Moz Thunderbird - old newsgroups won't unsubscribe

Hi,

It may seem that I should be posting to Mozilla Thunderbird Help, but I've tried that and there are technical problems for posting there right now. So I've come here because I believe that many Mac OS-X users are using Thunderbird. I'll be very grateful for any help...

I've got a G4 iBook (OS-X, Panther) and I have been using Thunderbird as the newsreader for three months or so. The problem is, I cannot get TBird to unsubscribe to newsgroups I'm no longer interested in. On a number of occasions, opening the Newsgroups Management box and selecting the name of the newsgroups in question and "unsubscribing" them has resulted in the temporary disappearance of the newsgroups' names in my subscribed list - only to have them reappear later (complete with all the various messages downloaded over a period of days or weeks)!

I don't have any idea how to correct this. As I've only switched over to Mac from PC/Windows in this year (2005), I'm acutally in the dark about where items like newsgroup files are stored on the Mac harddrive. I don't know if this has any relevance; just shows how lost I am!

Is TBird functioning normally? Should I uninstall TBird, and reinstall to start fresh? Or is there a simpler, less time-consuming way to correct this situation?

Thanks

Eagle

First, you might have a damaged preference file that might be causing the problem. So do a search in Finder for "Thunderbird", and look for the file that has the extension .plist and delete it, and restart Thunderbird.

If the doesn't work, export all your info from Thunderbird, and search for Thunderbird in the Finder and delete everything that is related to the app. The app, the folder(s), the .plist file. Then reinstall the app. But first, see if the problem persists for a while, don't import anything into the app yet, because you never know the problem might carry over. Who knows. Then later on, import your info, if you do see the problem anymore.

Thanks for the info. I used to do those kinds of searches in the operating files on PCs. This is the first time I tried iton the Mac. But I couldn't pick up any .plist file. Possibly I'd be searching within one of the three Thrunderbird files that did show up? For what we used to term a "sub-file" on a PC.

I'm quite willing to uninstall the whole works (Thunderbird) and start again- but I do want a completely fresh, clean start. I don't mind losing the data from the newsgroups. I can always download it again, and can always set up my account again, etc.

Eagle

You're right. I installed Thunderbird, and there is no .plist file. Okay, then do a search for "Thunderbird" again in Finder, and delete the following: MozillaOrgThunderbird10MacOSX20050... Folder, Thunderbird Folder, and the Thunderbird application and any other remnants you can find.