Knowing the exact steps you took would help. Here are sample steps that work

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, started once and NOT running
6. enter %appdata% in search window on task bar and press Enter key
7. you should be in Appdata\roaming folder. DELETE the thunderbird folder there
8. now , paste your copied thunderbird folder there.

#   start thunderbird and all should be there

Thanks. I followed instructions from a Google search, which I think was my mistake. I want the files on the desktop but to continue to run Thunderbird on the laptop. So, the instructions said to run thunderbird.exe -p and create a profile and point to the desktop files. I suspect that screwed things up. The data is still there but the profile has been all fouled up.

Is there any way to get Thunderbird to find the original data?

Thanks, Robert

Just to clarify, the profile must be accessible to the PC on which thunderbird is installed. You would need some form of network between the two PCs for that to work. Not knowing the details, the profile needs to be returned to the laptop. If you provide details on what is on laptop and what is on desktop, I may be able to provide the needed steps.

I copied all the files from the laptop to the desktop. Both machines are on a private network in the house.

Kewl! You can go to the appdata\roaming\thunderbird folder, open the profiles.ini file, and set the full length to the location of the specific profile folder on the desktop.

I have actually done that several times. I think the problem is that a new profile was created and the one that represents the actual data has been lost. I am hoping there is a way to create a profile that points to the data still in the files. Thanks

If you copied from laptop, then it should still be on laptop in one of the profile folders under appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles. If a similar setup on desktop, look in the associated profiles folder to see if older profiles are there. Sometimes when thunderbird updates, it creates a new profile.

I found a profile that was the original, saved in the profiles as a ....default... All my files are now accessible again!

Thanks very much.

Robert

You are very welcome. I was glad to assist