Thunderbird profile folder

nealt

Registered
I tried locating this folder. Apparently it was never created. I want to change some fonts in Thunderbird and apparently one must use a userChrome.css file in the profile folder to do this. I looked into Thunderbird's content folder and Application support and could not find them. Apparently I must create them. So where do I create this profile folder for Thunderbird?
 
Look in your Library folder. There should be a folder named (surprisingly!) Thunderbird
Your Library folder is the one in your user (home) folder that is normally hidden.
Make it appear by holding Option while opening the "Go" menu in the finder. Select Library from that menu, and yours should open. Thunderbird should be one of the folders there, and you should not need to open any other folders to find it. Open that Thunderbird folder, and you should see a Profiles folder. I can't help you with how to use what you find there - I have had Thunderbird installed since 2012, and keep it updated, but rarely use it.
 
Look in your Library folder. There should be a folder named (surprisingly!) Thunderbird
Your Library folder is the one in your user (home) folder that is normally hidden.
Make it appear by holding Option while opening the "Go" menu in the finder. Select Library from that menu, and yours should open. Thunderbird should be one of the folders there, and you should not need to open any other folders to find it. Open that Thunderbird folder, and you should see a Profiles folder. I can't help you with how to use what you find there - I have had Thunderbird installed since 2012, and keep it updated, but rarely use it.
Well there is no folder called Thunderbird. Also none in the main library folder. I could create one and then create a profile folder in there Should I do this?
 
Are you certain that you are in the correct Library folder?
I'm not sure how else to say this ... :cool:
The Thunderbird folder won't be in the main Library, but you should see it in "your user folder"/ Library.
The path to that location will be ~/Library. You can type that path, as is, in the Finder Go menu, Go To Folder...

What happens when you:
From the finder, press Shift-Command-G
Replace whatever is in the box with ~/Library/Thunderbird
(You should see the contents of the Thunderbird folder)

How long have you been using Thunderbird?
Looking around in prefs, looks like you can do a few changes to fonts right there, in Thunderbird's preferences/Display, where you can select "Advanced" for more control over fonts. Maybe you can make the changes that you want there, and no need to manually make any changes.
Hope that helps!
 
Are you certain that you are in the correct Library folder?
I'm not sure how else to say this ... :cool:
The Thunderbird folder won't be in the main Library, but you should see it in "your user folder"/ Library.
The path to that location will be ~/Library. You can type that path, as is, in the Finder Go menu, Go To Folder...

What happens when you:
From the finder, press Shift-Command-G
Replace whatever is in the box with ~/Library/Thunderbird
(You should see the contents of the Thunderbird folder)

How long have you been using Thunderbird?
Looking around in prefs, looks like you can do a few changes to fonts right there, in Thunderbird's preferences/Display, where you can select "Advanced" for more control over fonts. Maybe you can make the changes that you want there, and no need to manually make any changes.
Hope that helps!
 
Yes I have the right library file. In the thunderbird folder I created a profile folder with a Chrome folder with a userChrome.css file. What I want to do is increase the size and the font of the message list. I tried using:

/* Global UI font */
* { font-size:20pt !important;
font-family: timesnewroman !important;
}
/* Do not remove the @namespace line -- it's required for correct
functioning */
/* set default namespace to XUL */
@namespace
url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul");

/* Set Font Size In Folder Pane */

#folderTree >treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text {
font-size: 30pt !important; }

/* Set Font Size In Thread Pane */

#threadTree >treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text {
font-size: 30pt !important; }


This did not change anything.
 
Your changes worked the first time for me - thanks!
(Makes my fonts TOO large in Thunderbird, but I did see that it worked.)

If you used that path /Thunderbird/Profile/Chrome/ - that looks wrong.

Try this: ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/default/xxxxxxxx.slt/chrome/
(Obviously, change xxxxxxxx.slt to whatever the folder name is inside your /default folder!)

I don't know how to help you find the folder that Thunderbird creates, but it has to be somewhere in your user/Library folder.
The path that I offered above is where it is on my own Mac.
 
So I have to create a folder named "default".
Then what is XXXXXX.sit? Is this a folder.


Your changes worked the first time for me - thanks!
(Makes my fonts TOO large in Thunderbird, but I did see that it worked.)

If you used that path /Thunderbird/Profile/Chrome/ - that looks wrong.

Try this: ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/default/xxxxxxxx.slt/chrome/
(Obviously, change xxxxxxxx.slt to whatever the folder name is inside your /default folder!)

I don't know how to help you find the folder that Thunderbird creates, but it has to be somewhere in your user/Library folder.
The path that I offered above is where it is on my own Mac.
 
I think you are correct.
That xxxx(whatever) is a random name for the folder that Thunderbird creates for the user profile.
You still have to find where Thunderbird makes that folder (not just make it yourself)
I am not sure if Thunderbird will use some random name that you make up, and I'm not sure if you can force Thunderbird to do that. Might work, might not.
That folder must be somewhere on your boot drive, as Thunderbird creates it when launched the first time.
You just haven't found it yet. I told you where to look (in your home folder/Library/ folder.
I am guessing you must be running on Catalina? Folder could be in a different location, I don't yet use Catalina, and haven't spent much time looking around for app-created folders and files, so some may be stuck in unusual spots, I suppose.

Finally, the XXXXXX.slt --- the extension is .slt -- not .sit --- that's an el, not an eye --- and it is a folder name.
(that folder, on MY Mac is named 2s5vqihf.slt -- so, it's a random. It would likely be different on each Mac that has Thunderbird.)

good luck in hunting down the folder (which already exists if you have been using Thunderbird. It's there, somewhere)

Please tell me that you already know that your User home folder Library folder is hidden, by default, and you know how to make it visible. Your Thunderbird folder has to be there -- it's where Thunderbird puts it by default.
 
I used easy find to locate any .slt file on all my drives including the boot drive and the user drive. No .slt file was found
I think you are correct.
That xxxx(whatever) is a random name for the folder that Thunderbird creates for the user profile.
You still have to find where Thunderbird makes that folder (not just make it yourself)
I am not sure if Thunderbird will use some random name that you make up, and I'm not sure if you can force Thunderbird to do that. Might work, might not.
That folder must be somewhere on your boot drive, as Thunderbird creates it when launched the first time.
You just haven't found it yet. I told you where to look (in your home folder/Library/ folder.
I am guessing you must be running on Catalina? Folder could be in a different location, I don't yet use Catalina, and haven't spent much time looking around for app-created folders and files, so some may be stuck in unusual spots, I suppose.

Finally, the XXXXXX.slt --- the extension is .slt -- not .sit --- that's an el, not an eye --- and it is a folder name.
(that folder, on MY Mac is named 2s5vqihf.slt -- so, it's a random. It would likely be different on each Mac that has Thunderbird.)

good luck in hunting down the folder (which already exists if you have been using Thunderbird. It's there, somewhere)

Please tell me that you already know that your User home folder Library folder is hidden, by default, and you know how to make it visible. Your Thunderbird folder has to be there -- it's where Thunderbird puts it by default.
I think you are correct.
That xxxx(whatever) is a random name for the folder that Thunderbird creates for the user profile.
You still have to find where Thunderbird makes that folder (not just make it yourself)
I am not sure if Thunderbird will use some random name that you make up, and I'm not sure if you can force Thunderbird to do that. Might work, might not.
That folder must be somewhere on your boot drive, as Thunderbird creates it when launched the first time.
You just haven't found it yet. I told you where to look (in your home folder/Library/ folder.
I am guessing you must be running on Catalina? Folder could be in a different location, I don't yet use Catalina, and haven't spent much time looking around for app-created folders and files, so some may be stuck in unusual spots, I suppose.

Finally, the XXXXXX.slt --- the extension is .slt -- not .sit --- that's an el, not an eye --- and it is a folder name.
(that folder, on MY Mac is named 2s5vqihf.slt -- so, it's a random. It would likely be different on each Mac that has Thunderbird.)

good luck in hunting down the folder (which already exists if you have been using Thunderbird. It's there, somewhere)

Please tell me that you already know that your User home folder Library folder is hidden, by default, and you know how to make it visible. Your Thunderbird folder has to be there -- it's where Thunderbird puts it by default.
 
I am running Mojave. I know where the user library is located. I used app delete to delete all Thunderbird files then reinstalled Thunderbird. Still no slt folder or chome folder were created anywhere on the boot disk or the user disk. There is a Thunderbird folder in the user library which contains a profiles folder with a s6lhvov.default-release folder and a uniie7qu.default folder.
 
OK
Launch Thunderbird, click on Preferences, then Display, then Formatting, finally, Colors...
Change something that will definitely modify Chrome, such as Unvisited Links color.
That should force the Chrome file to change somewhere, then you just find it.

Well, of course, I just tried it. Nothing that I can find is a new userchrome.css.
The only file that seemed to change as a direct result is (myuserlibrary)/Preferences/org.mozilla.thunderbird.plist file
Which doesn't seem to be what you want, and nothing in THAT file appears to have a font change, nor anything similar to that.
I wonder if those changes are done in javascript (and the "old" mozilla standard files are deprecated (?) )
 
I agree. Apparently the profiles folder is no longer used in the latest versions of Thunderbird. I am using version 68.5.
So does anyone have any ideas?


OK
Launch Thunderbird, click on Preferences, then Display, then Formatting, finally, Colors...
Change something that will definitely modify Chrome, such as Unvisited Links color.
That should force the Chrome file to change somewhere, then you just find it.

Well, of course, I just tried it. Nothing that I can find is a new userchrome.css.
The only file that seemed to change as a direct result is (myuserlibrary)/Preferences/org.mozilla.thunderbird.plist file
Which doesn't seem to be what you want, and nothing in THAT file appears to have a font change, nor anything similar to that.
I wonder if those changes are done in javascript (and the "old" mozilla standard files are deprecated (?) )
 
Can you be more specific about what you want to achieve?
There ARE limited font settings in Thunderbird's preferences.
What more do you need?
 
I want to change the font and font size in the message preview window.It looks nice in the screenshot but in actuality the font displays rather thin and light.


9525

.

Can you be more specific about what you want to achieve?
There ARE limited font settings in Thunderbird's preferences.
What more do you need?
 
What is the result if you change to a different font in thunderbird preferences?

Not sure if I am helping.
But, how about helping ME?
My Thunderbird messge listing is white characters on dark grey (not black) background, and I cannot change it to the black characters on white that you show on your screen capture.
Nothing that I do changes to reverse the message window from the white on black that I have now.
Any ideas about THAT?
(I continue to stay on Mojave, and won't upgrade to Catalina, which makes that annoying dark interface even worse (in my opinion, anyway :D )
 
I agree. Apparently the profiles folder is no longer used in the latest versions of Thunderbird. I am using version 68.5.
So does anyone have any ideas?

Your changes in the userChrome.css won't show any effect until you have toggled toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets to true.
With that setting you give the permission to Thunderbird to let user configuration of the css happen.

You do that in the thunderbird-settings: Enter Settings > scroll down to the end, there click on "edit configuration" > click ok to the advice.
Then type into the search-field: "toolkit.legacy"

You should now see the setting and at the end of the line you should see "false"
Double-click on the line and now you should have true.
This setting is immediately saved, you don't have to save it manually.

Then close the settings and restart Thunderbird.
Now you should see the effect of the settings you made in the userChrome.css

P.S.: The profile folder is still used in Thunderbird (I'm on Thunderbird 78.9.1).
You find it in: User/YourUserName/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/xxxxx.default

and according to that the correct place for your userChrome.css is
User/YourUserName/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/xxxxx.default/chrome/userChrome.css
 
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