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MOVING LOCAL FOLDERS FROM ONE COMPUTER TO ANOTHER

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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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I am using Thunderbird on 2 different computers. It is an IMAP account so that the emails are common on all computers. I do however keep old emails in the LOCAL FOLDERS on my main WORK COMPUTER. I have a few folders saved in the local folders on my HOME computer which I would like to move the the local folders on my work computer so that they are all in the same place. Could someone advise how I go about moving the local folders from one computer to another please?

I am using Thunderbird on 2 different computers. It is an IMAP account so that the emails are common on all computers. I do however keep old emails in the LOCAL FOLDERS on my main WORK COMPUTER. I have a few folders saved in the local folders on my HOME computer which I would like to move the the local folders on my work computer so that they are all in the same place. Could someone advise how I go about moving the local folders from one computer to another please?

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On home computer:

Make sure Thunderbird is closed.

Make hidden files and folders visible:

Assuming everything is in the default location, locate this directory:

  • C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>\ Mail\Local Folders

'Profile name' is usually 'xxxxxxxx.default' where the x's are letters and numbers.

  • mbox files do not have any extension and they contain emails.
  • .msf files are the indexing files. They do not contain emails.
  • .sbd folders are created when you use subfolders. You should find they contain mbox and .msf files for those subfolders.

You can copy all those files and or folders that have the same names as the folders you want to move to other computer onto an external drive.

Then perform same action on other computer. Make hidden files and folders visible. Close thunderbird Access the profile name Local Folders as before. This time you should see all the folders shown as mbox, .msf etc. These you want to keep. Paste the files you copied, into Local Folders mail account making sure you do not overwrite any files.

Start Thunderbird.