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2.2 Multiple Profiles [Thunderbird Portable]

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Samuel FORESTIER edited this page Nov 24, 2019 · 2 revisions

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

You can't use the Profile Manager or the controls in about:profiles (Help > Troubleshooting Information) with Thunderbird Portable. But here are three methods to achieve multiple profiles. NOTE: Method 1 will result in every profile being fully portable. In method 2, the "secondary" profiles are not portable (as each has a single full path in an ini file). With method 3, none of the profiles are portable (as all profiles have a single full path in an ini file).

🔹 Thunderbird [Portable] Method 1 [Multiple Thunderbird Portables]

This method is the easiest, and is in fact the ONLY method that allows multiple profiles over multiple Thunderbird versions. Simply create as many copies of your entire Thunderbird Portable as you need, rename the folders as required, and set up shortcuts (rename your shortcuts to whatever you like). You can either copy your existing one (make sure Thunderbird is closed) or unpack new ones (any versions you like) from the PortableApps *paf.exe's.

  • TIP: To create a new default vanilla profile

    • Close Thunderbird
    • Go to your \ThunderbirdPortable\Data directory and rename your profile to a temp name, such as profile-real.
    • Start Thunderbird and a new profile folder will be created.
    • Close Thunderbird, rename profile to profile-vanilla, and profile-real back to profile.
    • Now you have a clean new vanilla profile for use elsewhere if required.

  • TIP: Use the AllowMultipleInstances=true line in each ThunderbirdPortable.ini to allow concurrent Thunderbird Portables

  • TIP: If you do not have a ThunderbirdPortable.ini in your root folder, there is a template one in Other/Source. Remove the lines you do not need and set the values you require. Generally speaking, all you would want or need are: e.g.:

    • DisableSplashScreen=true
    • AllowMultipleInstances=true

🔹 Thunderbird [Portable] Method 2 [Thunderbird Portable 2ndProfile App]

Download the ThunderbirdPortable2ndProfile from PortableApps and run the file as many times as you want to create as many profiles as you need. Always unpack to the same root directory as your original portable Thunderbird (i.e D:/Portable/ and NOT D:/Portable/ThunderbirdPortable/).

- ThunderbirdPortable            (full portable Thunderbird)
- ThunderbirdPortableRelaxed     (portable profile)

Note: If you want to rename a portable profile from the one you gave it when unpacking (or you moved it), under the Data/Settings directory you will need to amend the LastProfileDirectory in the ThunderbirdPortableSettings.ini, and yes, it is not a relative path. Here is the Relaxed one

[ThunderbirdPortableSettings]
LastProfileDirectory=D:\Portable\ThunderbirdPortableRelaxed\Data\profile
SubmitCrashReport=0

To run concurrent profiles, you will need to add the following line to each ThunderbirdPortable.ini file.

AllowMultipleInstances=true

They are in different places: for the main portable Thunderbird, the location is the root folder and for the portable profiles, it is located in the root of the Data sub-directory e.g.

- ThunderbirdPortable/ThunderbirdPortable.ini
- ThunderbirdPortableRelaxed/Data/ThunderbirdPortable.ini

To run any profile, run the appropriate portable exe. Create shortcuts for them and rename them.

🔹 Thunderbird [Portable] Method 3 [Custom]

Here is another method, and due to the restructuring of the profile locations, this means all profiles are no longer automatically picked up if the path changes (a simple ini edit for each one can fix this for migrations). This method is great for running lots (dozens!) of profiles with a single Thunderbird version.

Here is a typical Thunderbird Portable profile layout

-ThunderbirdPortable
    -App
    -Data
        -plugins
        -profile
        -settings\ThunderbirdPortableSettings.ini
    -Other
 ThunderbirdPortable.exe
 ThunderbirdPortable.ini

Here is a multiple profile layout

-ThunderbirdPortable
    -App
    -Data
        -default
            -plugins
            -profile
            -settings\ThunderbirdPortableSettings.ini
        -relaxed
            -plugins
            -profile
            -settings\ThunderbirdPortableSettings.ini
    -Other
 Thunderbird.bat
 ThunderbirdPortable.exe
 ThunderbirdPortable.ini
 ThunderbirdPortableDefault.ini
 ThunderbirdPortableRelaxed.ini

For each settings\ThunderbirdPortableSettings.ini you will need to modify the LastProfileDirectory value. Note that the path is not relative, and this breaks the portability factor. Here is the relaxed one

[ThunderbirdPortableSettings]
LastProfileDirectory=D:\Portable\ThunderbirdPortable\Data\relaxed\profile
SubmitCrashReport=0

Also, for each ini in the root directory you will need to add the following lines. Note that AllowMultipleInstances when true allows you to run concurrent profiles. Here is the relaxed one

AllowMultipleInstances=true
ProfileDirectory=Data\relaxed\profile
SettingsDirectory=Data\relaxed\settings

To launch any profile, you run a bat file located in the root directory, which overwrites the ThunderbirdPortable.ini with a copy of the profile one of your choice and then runs ThunderbirdPortable.exe

@echo off
echo Which profile:
echo 1: default
echo 2: relaxed
set /p Input=
if /i "%Input%"=="1" (goto Profile1)
if /i "%Input%"=="2" (goto Profile2)
REM if /i not "%Input%"=="y" (exit /b)
exit /b
:Profile1
copy /Y ThunderbirdPortableDefault.ini ThunderbirdPortable.ini
ThunderbirdPortable
exit /b

:Profile2
copy /Y ThunderbirdPortableRelaxed.ini ThunderbirdPortable.ini
ThunderbirdPortable
exit /b
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