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moving address book, folders and previous e-mails to a new computer

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  • Last reply by david

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I just replaced my 5 year old Windows computer with a new Windows computer. When I loaded Thunderbird on my old computer I had issues receiving my e-mail. My e-mail provider tech support was able to get me set up so that my e-mails went to a G-mail account and were forwarded to the computer. I used this setup for approximately 5 years. During that time I created several folders in Thunderbird and they have several important emails stored there. I setup my new Windows PC this past week and downloaded Thunderbird. To my surprise, I was able to set the program up so that it works without having to go through G-Mail. My issue is that I want to copy the e-mail folders and my address book from the old computer and move them into Thunderbird in my new computer. I have looked at your support page and I am concerned that when I move files from the old to the new that I will lose some e-mails and the few folders that I have on the new CPU. I would appreciate your direction and instructions on what I need to do to accomplish this task. The old computer Thunderbird files were up to date. Updates were completed as they came out. The new Thunderbird appears very different than the edition that is on my old machine. Thank you for your assistance.

I just replaced my 5 year old Windows computer with a new Windows computer. When I loaded Thunderbird on my old computer I had issues receiving my e-mail. My e-mail provider tech support was able to get me set up so that my e-mails went to a G-mail account and were forwarded to the computer. I used this setup for approximately 5 years. During that time I created several folders in Thunderbird and they have several important emails stored there. I setup my new Windows PC this past week and downloaded Thunderbird. To my surprise, I was able to set the program up so that it works without having to go through G-Mail. My issue is that I want to copy the e-mail folders and my address book from the old computer and move them into Thunderbird in my new computer. I have looked at your support page and I am concerned that when I move files from the old to the new that I will lose some e-mails and the few folders that I have on the new CPU. I would appreciate your direction and instructions on what I need to do to accomplish this task. The old computer Thunderbird files were up to date. Updates were completed as they came out. The new Thunderbird appears very different than the edition that is on my old machine. Thank you for your assistance.

Chosen solution

Snapshot of Mail file is attached.

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One thing that has changed is the way the display looks. Originally the e-mails were on the left side and when I opened an e-mail the content showed up on the right. The display now looks like it did on my old PC with the e-mails listed on the top and the opened e-mail appears on the bottom. I am not sure what I did to make this happen but this is definitely my preferred view. Other than one folder showing up in the local folder area, nothing else has moved. I am not sure if it is a problem, but the names on several of my folders on the old PC start with # in order to move them to to top of the list. Would it help to remove the # from those folders? There are several other folders that start with just a letter and they have not moved over. Thanks again for your patience and assistance.

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If everything is working, I would leave it alone.

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