I don't even *know* what those Gorlash and Derell Licht profiles refer to...

All profiles appear to be in a non-standard path. So that looks very much like you did create them there deliberately, and not by accident.

Q2: Why is c:\notes\Thunderbird still getting periodic updates, even though those profiles are not default??

Please confirm your actual profile when you run Thunderbird beta. See section 'How do I find my profile?' in the support article linked below. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data#w_how-do-i-find-my-profile

Note, you can start Thunderbird with a profile which is not the default one by using the -p <profile_name> option. Is this what you're doing?

Q1: Can I just delete those other profiles where default is NO ??

I wouldn't delete anything as long as it's not clear what's actually your correct profile. Once this has been clarified, and you're certain there is nothing to be kept in the the orphan profiles, backup all profiles, and then delete the orphan ones.

Okay, let me clarify one point... I *did* create custom profiles, both for the original release-path installation, and for the current beta-path installation. I did this so that the Thunderbird folder tree would be in a location that I do backups on (i.e., my c:\notes folder)...

My point is, that the only folder that should be getting updated, is Thunderbird.b115, which is marked as my default Profile... the others shouldn't be getting touched - but they *are* ...

And I already *did* confirm my default profile - I listed it in my original post.

Okay, you suggest that "I wouldn't delete anything as long as it's not clear what's actually your correct profile."

Well, this is exactly what my question is here... Both the Derell Licht beta and Gorlash profiles are listed under About Profiles as "Default: no", yet that folder that they are both listed as using (c:\notes\Thunderbird) is continuing to get updated about once per week...

The purpose of my original post, is to try to determine what those profiles are being used for... A peripheral question is where those two profile names came from, given that I don't see them anywhere else in the profile data...

====================

I *did* go to the %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\ path that your link suggested, and I *do* see three profiles there... and two of them are updated on 05/23/25, same as the c:\notes\Thunderbird folder... So I'm guessing that those are the Derell Licht beta and Gorlash profiles that I was wondering about... I still don't know why they are even there, but maybe it just doesn't matter and I can delete them...

Edited for clarity:

Please confirm your actual profile when you run Thunderbird beta. At the top right of the Thunderbird window, click the menu button ≡, then select Help > Troubleshooting Information. Under the Application Basics section, find the 'Profiles' row, then click on about:profiles.

Please post a screenshot showing the profiles listed on the about:profiles page. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem

Okay, here are those images... I'm including both an image of the About Profiles page, as well as an image of the contents of %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\

I would note that I have already deleted one profile from About Profiles page; This listed its root directory as c:\notes\Thunderbird.beta, a folder that does not exist.

The Profiles that I am questioning are 'Gorlash' and 'Derell Licht beta' ... They are pointing to a different folder than the active profile 'Thunderbird b115' ...

So permit me to re-state my original question: I note that c:\notes\Thunderbird.b115 gets updated every time something changes in Thunderbird, which I understand because it is the active profile.

However, the folder c:\notes\Thunderbird, which is root folder for 'Gorlash' and 'Derell Licht beta' profiles, only gets updated about once a week. Neither of these profiles is default, so I don't know why they are getting updated now and then...

I would like to delete that folder c:\notes\Thunderbird... that probably suggests that I first delete the 'Gorlash' and 'Derell Licht beta' profiles, which use that folder... is there any reason why I should not do this?

However, the folder c:\notes\Thunderbird, which is root folder for 'Gorlash' and 'Derell Licht beta' profiles

Two profiles using the same profile folder is a bad idea anyway.

Neither of these profiles is default, so I don't know why they are getting updated now and then...

Neither do I, so I'll have to guess here. Close Thunderbird if it's currently running. Use a text editor and open the file prefs.js in the 'Thunderbird b115' profile. Search for the string C:\notes\Thunderbird in the prefs.js file. Are there any matches?

I would like to delete that folder c:\notes\Thunderbird... that probably suggests that I first delete the 'Gorlash' and 'Derell Licht beta' profiles, which use that folder... is there any reason why I should not do this?

You can probably delete them, however, I'd still feel a bit uneasy in doing so. Can you find out which files underneath C:\notes\Thunderbird are being updated?

As per your screenshot your 'Thunderbird b115' profile doesn't have a 'Local Directory'. That means you do backup a whole lot of data you don't have to, primarily cache data. That is the reason why cache data by default is not located inside the profile folder, but underneath AppData\Local as shown in your screenshot for the default-release, default, and default-beta profiles.

I suppose those got created automatically by Thunderbird. So unless there's something valuable in there, you may want to delete them as well.

As said before, make sure you do have backups prior to deleting stuff.

Okay, here is a partial response to your most recent post; I found 4 prefs.js files, which I'll list below...

C:\notes Yes, Master?? > u prefs.js -ndt ULOCATE.EXE, Version 1.18 output format = 0x0013, size_len=6 searching C:\notes 06/09/23 13:54:03 C:\notes/Thunderbird/prefs.js 05/30/25 08:07:03 C:\notes/Thunderbird.b115/prefs.js

C:\Users\dan7m\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles Yes, Master?? > u prefs.js -ndt ULOCATE.EXE, Version 1.18 output format = 0x0013, size_len=6 searching C:\Users\dan7m\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles 02/07/21 14:17:17 C:\Users\dan7m\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles/6qczkmra.default-release/prefs.js 06/01/23 14:08:08 C:\Users\dan7m\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles/kzzpwxft.default-beta/prefs.js

The only reference to c:\notes\Thunderbird that I found, was in the active-profile folder: C:\notes\Thunderbird.b115\prefs.js 298 user_pref("mail.server.server3.directory", "C:\\notes\\Thunderbird.b115\\ImapMail\\imap.comcast.net"); 331 user_pref("mail.server.server6.directory", "C:\\notes\\Thunderbird.b115\\ImapMail\\imap.comcast-1.net");

of course, this is no use to us...

second partial response:

As for the Local Directory, I believe that the kxdowoih.default profile in %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\ is associated with my active profile in Thunderbird.b115 ... my reasoning for believing this is that kxdowoih.default is getting updated whenever Thunderbird registers changes; I note that this folder always has the same timestamp as the Thunderbird.b115 folder...

I would note that kxdowoih.default is the only profile folder that does *not* have a prefs.js file, but it *does* have a Local Directory defined; you can see this in 'Profile: default' in the tbird.profiles.jpg image that I posted earlier...

This is all most mysterious, isn't it??

I still have to search through the c:\notes\Thunderbird folder to answer your question about what files are getting updated there... I'll post another response with this data, later today.

Regarding what is being updated in c:\notes\Thunderbird: The *only* file that has a recent data is parent.lock, which is dated today...

Every other file/folder in that profile tree is dated 06/09/23 latest...

I think this probably answers our questions, yes??