My thunderbird directories are a mess ! Help !
Hello, I am migrating my mails from THUNDERBIRD 24.5.0 on a WIN XP machine to the same version of THUNDERBIRD on a WIN 8 machine and I realize that my directories are quite messy, that probably make migration impossible :
On the destination machine, I copied the data under C:\Users\Michel\AppData\Roaming\
I have 3 disks on the WIN XP machine with the same directory structure : C: D: and F: with \Documents and Settings\Michel\Application Data\Thunderbird.
On C: I have the following subdirectory : \Profiles containing 2 profiles : cbr17iam.default and ur6m9rm.default. The first one contains a \Mail subdirectory with one of my mail accounts, the second one seems empy (no \mail subdirectory) The Profiles.ini file contains : [General] StartWithLastProfile=1 [Profile 0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=ur6km9rm.default
On D: I have the subdirectories \Profiles\cbr17iam.default\Mail and then 8 subdirectories corresponding to POP accounts, but everything looks empty (27kb under \Mail) Here there is NO Profiles.ini file.
On F: I have the subdirectories \Profiles\cbr17iam.default\Mail and then 9 subdirectories corresponding to POP accounts, that contain a lot of mails (5,4Gb under \Mail) The Profiles.ini file contains : [General] StartWithLastProfile=1 [Profile 0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=D:\Documents and Settings\Michel\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\cbr17iam.default
When checking REPAIR INFORMATION in THUNDERBIRD, the software points to ur6km9rm.default THUNDERBIRD runs fine on the WIN XP machine.
This mess is caused by past attempts to relocate my mail to a drive different from C:
I have tried to use MOZBACKUP to backup the mails on the XP machine and restore them to the WIN 9 machine under the Roaming directory , without success : no mail account appear in THUNDERBIRD. I have tried many time to copy manually the THUNDERBIRD folders from drive F: to the new machine under the Roaming directory, de-installing and installing new THUNDERBIRD and deleting THUNDERBIRD directories each time. I tried installation without running it, or with running it, I had no success. Could you help, please ? Cheers, Michel
All Replies (5)
My thunderbird directories are a mess !
Indeed.
On the XP machine check your active profile.
Help (Alt-H) - Troubleshooting Information - Profile Folder - Open Folder
What's the path to your profile?
Check the 'Local directory' setting for all of your accounts.
Tools (Alt-T) - Options - Account Settings - Server Settings
What do you see? Please post the entire path.
Hello, On the XP machine, the active profile folder is : C:\Documents and Settings\Michel\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\ur6km9rm
Server settings for all acounts : 1) D:\Documents and Settings\Michel\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\cbr17iam.default\Mail\pop.wanadoo.fr 2) D:\Documents and Settings\Michel\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\cbr17iam.default\Mail\pop.wanadoo-1.fr 3) D:\Documents and Settings\Michel\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\cbr17iam.default\Mail\pop.wanadoo-2.fr 4) D:\Documents and Settings\Michel\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\cbr17iam.default\Mail\pop.wanadoo-3.fr 5) D:\Documents and Settings\Michel\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\cbr17iam.default\Mail\pop.wanadoo-4.fr 6) D:\Documents and Settings\Michel\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\cbr17iam.default\Mail\pop.orange.fr 7) D:\Documents and Settings\Michel\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\cbr17iam.default\Mail\pop.orange-1.fr 8) C:\Documents and Settings\Michel\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\cbr17iam.default\Mail\pop.orange.fr LOCAL FILES : F:\Documents and Settings\Michel\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\cbr17iam.default\Mail\Local Folders
I did not know it was that bad !
As a first step, migrate your profile to the new machine.
On the Win 8 machine, create a new profile and copy the old one over it:
This will move over the contents of C:\Documents and Settings\Michel\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\ur6km9rm.default, and you should be able to retrieve new mail and send mail.
For the time being, set the 'Leave messages on the server' option for your POP accounts on the old machine. This ensures all mail is received also on the new machine.
We'll deal with your existing mail scattered across the various folders later.
Thinking about it, you might just start over on the new machine with a new profile, and re-create your accounts there. You can then import the existing mail from the old machine later.
Modified by christ1
Hello, I have followed the instructions on the webpage you mentioned. I have restored the THUNDERBIRD directories that were located on drive F: (the one containing 3,23 Go) onto the new machine under D:\Users\Michel\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\cbr17iam.default
Then I have used the profile editor to create a new profile pointing to the profile above.
It works !!!! Many thanks !!!! I got an error "Failed to load address book file ABOOK.MAB" but I still get some addresses. This is not important. Only mails from one account are missing (the one on the C: directory tree on the old machine).
For the moment, I do not download nor send mails.
I have not touched the mail account parameters (server parameters). Should I modify them to reflect the new paths ?
Modified by kidu29
I don't think I can follow of what you did.