Thunderbird Community Forum

Hello fellow Thunderbirds,

I have been using Thunderbird for years and had thousands of emails in quite a few folders, with a shit-tonne of filters etc. My emails were running pretty well. I only use two addresses, but the folders help manage everything.

I just got a new computer last week. Prior to switching over to the new computer I read through the 'Export your Thunderbird Profile' help page, and the 'Move Thunderbird data to a new computer' pages. I've tried to follow all the info there (with a glitch, explained below).

I am using a Windows system and have gone from Win10 to Win11.

I have the following data:

• Mozilla Maintenance Service (in Program Files (x86) ).
• Mozilla Thunderbird (in Program Files (x86) )
• Thunderbird (In Users/Username/AppData/Local/Thunderbird) (Contains 'profile' and 'updates'

I tried to swap the above data into the same spots on the new computer, but alas, it's not working. I *may*, however, have fucked it up myself...

So... When I got the new computer, I immediately downloaded Firefox, but, alas, I entered my email's details before closing it down. It did download a few off the server, but only a day's worth (before I realised I screwed up).

As soon as I realised I'd mucked up, I uninstalled Thunderbird and deleted the files on the new computer (you know how when you download it doesn't always remove all the stuff, so I tried to do this).

I reinstalled Thunderbird, but closed it prior to loading the email addresses on (as instructed). I then transferred all the above data into the corresponding file areas on the new computer. However, everytime I try to run the program it just goes to the standard open screen (with the popup that prompts you to enter your email addresses and details into it - see image, below, in case I'm not explaining it right).

Anyway, I'd appreciate any help you might be able to give me as I'm desperate to get my emails running again and have access to all the saved emails which were in my system. Kindly. Larysa.

Hi all

I have the good C:drive out of a failed computer which is now unusable, with my profiles on for that PC. They go back a while and are useful for referring to. There is some important information there. How do I move them to the current PC? N.B. I have been using the current PC for a couple of weeks and already have quite a few emails on it which I would like to keep.

Suggestions please Thank you Keith

I’m asking for an update: regarding the total message count, folders with no messages now show a dash, which is really confusing. Could this be fixed so that a dash doesn't appear when there are 0 messages? Before the update, it wasn't like that—it used to show the message count, and there was no dash when there were no messages.

I have been asking for this for at least 20 versions now: the backup and restore function—which is supposed to work when setting up a fresh Windows 11 installation, for example—fails to carry over certain settings. Specifically, things like the "Participants," "Date," and "Name" columns, the sort arrows (up/down), and other menu column settings aren't restored correctly. View settings—such as grouping vs. non-grouping or hidden columns—are also lost; after restoring, you have to manually set up all the columns and date ordering again yourself.

Problem 3

When I type a name into the address book and it appears, I have to click next to the name. However, if I click straight into the text field to start writing and then try to send something, a different contact from the address book might appear instead. This is a bug. For example, I typed in "Mom," but instead of clicking next to the name, I clicked into the text field, and my boss ended up receiving the email—it was embarrassing. Could there be a setting so that when an address book name appears and you jump straight to the text field, that name stays selected instead of switching to a different address book entry?

I have many years and email accounts on my old WIN10 workstation running all POP installations.

I have a new workstation with WIN11. Is it possible to install TB on my new workstation with my accounts installed as IMAP and keep the same folder configuration? I have many email folders and filters setup on the old workstation installation.

I would appreciate any installation recommendations. I've been using TB for years and would like to keep as much of the current configuration as possible.

The method I found successful in creating my Thunderbird profile on a new PC was different from the posted method. I hope this method helps others. Both Ubuntu 24.04.4 Mate and Thunderbird 155.0/ On the source PC I copied the .thunderbird folder to a USB drive. On the destination PC I opened the thunderbird folder (not hidden). Copied 123xyz.default and 456pqr.default-esr to this folder. Replaced profiles.ini with profiles.ini from the source PC. Opened Thunderbird and found my familiar experience.

Moved my thunderbird account to my new lap top using %appdata% . All has transferred but it is not letting me put in the passwords for imap and smtp. I checked on the old laptop, and I do have them correct. Any help would be lovely. I can access my gmail account online if I have to.

Someone suggested BetterBird would be better for me than Thunderbird, but I'm not sure it was the right decision. They said I should be able to just open Thunderbird and it should work as they have the same base code, but it doesn't. Any ideas? I have 8 email accounts, so I'd hate to start from scratch.

I wish to back-up my Thunderbird profile, but apparently, I am to find an "export tool" under the "tools" menu. Unfortunately the option to 'export' does not appear in the list [but "import" does...!]

My old Widows 10 computer died. All I have left of it is the last full Acronis 2020 backup. I have installed Thunderbird on my new Windows 11 computer and want to restore my Profile data from the backup. How do I find them? Have been searching for days and can't find anything like in your profiles help article.

If I can't recover the data can you at least send me my current license key?

I have been using Thunderbird on my PC for years and when I got my last PC, I found a article to help me move my files. I am now looking for instructions on how to move my Thunderbird files from the PC to the Mac so I can continue using it as I have been.

I am trying to run Thunderbird on my laptop. I currently have it on my PC and my Phone. I just installed Thunderbird on my laptop and zipped my profile (60GB). I tried to open the zip file to make sure it was good. I could not open it, so i did not transfer it. I was looking for an easy way to get all my email accounts and passwords onto my Laptop. I would appreciate any help. Thanks! Kelly

Hi, Need help with maps that cannot be removed. Thunderbird downloaded my map configuration, after a new Thunderbird installation, from my online account/my internet provider which was OK. After that I removed all maps on my online account but the maps in Thunderbird is still there but out grayed and I cannot delete them?

I uninstalled Thunderbird and also removed Thunderbird associated maps under %AppData% and %LocalAppData% but when I do a new clean installation same maps shows up in Thunderbird again? I waited some days and did a new installation again, but same issue. I have also deleted everything in W11 cash memory.

Attached picture shows the out grayed "NyMapp and subfolders" I cannot delete. How do I get rid of those folders?

Any help is appreciated.

Version 153 brought account colors to the desktop app.

Is there any smoother way to transfer just these settings, no more, no less, to other machines, other than copying the whole profile? I'm using TB on 3 different pc's, of which one has a special profile.

Right now I made screenshots of all 7 accounts + color. I can do it by hand but that's rather cumbersome.

I tried the instructions at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer, and watched the video. Copied and pasted exactly as instructed - nothing happened. Is it possible to transfer the data, including message filters and in-box folders, to the new PC? Old PC: version 115.18.0 esr (32-bit) - on Windows 7 New PC: version 153.0.3 (64-bit) - on Windows 11 Or is this data transfer impossible due to incompatibility of the different Thunderbird versions? Thanks. I also tried transferring the data from the old PC to a slightly newer laptop on Windows 10, utilising Thunderbird version 140.13.0 esr (32-bit). Nothing happened there either. Is it a lost cause? Do I just go ahead and create new message filters on the new PC and forget about trying to transfer the data and associated rules? Maybe that's the way to go for me. Thanks.

I want to copy my windows Thunderbird profile to Linux but my Profile Directory will not open when I press open directory. I downloaded Thunderbird from the Zorin app store, and it may be a flatpak or something – it won’t tell me now because I have already installed it – but I believe that could be a reason for the directory not opening. Is there a non-PC-literate way of finding out and fixing this?

Hi, I just installed Elementary OS on a Dell M6800. The OS runs well, and I have multiple email accounts, so I installed Thunderbird from the Elementary AppCenter. It showed up as a flatpak install, but I went ahead.

Now, in the past when I tried to replace the .default-release file with one from another machine and rename it with the new filename (which is what I've always done to transfer my multiple emails and address book),

I went to the usual place, which has always been /home/myusername/.thunderbird/whatever.default-release, but it wasn't there. Going to Help/Troubleshooting Information/about:profiles shows it there, but won't open it when clicked on.

The only place I could find it was in /home/myusername/.var/app/org.mozilla.thunderbird/cache/thunderbird. But when I replaced and renamed the .default-release file there, and then restarted the app, I still did not have my old data. How do I go about this with a flatpak installation? Thanks in advance.

Hi all!

Years back, I created my first account using POP3 when IMAP storage was expensive. Over the years I added many message filters to organize my tasks. Now I'd like to switch to IMAP and found everything I need, except for how to move/convert/copy my message filters. So my question is how can I transfer my message filters when recreating the account using IMAP? (I have a lot of filters, recreating them is no good option...)

I also noticed, that I have some filters for "Local Folders" and some for my POP3 account. Whats you're recommendation for that? Merge them into a single list assigned to the account? How can I do that?

Pauliman