The usual approach is to copy the profile folder to the desired location, then use Profile Manager to update the profile's location as far as TB is concerned:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird#Use_the_Profile_Manager_to_move_your_profile

To start PM in Windows, Winkey-R and type thunderbird.exe -p

Lets just say I find Profile Manager somewhat contrived: The simple option to accept a moved/restored profile seems missing. The need for this utility is obscure. Functionality could be in TBird. Where is the authoritative definition for profiles.ini formats? Are other files in /Thunderbird also defining current status? Is Windows backup/restore for c: going to backup profiles.ini? Recovery of actual profile data will be out of sync, require mods.

You could just extend your backup to include ...\AppData\...\Thunderbird\....

I have a similar question.

Trying to do two things:

1) Move ALL of my Outlook Express 6 emails on a Win XP Pro SP3 (32-bit) machine into Mozilla Thunderbird in a DUAL-booting Win 7 Pro SP1 64-bit and Win 8.1 Pro 64-bit machine.

-- The folders in the current Outlook Express 6 are detailed. Not just "Inbox" and "Sent" but also "Inbox Older W", "Inbox Older X" ... "Inbox Oldest Z", etc. The very first time I run Thunderbird on the Win XP Pro machine and do the Import from OE, will Thunderbird automatically set up the same folders?

2) Put the Thunderbird cloned emails and guidance (?) files (for lack of a better term) on a second (data) hard drive in the DUAL-booting machine so that Thunderbird on EACH of the Win 7 and the Win 8.1 will point to that second hard drive and see all the same emails and guidance (?) files and be the same in each OS.

(There will be a Thunderbird app in each of the Win 7 and Win 8.1 but both Thunderbirds will point to the same folders in the second (data) hard drive. Do I have the right idea?)

Thoughts? Links to instructions? Does anyone have a step-by-step?

Thanks.

Find or create a folder that both installations can access. Move or copy your profile data folders to this location. Edit each Thunderbird's profiles.ini file to point to the common profile data.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-tb

glnz said

I have a similar question. Trying to do two things: 1) Move ALL of my Outlook Express 6 emails on a Win XP Pro SP3 (32-bit) machine into Mozilla Thunderbird in a DUAL-booting Win 7 Pro SP1 64-bit and Win 8.1 Pro 64-bit machine. -- The folders in the current Outlook Express 6 are detailed. Not just "Inbox" and "Sent" but also "Inbox Older W", "Inbox Older X" ... "Inbox Oldest Z", etc. The very first time I run Thunderbird on the Win XP Pro machine and do the Import from OE, will Thunderbird automatically set up the same folders?

I don't know if the automatic import will set up the same folder structure in TB, but it shouldn't be hard to do it manually. Export messages from OE as eml files, then drag the eml files from an Explorer folder and drop them into a TB folder, via the TB interface.

Zenos and sfhowes - thanks for your quick replies.

Basic Q:

To move OE emails to TB, I install TB on the original XP machine and import or export from one to the other, with the complexities you touch on.

However, to "move" that TB to the new machine (Win 7 and 8), what exactly do I do? Do I INSTALL TB in each of Win 7 and 8 and then take other steps? Or do I just copy all the XP's TB folders into each of Win 7 and Win 8 (does not sound likely)?

Thanks.

Once you have OE imported to the TB on the XP machine, install TB on the 7 & 8 machines. To transfer the TB profile from the XP machine to the others, you could use the Profile Manager method mentioned above, or use MozBackup. MozBackup will backup a TB profile to a pcv file; copy this file to the 7 or 8 machine (where MozBackup is also installed), then run MB to import the profile to TB.

sfhowes - Let's take your answer the next few steps.

Since I have a DUAL-BOOT Win 7 and 8.1 machine, my strategy will be to install TB in EACH of Win 7 and 8.1 but have EACH TB point to the same "profile", which contains all the emails (and however TB keeps track of which emails it pulled down from the ISP). That way, when I'm in Win 7 and receive and send emails, and I then reboot into Win 8.1, TB will recognize the emails I just sent and received in Win 7 (as if I had not switched OSes). Correct?

So, I will first fully set up TB in Win 7 and put its profile (with all my old emails from my old XP machine's Outlook Express) into the SECOND (data) hard disk in my new PC (the G:\ drive). I'll run some test emails in and out to make sure it's working.

Then, I'll set up TB in Win 8. At the start, it will not have any emails. (Maybe I keep it offline as I set up the Account parameters?) How exactly do I make it point to the profile in the G:\ drive so it sees everything the same?

Now, going back to the first setup in Win 7, I have to do two things - A) point the TB to the profile with all the old emails from OE, and B) set up the email Accounts in TB so it receives and sends new emails with the same email providers. My guess is to do A) first, then B), yes? In any case, when I setup the accounts, will TB "know" that it has already downloaded ALL THE OLD EMAILS so it doesn't try to re-download them?

NOTE: I think the way Outlook Express "knows" what it's done (so it doesn't keep downloading the same emails) is that it has a file or folder called "Folders" that keeps track. When I import everything OE into TB on the old XP machine, will TB import this information? This is related to my questions above.

When i do the second setup in Win 8, are your answers above the same?

Thanks.

Before we arrive at the correct setup, I think it's useful to find out if your accounts are POP or IMAP, or both. If they are IMAP, you just need to set up the accounts on both Win 7 & 8, and the mail will be synchronized across both operating systems, and, in fact, any devices with the same accounts. You wouldn't want both OSs to share the same entire profile, since some settings are OS-dependent, e.g. default attachment-opening programs.

If you have POP accounts that can't be switched to IMAP, then it's a bit more complex (untested by me). In that case, you might be able to set both OSs to point to a common mail (not entire profile) location by following the steps in this article:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_mail_storage_location_%28Thunderbird%29

To make this work, it might be necessary to first change the location of the profile that is first set up (Win 7 or 8), using Profile Manager.