Transfering Thunderbird Profile to New Computer - Old Mail File is not Recovered
I run Thunderbird on two computers - MacBook Pro and "Intel". The Intel is older, runs Windows 10 using 1 T M.2 SSD for storage. I have purchased a new "Wintel" machine, also with 1 T M.2 SSD and running Windows 10. I transferred most of the files from the older Intel to the Wintel by uploading into Microsoft OneDrive, and successfully downloaded most of my older working files from there onto the M2 SSD of the new Wintel machine (not something I would recommend to do again, though -- OneDrive is slow slow slow). Note that the profile folder for Thunderbird is not included in the OneDrive group that was uploaded.
I have attempted to follow the Mozilla prescribed approach to transfer my existing Thunderbird files (and profile) from both the MacBook and the Intel machine to the Wintel. In the past, this worked like a charm -- I was able to move an older version of the Intel file to the MacBook about 6 months ago. But now, I can't get it to work to move these files to the Wintel. I have tried maybe 8 or10 times. Using a 1 T USB stick. Using a 32 BG USB stick. Trying either to move the /Thunderbird directory or just the /"profile" directory where "profile" is the random name.
The transferred files have two problems when opened in Thunderbird: 1) they don't have my username, password or similar information and this has to be reentered - which seems to reset the profile - it's like the copied files never are recognized 2) there is no file history (other than the information that is downloaded again from the mail server -- it keeps about 21 days of history). The multiple years of past mail data, which I want, is not available.
When I copy the directories onto the USB, it takes quite a bit of time (2-3 hours on the MacBook) to download, and the file transfer countdown suggests that more than 8GB of files were transferred. But, when I look at the file directory of the USB stick, I can't find files that total anywhere near that amount of data. And, the /"profile"/Mail subfolder is empty. And I can't find my archived mails.
This is getting very frustrating, and I am not sure what I am doing wrong, since it worked like a charm in the past. Is there an issue with v. 78? a size limit that I somehow breached with the additional growth in the historical files?
Advice and suggestion would be greatly appreciated!!!! Norm Whitton
All Replies (1)
TB-profile sub-folders in macOS is (usually) under below folder location: "~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/" inside above location there are TB-profile sub-folders : "xxxxxxxx.profile-name-01" , "xxxxxxxx.profile-name-02" , ... the x in xxxxxxxx is a random alphanumeric chars/letters/numbers, etc. above folder location's full path is usually this: default macOS volume : "/Users/<MacOsUserName>/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/"
in Windows, TB-profile sub-folders are under below folder: "%APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\" thats usually located here: "C:\Users\<WindowsUserName>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\"
in macOS computer , right click on the "Profiles" & select "info" to see detail/full size of that folder's content.
above amount / size of FREE SPACE you need in an EXTERNAL DRIVE , to transfer the TB-profile.
use macOS "Disk Utility" tool/app or use Windows os Partition manager app/tool or use Partition manager software to investigate & find out what TYPE of partition exists or used by your external-drive .
to transfer data in-between macOS & Windows OS & Linux/Unix OS , you should use ExFAT aka Extended-FAT partition in External-drive , ( or use network shared-drive/folder. )
if existing partition in EXTERNAL-DRIVE is not an EX-FAT (Extended-Fat) type , then Reduce existing partition size by an amount into what FREE SPACE you need to have , (by using Partition Manager software).
then create an Ex-Fat / Extended-Fat partition in the External-Drive.
v78 series TB uses SQLITE based address-book, etc data files, v78 series cannot use mab/mork based address-book, etc files.
v68 series TB uses MORK/MAB based address-book, etc data files, v68 series cannot use SQLITE based address-book, etc files.
src = source . dst = destination .
so initially you should use exact same version of TB , in src & dst computers. later you can upgrade/update, etc.
after installing TB in Windows/macOS , find out what exact "Root Directory" TB is using : goto TB main menu > Help > Troiubleshooting information > about:profiles > "Root Dirctory". the last folder shown in that Root-Dir line is the TB-Profile sub-folder.
in src computer & destination , do not change that TB-profile sub-folder name. copy all contents (files & sub-folders) inside the TB-profile sub-folder from src computer (or from the EXTERNAL Backup/Copy drive) , into / inside the dst computer's TB-profile's sub-folder. start TB in dst computer , check if everything back to normal or not. if TB is asking for password for accessing mail-accounts , then close TB. delete the "pkcs11.txt" file inside the dst computer , start TB , TB will ask you to enter password for each "mail-accounts" , do so ( that is enter App-key or Mail-Key or Main-Password) to access emails in TB's each "mail-account".
More/Related Info: • Disable AV/FW/SS software mail-protection OR enable+add+allow EXCEPTIONS in it & add mail-server names/address . Some AV/SS creates insecure proxy/gateway for scanning/checking emails, but there are other secure way to scan/check emails . Please make sure the option "Allow AV to Quarantine email" is selected inside TB, and make sure your AV/SS is set to Scan all files on access. • Regain old data in Windows : by using downgrade process, or by using a Second-TB, or by using manual file-transfer,etc). • Downgrade TB in macOS : downgrade by using second-TB , upgrade/downgrade TB. • AT&T , ATT-Yahoo related settings for TB. • Yahoo , ATT-Yahoo related settings for TB. • Microsoft Hotmail/Outlook related settings for TB. • Convert MAB/mork or SQLite based Address-Book into other format, mbox email files into other format. • Disabled auto-update or update of TB : inside the linked page , click on the topside 1st link to goto the auto-update disable instruction page into another website.