Transfer Thunderbird from PC to Laptop

This works every time:

BACKUP

1. ensure thunderbird is not running
2. enter %appdata% in search window on task bar and press Enter key
3. this should open windows file explorer in Appdata\roaming folder
4. highlight the Thunderbird folder and copy to external media

RESTORE

1. ensure thunderbird is installed, run once, and NOT running
2. enter %appdata% in search window on task bar and press Enter key
3. delete the thunderbird folder at appdata\roaming
4. you should be in Appdata\roaming folder , copy&paste the exported Thunderbird folder there.
5. start thunderbird and all should be there

If you have difficulty copying 60gb, you can DELETE the message folders (e.g., inbox, inbox.msf, sent, sent.msf) in the Imapmail\<IMAP account> folder prior to the copy. Thunderbird will repopulate on restart.

REMINDER Be sure to install new version from thunderbird.net. The Microsoft version is not compatible with my steps.

'A BIG THANKS to Dave! You were right; I do appreciate your guidance. This also works for Windows.

As I was going through all the files, this is what I found to look for, and the easy way to shrink the file down to almost nothing so Thunderbird can vacuum up all the emails.

I had a zip file that was 58GB if I selected everything in the %APPDATA%\Thunderbird directory. Windows told me 1 day to copy to my thumb drive. The objective is the smallest practical transfer; the instruction becomes “move only irreplaceable Thunderbird data and let the mail servers rebuild everything else. By the time I eliminated all the non-essential files, I was at about 1K.

If you want a very detailed list, just let me know.

Thanks again Dave! Kelly

Thanks for the positive feedback. These steps have proved successful for many users. :)