The method does work - I've done it many times - and the video in the article mentioned above is accurate, if perhaps a bit too detailed (but it has to be.) Where specifically does the explanation break down for you?

In short, for Windows, you copy the entire AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird folder, which will contain your profile, to a transfer device like a flash drive. Then, copy it from the flash drive to the equivalent location on the new computer. In my experience, it's not necessary to copy the AppData\Local\Thunderbird folder - anything in there will be recreated as needed.

I don't know what you mean by, "the Templates in one account", but it's probably most expedient to just transfer the complete profile to the to new machine and later delete whatever you want.

Hi Victor,

Based on this discussion and your other post at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1574279#answer-1809645

it seems to me that you must still be copying just the profile folder. As the instructions on the help page say and as Lin says, you should copy the whole Thunderbird folder, not just a profile.

This process copies everything in Thunderbird. Do you want to copy everything or just templates from one account?

Hi. I wish to copy just the template FOLDER in ONE account. I do not need the thousands of emails in all the old accounts because the new computer will start its email from scratch. My attempts were to copy the whole AppData>Roaming>thunderbird account to the external drive but the instructions for the destination computer said to paste the Profile folder 2. Right-click on the copy of the Thunderbird profile folder that you created on the transfer device, then select Copy. So, I did not originally in the first source computer copy a Profile folder. What I copied was a thunderbird folder. When the instructions then ask me to find a profile folder then I lose what the instructions intentions are because profile folders are nested inside a mother Profile folder. So, I ran several copy and pastes trying to cover all the options I was left with. None on my options worked. Now, here, you say to copy and past the whole \Roaming\thunderbird\ folder. But now I have multiple child profile folders in the path structure that do not work. Further, I do not want to lose the new computer's new thunderbird account structure because I spent a lot of time getting that new structure the way I want it to look and function. My old computer has 7 thunderbird accounts with over 6,000 emails (I think some 13 GB of data that I do not need). All I need is the Template folder in one account with the dozen or so template files it it.

So, now I will save my old \roaming\thunderbird\ folder with a temporary name so that I can preserve that new Thunderbird account structure, and then I will paste the copied \thunderbird\ folder into that \Roaming\ folder. That will place 13 GB of data that I will have to delete and then rebuild the new email account structure again. Actually that is fairly easy as the Account settings are all the same for each computer. I think my problem with so many emails was that I am using Thunderbird sub folders to store old emails for referral in the future if need be. I will now try to do that storage onto an external hard drive as I am unsure just how long I will have to save these files for. In the past I needed to save for 6 years. That may change for this new Wellness model though.

If it is just one folder, you may do better by exiting thunderbird and locating the specific folder within the profile. If unsure, please post a screenshot of the profile folder where the template folder resides.

Complicating all this, I have made several Email filters to simplify my email storage. I would like to copy those Filters as well to their respective accounts.

re David Post 11:14 am today. I have already tried to copy and paste just an account template folder but it never shows up in the Thunderbird account when I re load thunderbird. I have not yet tried to copy just the Message Filter folder as I don't yet know where to locate that.

Is this template folder in an IMAP account, a POP account, or local folders? With more detail, I think we may be able to assist.

The template folder is in one account on the old computer, and all my email accounts are POP accounts.

I am not sure what you mean by or local folders I created the template folder nested inside one of my accounts. I created a dozen or so Message filters for that same account. HOWEVER, that account crashed a years or so ago when windows updated and Thunderbird updated. Consequently, I remade all the accounts and remade a new account for that crashed one.

My emails in the crashed account are still accessible, as are a few thousand emails in sub folder storage folders. And the templates are accessible and the Message Filters are accessible. My needs are to save time by copying only the dozen template files (inside a template folder of the crashed account) and copying the Message Filters for that same crashed account.

Accomplishing that will save me days of time.

You should be able to copy the templates just by dragging them from the Thunderbird application (not the file system) to your desktop and then dragging them from the desktop into the templates folder of the destination account in the Thunderbird application (not the file system).

David knows more about filter files than I do.

I should also say that at the time of the crash, I am not sure if it was my computer storage that ran out or my RAM that was too small, but at the time of the crash I did not have access to all those folders. I had access only to a backup sub folder in that crashed account. Oh, recently a month or two ago I updated the computer to a 1T internal drive and updated the RAM but ended up not with what I wanted because this old laptop (about 18 months old) cannot remove each of the two 4 GB RAM devices, only one I was told so, I have only 12 GB of RAM now instead of the 16 that I wanted. Before, I had just 8GB of RAM.

Then after making the new account and getting that working and updating the computer, for some unknown reason the Inbox appeared again and the Sent folder etc. in the crashed account. I keep the two accounts so that I keep the data which I am obligated to keep until July 2031. So, now I have access to the Templates and Message Filters again.

Ok Rick, but the templates and message filters are on a Laptop computer (source) and the destination for them is a Tower computer. Thus, I am assuming I can copy to an external hard drive on the laptop and then place that external drive into the Tower and copy into the Thunderbird account there.

Ok Rick, but the templates and message filters are on a Laptop computer (source) and the destination for them is a Tower computer. Thus, I am assuming I can copy to an external hard drive on the laptop and then place that external drive into the Tower and copy into the Thunderbird account there.

Yes.

Ok I'll try that. I have already tried with a template .msf file and that did not work.

.msf files don't hold messages. You could accomplish what you want by copying the templates file that does not have an extension as long as you want to write over the templates in your destination account.

Ah, OK, this has been very helpful. I have the template files all in a new account on the tower computer now. Very nice. Thank you very much for that.

Now about the Message Filter files. They would not copy and paste. Is there another way to get to those filters?

Filter files are just files so they should copy

I tried dragging and dropping the Filter files but that did not work as they would not copy. So, might you know how I might locate the path to the filter files via Windows explorer?

I was in the Message Filters folder for the Account with my filters. So I am thinking I should hunt for the path in the Windows Users> direction.

I was unable to find any files or folders in my profile for Filters or message filters.