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Moving Local Folder data

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by david

jstollak
jstollak
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I'm moving my Thunderbird application to a new, similar Lenovo computer running Win11. I have several email accounts (Xfinity, gmail) that work well together on my current computer. I've followed the instructions (very good) on your help article and that generally seems to work. Usually, I move messages to subject or correspondent specific subfolders on a local folder (a holdover from Outlook processes to speed up finding related messages in a large data store (3.5 gig?) I now have the data from my live email accounts in Pop on the new copy of Mozilla. I see a local folder there as well, but my data from there hasn't been moved or Thunderbird hasn't found it. A quick response would be appreciated because I'm returning the current computer for repair and don't want to extend the warranty... yet.

I'm moving my Thunderbird application to a new, similar Lenovo computer running Win11. I have several email accounts (Xfinity, gmail) that work well together on my current computer. I've followed the instructions (very good) on your help article and that generally seems to work. Usually, I move messages to subject or correspondent specific subfolders on a local folder (a holdover from Outlook processes to speed up finding related messages in a large data store (3.5 gig?) I now have the data from my live email accounts in Pop on the new copy of Mozilla. I see a local folder there as well, but my data from there hasn't been moved or Thunderbird hasn't found it. A quick response would be appreciated because I'm returning the current computer for repair and don't want to extend the warranty... yet.

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david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
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These steps ensure that all content in profile safely transferred:

Here is the link for moving a profile in Windows when installed in default location: 

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer

here is the info in brief steps:

  1. ensure thunderbird is NOT running on old machine
  2. enter %appdata% in search window on task bar and press Enter key
  3. this should open windows file explorer in Appdata\roaming folder
  4. highlight the Thunderbird folder and copy to external media
  5. ensure thunderbird is installed on second computer and NOT running
  6. enter %appdata% in search window on task bar and press Enter key
  7. you should be in Appdata\roaming folder , copy&paste the exported Thunderbird folder there. This may prompt to overwrite an existing folder of same name. allow it
  8. start thunderbird and all should be there