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How to transfer Mail and address book from Thunderbird 16.0.1 on Mac using OS 10.5.8 to Thunderbird 38.2.0 on Mac using OS 10.5.7

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  • Last reply by crussell333

crussell333
crussell333
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I've installed Thunderbird 38.2.0 on my newer Mac (OS 10.5.7). I've been running Thunderbird for years on my old Mac (OS 10.5.8) using Thunderbird 16.0.1. Love Thunderbird, but yes, i should have upgraded a long time ago ;-) The OS on the old Mac is too old to upgrade to the current version of Thunderbird. The new version of Thunderbird is running fine on my newer Mac. But i need to find a way to get my address book and my mail files from the old Mac to the new Mac. Please, please help! Claire Russell

I've installed Thunderbird 38.2.0 on my newer Mac (OS 10.5.7). I've been running Thunderbird for years on my old Mac (OS 10.5.8) using Thunderbird 16.0.1. Love Thunderbird, but yes, i should have upgraded a long time ago ;-) The OS on the old Mac is too old to upgrade to the current version of Thunderbird. The new version of Thunderbird is running fine on my newer Mac. But i need to find a way to get my address book and my mail files from the old Mac to the new Mac. Please, please help! Claire Russell

Chosen solution

I think the best approach is to copy your entire profile from the old computer to the new one.

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

Alternatively…

You could import messages from the old profile; I'd suggest using https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

You could import address books from the old profile; you can copy abook.mab (Personal Address Book) and history.mab (Collected Addresses) directly. Other *.mab files can be copied over too, but may need to be imported, using https://nic-nac-project.org/~kaosmos/morecols-en.html

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All Replies (2)

Zenos
Zenos
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Chosen Solution

I think the best approach is to copy your entire profile from the old computer to the new one.

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

Alternatively…

You could import messages from the old profile; I'd suggest using https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

You could import address books from the old profile; you can copy abook.mab (Personal Address Book) and history.mab (Collected Addresses) directly. Other *.mab files can be copied over too, but may need to be imported, using https://nic-nac-project.org/~kaosmos/morecols-en.html

crussell333
crussell333 Question owner
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Thank you so much. I was able to copy both my old address book files and my old local folder files to the new version of Thunderbird. All is working and i'm a happy Thuderbirder again.