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How do I transfer message filters

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  • Last reply by erictopp

I am running Thunderbird 140.8.1esr on macOS Tahoe 26.3

I created an IMAP account in Thunderbird to replace a POP account

I want to copy the Thunderbird message filters from the POP account to the IMAP account

I read articles on Mozilla Support and these said to copy the msgFilterRules.dat file but I cannot find this file

How can I copy the message filters?

I am running Thunderbird 140.8.1esr on macOS Tahoe 26.3 I created an IMAP account in Thunderbird to replace a POP account I want to copy the Thunderbird message filters from the POP account to the IMAP account I read articles on Mozilla Support and these said to copy the msgFilterRules.dat file but I cannot find this file How can I copy the message filters?

All Replies (2)

It will not do you much good copying the files as the absolute path to the folders your filters use will be different.

I.E. The mail data will now be stored in the imap mail folder on disk and previously it would have been in the mail folder. There is a reason that there is not suggested method of moving filters between accounts, it is not just some oversight that everyone forgot to document back ion 2003. It is a feature that really does not exist.

Using Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Finder I found the msgFilterRules.dat file in the POP account directory. I copied the file to the IMAP account directory and edited it to change the destination folder names for the IMAP account. All working OK now

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