Thunderbird fails to ask for master password on Mac

[Pierre D]

I have been using TB for many many years on Windows. I am at 60.6.1 on Win10 x64. I
never had a problem transferring my profile from one computer to the next by simply
copying the ENTIRE Thunderbird folder under C:\Users\<userid>\AppData\Roaming from
the old computer to the new one.

Now I'd like to run TB on a Mac (running macOS 10.14.4). So I copied the entire
Thunderbird folder from the above location on Windows to ~/Library/ on the Mac.
Possibly unnecessary, I also renamed PROFILES.INI to profiles.ini.

Now the problems start. The first time I started TB on the Mac (after copying the
above folder), I got one window after the other prompting me for the GMail passwords
(I have multiple accounts). That surprised me but thought it was because it was the
first time. Those windows I certainly have seen when first setting up a Gmail account
in TB. They look like a browser window.

So I typed the password in, then entered the verification code (2-step verification
code active), then clicked on Allow, to allow access to Gmail by Thunderbird. Even
though the password is correct (I get a message immediately if it's not), I get a
notification (top right of screen) that says:

Thunderbird
Authentication failure while connecting to
server imap.gmail.com

and the account is not connected and I can't get any email.

And I get that for every Gmail account. For non Gmail accounts, I get a regular
Thunderbird pop-up to enter that account's password, but it also fails, in spite of
the correct password.

So I close Thunderbird and start it in safe mode (-safe-mode in a Terminal window). I
get prompted for my Master Password, and everything after that works just dandy. ALL
accounts, without exception, get connected and get the emails, and I don't have to
enter ANY of the account passwords (they were already saved in Thunderbird from the
Windows computer).

Back to normal mode and the same saga starts all over again with failing to connect.
Even in normal mode and with all my add-ons disabled, it still fails.

It took me several attempts at this to realize that in normal mode, I do not get
prompted for my Master Password. And going to see the saved passwords, the window is
empty. In safe mode, I get prompted for the Master Password, and I can see all the
saved passwords just fine.

What in the world is going on? Why am I NOT prompted for the Master Password in
normal mode? I am convinced this is the key to the failed connections afterwards, but
cannot begin to guess where to start troubleshooting.

Thanks for any insight.

Pierre

[Steve]

When a profile or Thunderbird folder is copied between Windows and OS X or Linux, you have to delete the pkcs11.txt file from the profile folder (it will be recreated on TB restart). The password information was lost because Windows and the other two OSes use the / and \ differently in path names in that .txt file.

[Pierre D]

On 05/04/19 13:33, Steve wrote:
>> What in the world is going on? Why am I NOT prompted for the Master Password in
>> normal mode? I am convinced this is the key to the failed connections afterwards,
>> but cannot begin to guess where to start troubleshooting.
>>
>> Thanks for any insight.
>>
>> Pierre
> When a profile or Thunderbird folder is copied between Windows and OS X or Linux, you
> have to delete the pkcs11.txt file from the profile folder (it will be recreated on
> TB restart).  The password information was lost because Windows and the other two
> OSes use the / and \ differently in path names in that .txt file.

Steve, thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU.

I deleted the file (after looking at the content). TB now prompts me for the Master
Password as it should, and all accounts work without me having to enter any passwords.

It was so simple. I fully understand the / vs \ but what is interesting is that the
profiles.ini file uses / even on Windows, AND uses relative paths. You'd think the
pkcs11.txt could do the same and be platform independent. Oh well.

Now for the bonus question: why did it work ok (i.e. I was prompted for the Master
Password) in Safe Mode? Is the pkcs11.txt file ignored in Safe Mode?

Again thank you for ending my 10-day long aggravation.

Pierre

[Steve]

On 2019-05-04 4:19 p.m., Pierre D wrote:

I'm not sure why it worked in safe mode, as that doesn't appear to involve passwords: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode

The original issue with pkcs11.txt was to do with upgrading from TB 52 to 60: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1505038
but it also comes into play with copying profiles between Windows and OS X or Linux, and I don't think it requires the inclusion of a master password.
Regret I can't be more illuminating - I just read about these things and pass them on.