Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible.

[kmbaroyale19]

A few days ago, when I tried opening Thunderbird, the following message appeared " Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible". I then tried Firefox and got the same message referring to Firefox. I uninstalled and reinstalled both but still get the same messages.
When I try to open Safari the icon bounces in the menu bar but nothing happens and no message appears. I am also unable to access the Ap Store.
Google Chrome still works normally - up until now.
I am not aware of having installed any new software in the past few days, or having deleted anything other than mails etc.
I have just received a message that my computer cannot connect to iCloud. When requested to enter my Apple/iCloud password, it was rejected. After a further attempt I was told to change my password, which I did. However, this password was also rejected and I was requested to change it yet again. I now appear to be in a loop and am being told, yet again, that the password is wrong.
I tried restoring from TimeMachine. Although the last backup was on June 26, TimeMachine showed a date in 2019 or something equally ridiculous. I always check TimeMachine before quitting, that at least 3 new backups are showing. The MacBook is also running very slow..
Yesterday, in desperation, I installed the OS update (version 11.5) that I knew was due hoping that the demons would disappear but they didn't. There are probably more apps afected than I have listed.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I use a MacBook Pro 15" Retina mid 2015 running Big Sur version 11.5

 

[cobra521]

kmba,

Wow! That is a lot of problems...

The iCloud problems may be solved here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203512

You might try this first, then try to solve the others.

Where do your Time Machine backups reside?

Tom

 

[kmbaroyale19]

Thank you Tom for your prompt reply.
My TimeMachine backups are on a 1.5TB external drive.
I am on vacation but will return home tomorrow. Then I will try the link.
Regards
Neville

 

[kmbaroyale19]

I have noticed that when I click on a screenshot (on the desktop) for example it appears to open but is not visible. At the same time Preview which is the programme that I use to view screenshots also moves but does not open. I am able to open the screenshot however when it is an attachment.
When I right click on Preview in the dock I see a list of photos - see screenshot. If I then click on Options / Show in Finder, the a row of jpeg icons appears, as in the third screenshot. I don't know if any of this is relevant but I want to provide as much information as possible.
If I compare the PowerBook Pro with my old 1997 MacBook (which still works perfectly although updates ended years ago) I see that under Sharing & Permissions it says "You can only read" - see screenshot, whereas the MacBook says "You can read and write". Is there a reason for this and can I change it?

 

[cobra521]

kmba,

I'm no expert here but it sounds like your permissions may be inadequate. Are you logging in as the same user you always have? It almost appears you are a guest instead of the admin.

If you're the admin, you should be able to restore the permissions.

Tom

 

[kmbaroyale19]

Tom,
I am logging in as the administrator and am the only user.
I returned from vacation on Sunday and a lot has been tried since then. It reached the stage where nothing was working and even the Finder had disappeared!?!?
Anyway, because I had no more to loose I connected my TimeMachine HD - the same one that, last week, showed the latest backup to be sometime in 2019. Today it shows the most recent to be 26.06.2021, so I went for it. Unfortunately it didn't work.
I have tried the last 4 backups but the Installer Log shows that they all contain thousands of errors and only about 12 GB is being installed. I even got an Error message when I tried to delete the internal SSD in Disk Utility.
I still have the old SSD which hopefully hasn't become corrupted and still works.
I will take some out-time from this. Thankfully the old MacBook is still working.
Many thanks for your assistance.

 

[cobra521]

kmba,

Wow! That's quite a list of problems.

Wonder if the hard drive is going bad?

Tom

 

[kmbaroyale19]

I finally took the time to contact Apple Support - don't know why I waited so long.
An advisor called Kieran talked me through the process and, with the help of Malwarebytes, we isolated and removed 15 items which didn't belong here. We also cleared 3 login items but we don't know if they were causing a problem and we deactivated the firewall.
Once again many thanks to the Mac Rumours Community for sacrificing so much time over the last few weeks.
Being a Dummy, I will never be able to return the favour