Thunderbird 3 crashing after "Time Machine" file restore

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Level 1

5 points

Thunderbird 3 crashing after "Time Machine" file restore

Hi

I'm using a Macbook Pro with Mac OS 10.6:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.5 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.27f2

I re-installed Snow Leopard because my Windows partition was having probmems.
I re-formatted the drive to one partition, Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
After installing, I resored all my files from Time Machine.
Everything seemed fine, everything looked in place, until I tried to use Thunderbird 3.0.

1) Thunderbird crashes on opening the app. The app bounces in the dock, menu bar appears but then the Crash reporter appears and says, "We're Sorry. The application had problem and crashed. Unfortunately the crash reporter is unable to submit a report for this crash. Details: The application didnt leave an application data file."
2) I renamed the Thunderbird app folder "old" and downloaded a new version of the TB 3. The same problem happened with the newly downloaded one.
3) All email files are in my profile library, which also looks intact.
4) Thunderbird was previously set up with two Pop 3 accounts that worked fine before restoring files.

Strange that everything else on my computer seems to work fine after the restore apart from Thunderbird

Would anyone have any ideas about what could have gone wrong. I'm interested in what Time Machine could have done to Thunderbird's files in the back up/ restore process. Does Time Machine normally not get on with Thunderbird? Any ideas how to best remedy the current situation?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers

MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 12, 2010 12:50 PM

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Answer 1

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 12, 2010 1:24 PM in response to Ovate

Ovate wrote:
. . .
Details: The application didnt leave an application data file."

It sounds like you'd excluded Thunderbirds' file from TIme Machine. Lots of folks do that, since it keeps all it's messages in one big file. If you get or send even one itty-bitty email, the whole thing has to be saved again, eating up lots of space on your TM drive.

2) I renamed the Thunderbird app folder "old" and downloaded a new version of the TB 3. The same problem happened with the newly downloaded one.

The problem isn't with the app; it's with the (apparently missing) data.

How did you do the reinstall of Snow Leopard, and how did you restore your files?

Go to Time Machine Preferences > Options, and see what's in the +Exclude these items from backups+ box. Depending on how you reinstalled/restored, it may have the same contents as it did before you started all that.

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Answer 2

Ovate Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 12, 2010 2:03 PM in response to Pondini

Hi, thanks for getting back to me. I have never entered any exclusions in my Time Machine preferences pane, as far as I am aware. I have just re-checked and there still arent any there.

If I go into my Thunderbird profile folder in Library, there are lots of files there with the same names as my email folders in Thunderbird. Two for each folder, one ".msf" file (which I believe to be the folder index with no actually messages in it) and one that is a "unix exectable file", with the same name as the email folder. Not sure if that's the way it should be or not. I have put this question on the Modzilla community forum as well, but not received an answer as of yet.

I backed up to an external drive prior to the restore, and only ran Time machine once every couple of weeks. There was never a problem backing up the Thunderbird data, or so it seemed. I was under the impression that it was Entourage that had the bigger problem with Time Machine. Though I may be wrong.

Before I resored files using Time Machine I did the following.

-Booted from Snow Leopard Instal disc.
-Deleted everything on the Macbook HD using disc utility on disc.
-Re-formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
-Ran repair disc in Disc Utility from the installtion disc to make sure everyting was ok.
-Performed a clean slate installation from the Snow Leapard installation disc. -After the installation had finished I followed the prompts to restore from Time Machine (on the external HD)
-After restoring files everything looked fine.
-Mail.app starts fine. It took some time for it to connect to the exchange server to download my mail and folders, but is fine now.
-Thunderbird started crashing, as in the explanation above, from the first start up

I hope that sheds a bit more light on the situation.

Cheers

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Answer 3

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 12, 2010 1:54 PM in response to Ovate

Ovate wrote:
Hi, thanks for getting back to me. I have never entered any exclusions in my Time Machine preferences pane. I have just re-checked and there still arent.

If I go into my Thunderbird profile folder in Library, all my email folders look like they are still there.
. . .
I backed up to an external drive prior to the restore0

Via Time Machine, or something else?

and only ran Time machine once every couple of weeks.

Ah, ok. That's why it wasn't a big problem for you.

For future reference, if you're not going to back up frequently, Time Machine may not be the best app for you.

There was never a problem backing up the Thunderbird data, or so it seemed. I was under the impression that it was Entourage that had the bigger problem with Time Machine.

As I understand it, they both keep all your email in a single file; so it depends on how much data you have, and whether you're letting Time Machine do it's hourly backups.

-After the installation had finished I followed the prompts to restore from Time Machine (on the external HD)

Just for future reference, that's +Setup Assistant.+

-Thunderbird starting crashing as in the explanation above from the first start up

Does Thunderbird have some sort of refresh, re-index or re-build option? Perhaps that's all that's needed. Or check with them about the message you got.

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Answer 4

Ovate Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 12, 2010 2:09 PM in response to Pondini

Hi, looks like I was updating my last post as you were typing your reply.

If I go into my Thunderbird profile folder in Library, there are lots of files there with the same names as my email folders in Thunderbird. Two for each folder, one ".msf" file (which I believe to be the folder index with no actually messages in it) and one that is a "unix exectable file", with the same name as the email folder. Not sure if that's the way it should be or not. I have put this question on the Modzilla community forum as well, but not received an answer as of yet.

I can't refresh Thunderbird or anything like that as it crashes before starting up as in my first post. I have backed up and restored Thunderbird using other back up software in the past with no problems, don't understand what Time Machine could have done to cause this. As I say it's half a Time Machine, half a Thunderbird issue, so I have posted the question on both Mac and Modzilla forums.

Thanks

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Answer 5

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 12, 2010 2:15 PM in response to Ovate

Rats. I obviously don't use Thunderbird, so can't really provide much advice.

You might want to search both the Snow Leopard and Leopard forums for Thunderbird. Mostly what you'll find are folks with the problem of huge backups, but there may be some other posts with some useful info.

Sorry to not have any better answers. 😟

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Answer 6

Ovate Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 12, 2010 2:21 PM in response to Pondini

Thanks for trying. Much appreciated!

Cheers

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Answer 7

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 12, 2010 2:26 PM in response to Ovate

Ovate wrote:
Thanks for trying. Much appreciated!

I forgot to add: PLEASE post back with your results (and if you find a fix/workaround/solution, mark the question as Solved), so the next user with the same problem will have the benefit of your research and hard work.

Thanks

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Answer 8

Ovate Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 16, 2010 2:08 AM in response to Pondini

I have mostly managed to solve this myself.

I was in the process of setting up a new profile in Tbird through the terminal and profile manager so that I could transfer my email from the corrupt profile to the newly created one.

However setting up my email accounts in the new profile just wouldn't work. The next day, I thought of repairing disc permissions using the Disc Utility appliction in the Utilities folder. It found a lot of errors, possibly due to the Time Machine Restore. After that Tbird was able to open in the original profile and all email was present and correct. Go Figure!

Success!

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