I need a good tool to locate emails from an old profile and import them back into current profile automatically
Hi there. I recently had to unexpectedly reinstall windows 10 and it deleted all my apps including Thunderbird which I was using as my default email client, so I reinstalled Thunderbird, made a new profile for the time being so I can still receive my emails and then I began looking at how to get my old emails and folders back. I have really had no luck with this, I have read the usual instructions as to where your profile folders are found, I did find my old folder but when I tried to follow the steps to put it all back it didn't work, probably I did something wrong it was little too unclear for me to follow. In the process I renamed the original folder, however I copied it beforehand and still have the folder and contents sitting there. I'm not confident that I can do this procedure manually, so wanted to find a tool which find all emails on your drive and automatically does the work to send them back to your email if that is a thing. I would like to get all my folders back too if that is possible. Is there a tool anyone knows about which does this for you? The data is all there somewhere but I am clueless as to how to get it back into the existing profile I am now using. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers.
Chosen solution
re : I recently had to unexpectedly reinstall windows 10 and it deleted all my apps including Thunderbird which I was using as my default email client
Windows usually creates an 'Windows.old' folder which is usually auto deleted after about a month. The 'Windows. old' folder contains all the files and data from your previous Windows installation. It is on the C: drive eg: C:\Windows. old Assuming all Thunderbird profile info was in the default location, then in 'Windows.old' folder look for :
- C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>\
All Replies (5)
There's no tool to automatically scan old profiles for mail and place them in the new profile. But the manual method is fairly straightforward: Help/Troubleshooting, Profile Folder, click Open Folder to open the current profile, close TB. In the other profile folders, look in the Mail and ImapMail subfolders for account folders named after the server, e.g. pop.gmail.com or imap.mail.yahoo.com, and also in Mail\Local Folders. In those subfolders there are mbox files - large files with no extension, named after folders, e.g. Inbox, Sent. There may also be sbd (subdirectory) folders with mbox files. Copy the mbox files, renaming if necessary, into Mail\Local Folders of the new profile. When TB restarts, the folders will appear under Local Folders in the Folder Pane.
Modified by sfhowes
You can use this add-on to avoid manually copying mbox files. https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools-ng/
Note, this isn't an automated process either.
Thanks for your answers. I looked in the profiles folder and checked everything there, there are no files named after my old folders anywhere. I do see those named folder files in my current new profile where I re-created some folders to put new emails into and get them out of my current inbox, I do see those, but in the other profile folders from before there are only inbox folders and no other folders. I had a ton of folders with 1,000's of messages in them, I had to compact the folders eventually, is this why I can't see them? Are they somewhere else now? Or is it possible when I re-installed windows and it removed the apps it also deleted those files? I don't think it would do that, but I don't know why I can't see the old folders. It took me a while to understand what I was looking for, initially I thought they would have an mbox extension (until I read it properly and saw there is no extension only folder names) but I now understand what I'm looking for but I can't see anything in any of the folders. The only thing I can think of is maybe when I compacted them all it changed them and moved them somewhere else or into a new format. I did do a practice run and copied an inbox folder from another profile (renamed it first) into my current folders and it did show up as a folder in my current profile so I think I'm fine with the process, but I can't find the files to copy to begin with, they just aren't there.
I also tried using that add-on, no luck even working out how to find it once installed, it said once installed there would be a new menu in tools but I can't see anything at all.
Chosen Solution
re : I recently had to unexpectedly reinstall windows 10 and it deleted all my apps including Thunderbird which I was using as my default email client
Windows usually creates an 'Windows.old' folder which is usually auto deleted after about a month. The 'Windows. old' folder contains all the files and data from your previous Windows installation. It is on the C: drive eg: C:\Windows. old Assuming all Thunderbird profile info was in the default location, then in 'Windows.old' folder look for :
- C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>\
I want to say thankyou SO much Toad-Hall. I found the window old folder easily, I then copied it to an external drive so it doesn't get deleted if I need it for something else. I found all my old folders straight away, I then copied everything to a practice profile I made and they appeared fine, I then copied them to my current profile folder and while they ended-up in a totally different account folder in there, they are now there at least, all I have to do is create all my old folders in the correct account, then move all messages manually to the proper folders. I also manged to get my old sent folder copied across and while again it was copied to a totally unrelated account (I have about 8 emails) I can easily move them all manually across to my main account sent folder. So thankyou, problem is solved.
I also want to thank Sfhowes so much for the instructions on how to move them and what to look for in the first place. Between the both of you, I now have my emails back. Hugs.