This is a very bizarre error. I have had a problem with it since I have been using Qubes, but not on any other OS I have used Thunderbird on. The problem is that every time Thunderbird is reopened, it pulls up a completely blank profile. I figured this might be due to Qubes somehow putting the profile in some non home folder that is reset each time the VM is restarted so I manually put the default profile under the home folder “Documents/Current Email.” But that does not solve the problem. Basically for the last several months any time I shut down Qubes I have to take an old profile from another directory and then copy it into the “Documents/Current Email” and then I get my profile back, it just has to reupload all the emails going back to July when I first started using Thunderbird on Qubes.
The fact that just deleting the current profile in Documents/Current Email and copying the old one restores the profile (minus emails since July) tells me there must be some modification being done to the folder under the home/documents directory that is screwing things up, but I did not think anything in home was supposed to be reset by the OS. Only the other directories. It also happens if Thunderbird itself crashes but the VM is never rebooted. Also it does not matter if thunderbird crashes or is shut down gracefully, the profile is always, always, always blank when I pull it up the next time. But if I just copy back in the old folder under “Documents/Current Email” it recognizes the profile again. Never seen this with other Linuxes/MacOS/Windows I have used Thunderbird with. The AppVM is just one that I use with email also, so should not be other applications screwing it up.
Anyone have any idea what is going on or experience something similar?