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How do I get Thunderbird to import my contact information from a back-up drive location?

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  • Last reply by Witzway

Witzway
Witzway
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My Windows 7 desktop hard drive crashed, was using Outlook. All files were backed up onto a portable hard drive under a file header "Documents" which included all emails and contact information from outlook. Purchased a Windows 10 new desktop. Installed Thunderbird and can't seem to get Tbird to locate the files transferred to the new computer's hard drive. Thunderbird keeps wanting another email program to import from. All the data is there, just can't figure out how to get Thunderbird to look in the correct location!

My Windows 7 desktop hard drive crashed, was using Outlook. All files were backed up onto a portable hard drive under a file header "Documents" which included all emails and contact information from outlook. Purchased a Windows 10 new desktop. Installed Thunderbird and can't seem to get Tbird to locate the files transferred to the new computer's hard drive. Thunderbird keeps wanting another email program to import from. All the data is there, just can't figure out how to get Thunderbird to look in the correct location!

Chosen solution

If you installed TB 60 on the old computer, then ran the Tools/Import wizard (not 'Import Everything'; do Mail and Address Books separately), and it worked, you could then transfer the TB data (Thunderbird folder) from the old to the new computer.

To import the csv file, I recommend you first edit it in Excel to organize the columns so they match the TB address book structure, then Tools/Import...Address Books...Text file...Files of type: comma separated... select the csv.

But the easiest, if it works, is to run the wizard on the old PC with Outlook and TB, then transfer to the new computer.

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Witzway
Witzway Question owner
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I attempted to download a version of Outlook, what I got was Outlook.com from Microsoft. I don't think it's a program on my computer as it shows up in my browser window. I checked the root directory and it doesn't list an Outlook program. Tried again, Thunderbird doesn't recognize Outlook.com.

Witzway
Witzway Question owner
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Old computer Outlook-2010. Do not have a CD of Outlook, downloaded it from Microsoft back then. I can boot the old system but it's r-e-a-l-l-y slow to do anything. Was able to save the contacts as an .csv Excel file... but again TB wants a program and not a file...ugg! Wild thought... if I could USB connect both computers, would TB find it and capture the data onto the new computer? I'll try downloading the 30-day Outlook trial and see it that works. Thank you for the assistance.

Witzway
Witzway Question owner
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Thanks... will give it all a try!!