Thunderbird Support Forum

I would like to know how I may transport Thunderbird from an old computer to a new without losing data. The old computer still is working. I do not have gmail, though I am considering going over to it.

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I want that all my mail from all mine email boxes be restored to the original mail boxes. Now all the mail is removed there and that must not be done

How do I copy it back!!!!!

Hello, my Cox email account was migrated to Yahoo mail. I can receive emails but now I can't send emails from Thunderbird. I've triple checked server settings. Please help. Thanks-Vince

This is the message I get and it does this with all email addresses.

Sending of the message failed. An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: Request failed; Mailbox unavailable. Please verify that your email address is correct in your account settings and try again.

Hi,

I have changed the provider of e-mail services. The old IMAP account is already expired (not reachable).

I wanted to copy the messages from the old account to the new one. Unfortunately, it turned out that some messages contents are missing* (not downloaded locally). I acknowledge there's nothing I can do anymore to get the message contents.

However, I would definitely want to keep the records of the messages — their subject, correspondents, date and time. Can I get the message list in any form (other than taking screenshots) from Thunderbird? How to do it?

I have tested (not to work): - Copying / moving the directory from the context menu to the new account has no effect. - Dragging the individual messages has no effect as well. - After entering the Offline mode (from `File` menu) those actions result it a prompt informing that messages are not downloaded. - I tried copy-pasting the .msf file, directory and directory.sdb for the IMAP directory (with not-downloaded messages) from "ImapMail" of the profile to the "Mail" (local folders) to see if that would work, but it unfortunately haven't. - The .msf files do not contain the data (subject, correspondents, datetime).

• all the messages in question have been opened in Thunderbird. Therefore I thought I have them all on my local drive. I haven't rushed to copy the messages, because I have backed up the Profile directory (including ImapMail). Perhaps after organizing the mails (i.e. moving to appropriate IMAP directories) the local copies were deleted, and new copies (in target IMAP directories) not downloaded (as I haven't opened them anymore).

My Thunderbird profile in Linux Ubuntu 24.04 is in /home/dick/Thunderbird_mail/me. I want to copy it to a new directory. I copied it using the following commands: dick@dick1:~$ mkdir t2 dick@dick1:~$ cp -rf Thunderbird_mail t2

I then ran "thunderbird -P" and created a new profile pointing to /home/dick/t2/me When I opened this profile I got the message "You have launched an a\older version of Thunderbird.", even though I was running the same version of Thunderbird. If I open the profile in Thunderbird_mail/me, it works correctly. If I open the profile in t2/me with the same executable of Thunderbird, I get this message.

How can I copy my profile to a new directory?

dick@dick1:~$ thunderbird --version Thunderbird 115.11.1

I recently converted my POP accounts to iMap. One of my local folders was corrupted. I restored a backup copy of Thunderbird that had the emails in a local folder. By local folder, I mean a folder stored on my iMac and not subject to iMap services. What I would like to do is to export the local folder from the backup TB instance and import it to my "live" TB version. Is this possible?

Is it possible to install TB (or at least the profiles) onto an external SSD (i.e., not the C: drive)? If so, how?

Note: this is not about migration/backup/recovery of profiles.

Windows 11 is consuming nearly all of the C: drive. I badly need to get TB (and Firerfox) onto my E: drive. I further note that the installer gives no options whatsoever as to the destination drive.

I've read everything I could find here and all of that is about using an external drive as a backup. Most of the other help I've found on the web is clearly outdated.

Thanks. jt

Hi, hope someone can help please

By mistake I set up my 89 year old aunties TB using a Beta version. All of her emails are in that profile. I then installed the stable version but I'm told that the stable version is an older versions and can not import from the Beta.

Specifically the Beta version is 127.0b4 (64-bit) and the stable vesrion is 115.11.1 (64-bit).

Is there any way to recover the emails (and if possible the settings) from the Beta profile to the stable release

Thanks in anticipation

Russell

I was finally forced to upgrade from win7 (which worked) to win 10 (me no likey) because of a required program which would not even install on win7. After the upgrade, which obliterated my hard drive of several important things, I am reinstalling TB. I always used an NAS directory for Thunderbird, and have email records going back nearly twenty years. I installed TB 115 and have tried several ways to get it to recognize my profile directory on the NAS to no avail. I tried copying data into the default directory the 115 install is looking at. The about:profiles shows it is looking in the correct directory, it produces a parent.lock file in that directory when I run the program. It does not give me my email, or contacts. I do not use the calendar or to-do lists.

My system is an AMD K6-6400K with 16 GB and a 500 GB drive. Though programs are loaded on the drive ALL data is stored in an NAS. There is about 375 GB available on the C drive.

I have used the cmd line to pull up profile manager, added a profile, pointed it to the data that is on the NAS, a parent lock file is created there too but it shows me no mail.

I have edited the profiles.ini file manually to have the program look at the directories, both the NAS and a local directory which has had the old files entered. Neither worked.

I tried opening TB and creating a new profile and pre-loading the info there, nothing. I've been at this for days now. I have uninstalled and removed manually all TB folders and reinstalled older versions to give that a go but without effect. I am no Luddite (Many years ago I owned a system integration, assembly and install company doing networking for the military as a civilian contractor.) but someone has to explain this to me like I am a five year old. There is no reason having my email back should be this difficult!

PLEASE give me a hand?

My TB directory appears in C:\Users\owner\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird My old data folder was on a network drive at M:\Users\owner\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\profiles\k5zbs5az.default When I manually enter the M: address in the profiles.ini file, it "corrects" it to C:\Users\owner\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\ even though the switch 'relative' is off.

[Profile1] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/zpfeu8eu.default Default=1

[Profile0] Name=default-beta IsRelative=0 Path=C:\Users\owner\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

[General] StartWithLastProfile=0 Version=2

[Install5D388C1349709B37] Default=C:\Users\owner\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird Locked=1

Running the Mozilla application with a specific profile using command line arguments brings up the program but no mail. It creates a lock file in the correct directory, but no joy.

I get no pop up error messages.

I have been using Thunderbird a long time and I have emails going back about twenty years. This means that the built in import/export feature is hopeless. So I copied the entire Thunderbird folder to the new computer. I was able to transfer thousands of emails, but when I looked more closely I saw that my new Thunderbird only went back about 2 years. I would be very grateful if someone could tell a way to make it include the missing older emails.

I am trying to transfer my email from one old PC using windows Live Mail (2012) to a laptop with Thunderbird to process the emails. The email server is with a company called Plusnet, and they can send me their own emails, which are received by Thunderbird on my Laptop. All my other emails continue to be sent to the Windows Live Mail on the old PC. Plusnet advise me that the problem is with Windows Live Mail. Any ideas how to resolve the problem? David Owen

Hello.

I read that thunderbird works with Microsoft 365 and modern authentication. I tested with Microsoft 365 accounts and it worked fine. The problems come with an accounting of Microsoft 365 operated by 21vianet service.

I configured according to https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/microsoft-oauth-authentication-and-thunderbird-202 with the IMAP and SMTP settings from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/settings-for-pop-and-imap-access-for-microsoft-365-operated-by-21vianet-ca51235d-afc5-4d7d-843c-3616a37d5771

It complaints "The IMAP server partner.outlook.cn does not support the selected authentication method. Please change the 'Authentication method' in the 'Account Settings | Server settings.'"

In SMTP settings there is no option to configure OAuth2

After Thunderbird asked me to download a new version & I donated money, all my subfolders to the left have disappeared. ALL my information stored/ emails placed in the subfolders are gone. I have sent several requests asking for HELP. This has been so frustrating I do not want to recommend anyone to use Thunderbird. This has nev er happened to me before and I cannot seem to receive an easy solution a t my end. All folders & emails dumbed into folders are gone???? I need HELP Please.....

I have have been unemployed at the time but still donated $$ to support as often as I can and this has happened which has been a nightmare.

Mary B [removed phone# from public support forum]

Upgraded to the newest version of Thunderbird, 115.11.1 (64-bit) and now I can not get into my emails on bellsouth.net. . Error message "Sending of password for user xyz123@bellsouth.net did not succeed. Mail server inbound.att.net responded: [SYS/TEMP] Server error - Please try again later." I keep trying but same error for two days now. I can get my email on the web (Yahoo mail) ok. I double checked the setting and everything is good and migrated to the new version ok.

I used the same password I have been using for a long time with my Verizon account and now I get this message: Sending of password for user k.machv@verizon.net did not succeed. Mail server pop.verizon.net responded: [SYS/TEMP] Server error - Please try again later. I can open and download my email messages via AOL but it will not recognize my password to allow me to download my messages to Thunderbird.

I have downloaded my Emil to my laptop using thunderbird and then I try to change the name of storage folder to D:\gmail and after that I could not find my previously downloaded email.I need to jknow how I can file my previous downloaded folder.