Can I replace the Thunderbird Mail folder in my laptop profile with a copy of the Mail folder on my Desktop?
I use Thunderbird to access my Hotmail account. I normally work on my Desktop Windows 11 system but have a laptop Windows 11 which I seldom access email with. When I just tried to update the laptop Thunderbird mail I eventually get the Thunderbird message "Unable to write the email to the mailbox. Make sure the file system allows you write privileges, and you have enough disk space to copy the mailbox". There is enough free space on my drive and it succeeded writing 10522 messages before it came to a halt. I notice that the desktop is at 140.4.0 and the laptop is at 144.0.1 and help says they are both up to date.
Since the Desktop mail is up to date it would seem the quick solution is to replace the mail folder on the laptop with a copy of the mail folder from the desktop. Will this be a problem since they seem to be at different versions. Version 140.4.0 on the Desktop and 144.0.1 on the laptop.
All Replies (3)
Doing it this way will be best.
Copy TB files from the desktop
- launch TB on the desktop
- go to TB menu > Help > Troubleshooting Information
- click the Application Basics > Profile Folder 'Open Folder' button
- the profile folder will open
- navigate three levels up to the AppData\Roaming folder
- copy the AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird folder to a flash drive
Paste the copied TB files to the laptop
- close TB on the laptop
- open the AppData\Roaming folder like you did above
- delete the Thunderbird folder, or copy it somewhere if you want to save it
- replace it with the Thunderbird folder from the flash drive
- launch TB
I have done similar copy and replace in the past with good results. Copying just the mail file does sort of work. The thing is the filters do not work. Using Copilot I found out about the function of the msgFilterRules.dat file and the URL locations included in it. Correcting the URLs would be a huge job since I have a very large number of filters in two large accounts.
I decided to use the solution you recommended and copy the entire profile over. The problem is that Thunderbird on the desktop is 140.4.0 and the version on the laptop is 144.0.1. The laptop seems to think I am installing a completely new installation when I switch the Profile folder so does not even see my other accounts.
Copilot has suggested a script to replace the URLs in the msgFilterRules.dat file with the correct correct ones. Just getting up the nerve to do that.
pauljg said
I decided to use the solution you recommended and copy the entire profile over. The problem is that Thunderbird on the desktop is 140.4.0 and the version on the laptop is 144.0.1. The laptop seems to think I am installing a completely new installation when I switch the Profile folder so does not even see my other accounts.
I forgot a crucial step: close TB and in the copied-over profile folder, delete the compatibility.ini file, then restart TB.
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