Tried to move Thunderbird profile(s) to new computer, afraid I've messed things up
Hi all, I've used Thunderbird for years on my old computer. I had POPFILE setup to filter my messages before they went to Thunderbird. I recently (Christmas) got parts from my children to build a much newer, faster and quieter system. My only problem is with my e-mail. I copied my whole "Thunderbird" folder to an external hard drive from old computer and then had to transfer the folder to new computer. The "Thunderbird" folder contains the folders "Crash Reports", "Pending Pings" and "Profiles" along with 2 files called "installs" and "profiles". When I downloaded and installed Thunderbird on my new system, it connected to my e-mail (xxx.mindspring.com) and downloaded a bunch of messages. The new messages are in a different profile then all of my old messages from my old computer. Is there a way to: 1) get the old left hand structure of my Thunderbird that contained all of my old messages back onto the new computer? 2) Is there a way to merge the newer messages into the older list of messages? 3) I have not setup popfile in so long that I don't remember how to do it and it looks like all of the documentation is gone from the web. I don't think I really need it any longer as I can just set filters up in Thunderbird but it was nice to use.
I only have 1 video card (an old 9600GT) that I have to swap between old and new computer to get the old file structure back. Even an low quality video card is so expensive these days! Anyway, I am reading my emails online (which I don't like to do!). I would like to get Thunderbird back to how I was using it before. Thanks! Greg
All Replies (2)
Well, life could be worse. And you have a new computer with parts donated by your children. Sounds like a good life. You didn't really do anything wrong at all, as it appears to me. My 'guess' is that there had been two profiles already, as you indicate TB immediately connected without prompting for an account. If you browse that Profile folder, you will likely see both. There is an import/export addon, called importexporttools, that purports to be able to import profiles. That may be worth a try.
If you prefer to use the Profile Manager, you need to temporarily modify the desktop shortcut to TB. Rightclidk on the shortcut, add -p (after a space or two) to end of the Target line so it appears as "c:\programfiles\thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -p and then close the shortcut. Now, restart TB and a menu will be presented to allow you to use an existing profile or create a new one. My suggestion is to use the create option and browse to the desired profile and select it. Once that is working to your satisfaction, remove the -p from shortcut, else it will bring up the menu every time. Good luck.
Thank you David! I will try this out over the weekend when I get some more time and let you know how it goes. Greg