Migrating Thunerbird Profile from Windows 10 to Windows 11
I bought my wife a new computer a while ago and have followed every solution I can find to trans fer the profile from her Windows 10 computer to her Windows 11. One problem is that Windows 11 repeatedly created two profiles xxxxxxxx.default and xxxxxxxx.default-release. I have made sure both computers are using Version 115.7.0. The file is much larger than 2Gb which articles suggest doing a backup. Copying the profile from Windows 10 or making a zipped backup is no problem, however, if I import or paste into either profile, nothing happens it does not let me. Once it did spend hours copying the Profile file only to say at the end this cannot be done . I should have copied the whole message. I do not use the Microsoft Cloud, is there a foolproof way of doing this and why does it create two profiles. Is it like Ubuntu where I need to be root?
All Replies (6)
The simplest way is this: - on old PC, exit Thunderbird if it's running - copy profile from c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird to USB stick - on new PC, have thunderbird installed but not running - copy the thunderbird folder on USB stick to c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming to overwrite the existing thunderbird folder - start thunderbird and all should be there.
Thank you David I need to add a little more information. I have copied the profiles for Firefox and Thunderbird into the Windows 11 profile folders I typed about: profile in Windows 11 to get the Profile selection folder. This did not recognize the profile I had added to make default, so as detailed in the article I was using, I created a new profile of similar name but Windows 11 prefixed it with the old root file name, this too could not be chosen. I tried again, this time as suggested elsewhere to copy and paste the old profile into the new. Each time it started to copy but stopped Saying "file name is too long" no matter how many characters I reduced it to. I tried again, I opened both the Windows 10 and 11 profile folders to ensure all the files inside were the same. Then, I copied all the Windows 10 files, changed to the new Windows 11 profile folder highlighted those but the paste symbol was missing even F2 (the paste function key) did not work.
David I need to add I now have a Thunderbird file next to the original profiles folder. This is what Windows 11 is doing. I was waiting until the pasting had finished and the rest submitted.
Is it too late to try my approach? It has worked 100% for every user who had posted the issue.
Sorry David I have not made myself clear. The last note tried to say that I now have the copied Thunderbird folder alongside the Windows 11 Profile folder. That is where Windows11 inserted it, but it will not replace it. Everything I do Windows 11 is preventing the overwriting. No wonder i use Ubuntu.
I'm still not getting it. You mention the thunderbird is alongside the profile, but pasting it to c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming should have replaced the profile. Or did you paste the thunderbird profile to c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird?
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