Apps will do this on an SDHC, but regular TB shouldn't allow you to do what you're trying to do.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

invalid then? (ref comment 2)

Comment 4

[Arthur K. (he/him)]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #3)

invalid then? (ref comment 2)

I'm leaning yes.

Comment 5

[dr.duane.thresher]

You don't seem to understand the actual bug and have gone off on an irrelevant tangent. That may be my fault. I put too much in the original bug report, intending to give some context and also fit in a request for other changes. So let's start over.

I was trying to do this

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data#w_restoring-to-a-different-location

which requires doing this

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/using-multiple-profiles

so I did this:

C:\Users\me> "D:\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -p

Create Profile

Welcome to the Create Profile Wizard
Next

Completing the Create Profile Wizard
Enter new profile name: Default User [default field]
Your user settings, preferences, and other user-related data will be stored in:
C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dnbfxot0.Default User [non-editable default field]

I wanted the profile name to end in just ".default" as it normally does so I edited the profile name

Enter new profile name: default
Your user settings, preferences, and other user-related data will be stored in:
C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dnbfxot0.default

I also wanted to change the path to the profile so I clicked

Choose Folder

Since folder dnbfxot0.default didn't exist yet anywhere could only choose

D:\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

This returned me to

Enter new profile name: default
Your user settings, preferences, and other user-related data will be stored in:
D:\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

All I could do then was click

Finish

This resulted in all profile files being in

D:\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

meaning there was no dnbfxot0.default folder.

I then tried

Enter new profile name: dnbfxot0.default [I typed this in]
Your user settings, preferences, and other user-related data will be stored in:
D:\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\dnbfxot0.default

This results in all profile files being in

D:\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\dnbfxot0.default

meaning no Profiles folder.

My suggestion is to lose the Choose Folder button above and allow both the path and the profile name to be entered into the "Enter new profile name" field.

Comment 6

[Arthur K. (he/him)]

Ok, hold on a second. It is a bit confusing for me to understand. I read through both links. Let me ask a couple questions in plain, pedestrian English about what it is you're trying to do.

1. Are you trying to create, from scratch, your >DEFAULT< TB profile on a removable drive? Yes or no?

2. If no, are you trying to move your existing >DEFAULT< profile from C:\ to D:\ and use it from there ad infinitum? Yes or no?

3. You chose to install TB to this removable drive as well and run it from there and not from C:? Yes or no?

I have TB 81.0b3 installed but not suggesting you install a beta.

1. I have TB installed on C:\ so I started TB using "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -p to bring up the Profile Manager (This is my work PC, I cannot fiddle with TB install location)
2. Clicked "Create Profile" to bring up the Profile Wizard and clicked Next
3. Called my new profile TEST, clicked "Choose Folder..." and navigated to E:, created a new folder on E: called TEST, chose it, and clicked Select Folder and it accepted E:\TEST as the destination folder
4. Unchecked "Use the selected profile...." and then clicked Start Thunderbird
5. After a few seconds, Set Up Your Existing EMail Address appears and I used my GMail account for the test using IMAP. Allowed TB to manage my GMail account. Skipped the Integration step.
6. After 30+ minutes, all 34000+ messages from my GMail were pulled down and my E:\TEST folder

Comment 7

[dr.duane.thresher]

Forget the removable drive. That's the irrelevant tangent. The bug would still occur on the C: drive.

What is probably happening is that whoever wrote

Completing the Create Profile Wizard

forgot that a profile is a directory not a file, which is what he is treating a profile as. He may have used some system calls that make a distinction between the path, which would all be directories, and the target file, which there isn't one.

I would regret having mentioned the removable drive at all, except that you then did clue me in to Portable Thunderbird, for which I thank you.

Comment 8

[Arthur K. (he/him)]

(In reply to dr.duane.thresher from comment #7)

I would regret having mentioned the removable drive at all, except that you then did clue me in to Portable Thunderbird, for which I thank you.

Welcome. It gets the job done. Someone else maintains it, not Mozilla.

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

So what is the two sentence summary of this bug / how to reproduce?

Comment 10

[Matt]

Given the transfer process described expects the data to already be present. (ie the user has copied the profile data to where they want it before using the create profile process to tell the program where to look for the data.)
I think this is really just a circular logic exercise. Although I really have not tried to create a profile.

I would much prefer to see developer time spent making a UI and an import routine to import the profile so we do not need these complex copy and create type instructions. Bug 22689 makes it obvious nothing will be coming from core.

Bug 63389 refers to the import profile enhancement. But Bug 247312 is probably a more complete look at the situation. These are essential tools now we have profile per install and downgrade protections enabled. Users are not capable of following simple instructions using the file system.

Comment 11

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Yeah, I don't think there is potential in "allow both the path and the profile name to be entered into the "Enter new profile name" field."

Comment 12

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Agreed. But this is toolkit code.

Comment 13

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to dr.duane.thresher from comment #5)

Since folder dnbfxot0.default didn't exist yet anywhere could only choose

D:\me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

On the operating systems I have used the directory picker would also allow me to create a folder with whatever name I wanted, does yours not do this?

Comment 14

[Matt]

Perhaps it is time to just deliver the profile transfer/ import for the product instead of asking users that do not know the difference in a folder and a file to actually learn that to migrate to a new device.

Basically, device migration is costing the project heavily. Although the issues often appear in Support as address books being missing, or "local folders not appearing" as the user has a cal_dav calendar and uses IMAP.

My personal feeling is this is a critical issue that has been ignored far too long. Way more important than e2ee because it represents data loss to the general user whereas e2ee has a very small subset of users that even know what it is, let alone use it.

Comment 15

[Matt]

Can we close this now 102 is releasing with profile import/export?

Comment 16

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

Redirect a needinfo that is pending on an inactive user to the triage owner.
:mossop, could you please find another way to get the information or close the bug as INCOMPLETE if it is not actionable?

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