All Products Community Forum

I have an 8 year old PC that I have been using Thunderbird on its entire life. I have 5 email accounts (from my own website if that matters) on it for personal use that have tons of information.

I bought a new computer and have not been able to move my old data to it. The old computer uses Windows 10 with Thunderbird Version 115.5.2 (32 bit). The new computer uses Windows 11 and I have tried several Thunderbird versions with the current one being 128.12 0esr (32 bit). I have added one of my email accounts to my new computer, but it contains none of my previous data (emails, contacts, directories, etc.), just a bare bones account that only receives new email.

I have repeatedly tried to move my entire source computer setup and data going through all of the described steps including copying the previous Thunderbird folder to a flash drive. I then follow the directions for copying and pasting my source data into the new computer's "roaming" section. It goes through all the steps including asking if I want to overwrite existing files. I have almost 14,000 files and as the process continues, I can see file names being added just as I would expect.

After everything is complete, when I restart Thunderbird, the only access I have is once again to the bare bones new email account. There is no data, nothing at all, from my source computer.

Help please, this has gotten beyond frustrating.

Please indulge this silly question. What possible benefit is there for Mozilla continuing to list this page with the very first, oldest Firefox release at the the top, requiring the user, every time they visit, to scroll to the middle of the page to search out the current latest version instead of having the chronological order from latest to oldest instead?

I have downloaded Thunderbird Android and want to write an email but my address book doesn't seem to work when I start writing into the address ("to") field. How do I connect my address book to Thunderbird?

I wasn't sure whether 'Settings' was the best topic, so if it's not, I apologize.

I'm trying to move my big Thunderbird email environment from Windows 11 to Linux Ubuntu so I can run Tbird on Linux with all my email available.

I've moved the entire database over to Linux to where I want to put it and modified the profile.ini file to point to it, but whenever I start Tbird on Linux, it acts as though there's no profile.

WINDOWS CONFIG:

I put the Tbird database at c:\apk\profiles\thunderbird

This is the location of the profile.ini file

   c:\users\paulkinz\appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles.ini

This is the contents of the profile.ini:

   [InstallD78BF5DD33499EC2]
   Default=c:\apk\profiles\thunderbird
   Locked=1

   [Profile0]
   Name=Default User
   IsRelative=0
   Path=c:\apk\profiles\thunderbird

   [General]
   StartWithLastProfile=1
   Version=2

LINUX CONFIG:

Tbird database located at /home/paulkinz/apk/profiles/thunderbird

location of the profile.ini file: /home/paulkinz/snap/thunderbird/common/.thunderbird/profiles.ini

This is the contents of Linux profiles.ini

   [Profile0]
   Name=default
   IsRelative=0
   Path=/home/paulkinz/apk/profiles/thunderbird
   Default=1

   [General]
   StartWithLastProfile=1
   Version=2

I changed StartWithLastProfile to be 0, but everytime I run Tbird, it doesn't look at where I've put the Tbird database and changes this item to 1.

And a curiosity question - why does it put the Tbird database under some random directory name like 'default.5yr2afk4' or something? What's the value in not putting it in some common place like it does the profile.ini file?

Hello

I have the Thunderbird folder from the Macbook which contains install and profiles ini files and Crash Reports, Profiles and Pending Pings.

I have made several attempts to move all the files and folders over but it doesn't matter whether I move them before I install Thunderbird or after I've installed Thunderbird and before I launch the program but every time I get invited to open a new account; I've even tried opening a new account and then moving the files.

I've searched the Forum and other websites but cannot find anyone reporting or rectifying such a problem.

What am I doing wrong?

Kind regards

Mike

As with millions of people I am forced to abandon my Win 10 computer for a Win 11 one. Since I have been using TB for many years (and before that Eudora) I would like to transfer all of my TB “data” to the new computer. I have copied my profiles to the new computer. The first thing I tried was to replace the new TB profiles with the old ones. Some apparently transferred and some didn’t, like all of the email folders. Could you please give this old man simple instructions on how to transfer TB?

Switch computers from windows 10 to windows 11. I downloaded bookmarks history from windows 10 on an external drive in html.

On new windows 11 computer, I'm trying to configure book marks. Turned off chatbot. Firefox or windows 11 is populating my sidebar with internet history I no longer use? How do I stop this and how do I import my bookmarks? i tried the import , similar to export, but it is not showing up?

Appreciate any help. Brian

I spent a lot of time setting up a bunch of message filters and organizing messages into folders. I had created about twenty filters, and was running them and moving messages, etc.

My computer crashed due to a flaky display card (intermittent, but happens infrequently, so not corrected yet.) The only recovery possible is turn the power off and restart the PC. When I restarted Thunderbird, all my filters were gone. I have pretty good "save your work often" discipline, so I thought I was covered once the filters appear in the "Message filters" dialog. I don't see any option to explicitly "Save Filters", but it is possible I am missing it somehow.

How and when does Thunderbird save these? Is there something I need to explicitly do? Close and reopen the filter window? Exit Thunderbird?

Also related: Can Message Filters be exported and imported?

Running Thunderbird SUPERNOVA 115.10.1 (32-bit) on Windows 7 Professional. I'm seeing an update to 116.0 is offered now.

Thanks for any advice.

Due to problems searching my entire collection of email folders I am about to follow advice found here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/rebuilding-global-database.

The how-to in the cited article is clear and easy to understand, but since I am mucking with my entire email history, and because the re-indexing process is so universal, I want to have a backup plan in case something goes wrong .... a way of getting my Thunderbird resources back to the state they were in before attempting to re-index the resources stored in the TBird globabl database.

Can I just save a copy of my entire Tbird profile before attempting the rebuild ... and restore it if something goes wrong in the rebuild. (Are there resources in, say, .../Library/Application Support that also would need to be backed up?)

For reference: my macos is up-to-date Sequoia, 15.6.1 and Tbird version 142.0

Hi, I use TB 115.18.0 (32-bit) on win 7 machine. In order to transfer it to another computer I tried to copy the profile to a new disk and it failed. An error message stated that "The destination you have specified does not exist". I manually copied the profile folder, and found that the problem occurs when attempting to copy the file (no file type is given. File name is printed bolt) as follows: mozilla profiles>cc739xtg.default>mail>local folders>unsent messages. (1,835,282 KB file) Unsent messages.MSF (6KB file) was copied with no problem. I did not find a way to open unsent messages file to read its content. Unsent messages does not show in my TB folders. As far as I understand there are no unsent messages in my TB accounts. 1. How to overcome the unsent messages file copy problem? 2. Can I try to delete both unsent messages and unsent messages.msf files without damage the profile? 3. How can I open unsent messages file to read its content? Thank you for your assistance. David

I'm trying to import my passwords; what I've read says I will find Logins and Passwords in the menu represented by three bars at the top right of my foxfire sign in page. The problem is I have three dots, not three lines, and nowhere do I see Logins and Passwords, just Passwords, and there's no import data option there. Sorry if this is lame. I'm old and clueless in the world of tech. Also, thanks for any assist.

(Still) Migrating from Windows 10 desktop to Windows 11 Laptop. I exported my profile from the desktop, and checked the version of Tbird it is running. Then I opened the new laptop and had to update that machine to latest version. I know I should have updated the old desktop Before I did the export, so I'll have to go back and export it again, right? But the desktop, now up to date, is running 140.2 and the new laptop is updated to 142.0 both 64 bit. Will I be able to import the profile from the old to the new if the version numbers aren't the same? Both say I have the latest updates. Thank you. Stacy

We been using Thunderbird for over 20 years and used MozBackup while it was supported and used it a few times when something got corrupted. To migrate from one PC to a new PC, we always used the "manual method" described below. As our files are 10.2 GB (mine) and 6.4 GBMB(wife's) in size, that goes like this:

If your profile folder is larger than 2 GB, you need to use your file manager and create a backup copy of your profile folder yourself.

1. To find your profile folder, you can use the Open profile folder link in the first step of the Export tool. You will see the contents of your profile folder in your file manager. The profile folder has a name like abc12defg.default-release. 2. Select and copy the entire content (content only, not the folder) of your profile folder. 3. Create an empty folder where you want to keep your backup, e.g. on a USB flash drive. You can choose a helpful folder name like Thunderbird_profile_backup_2022-06-28. 4. Paste the contents of your profile folder into your empty target folder.

On the larger 10.2 GB filetransfer, after launching TB on the new machine there was a lot of the spinning circle icon appearing / disappearing ... then it just stopped, gave it some time. Rebooted and all was fine with the world. Most accounts were accessible, one was not and I copied that from the desktop open on the same desk.

With the 6.4 GB file transfer to wife's laptop, it did not work ... tried again, no luck.

Tried my 10.2 GB file on wife's laptop and it worked fine. Can't understand why, after each attempt TB was uninstalled and everything TB related was removed from roaming folder. System was rebooted, searched for anything TB related, rebooted, installed TB, closed it, copied folder contents into profile folder on laptop, Rebooted and no go.

It will take the 10.2 GB file but not the 6.4 ... I'm confused.

new to firefox, i just did a blunder. i want to keep firefox separate from chrome. i accidentally had it transfer all chrome history, bookmarks, etc. trying desperately to undo. any help w/b appreciated.

https://messages.google.com/web/authentication

this is supposed to have a QR code, but it does not load. I have attached a still screenshot below.

I also cannot upload images using Firefox to Messenger. The large purple image is a result of an upload, but it should be a picture of a woman saved from Krita.

I tried a setting called "Refresh Firefox" and that fixed it but only for less than a day. whats going on?

I transferred content via a Time machine backup of my old macBookPro (Ventura 13.6) to my new macBookPro (Sequoia 15.6.1). The Thunderbird folder is identical on both computers and contains two profiles: a newer 9389qbc0.defalut-release and an older r13n4n5e.default. The former presumably is active on my old computer and is the one I want to view/use on the new computer. However, the older version appears on my new computer. How do I get Thunderbird on the new computer to recognize and load the newer profile? Thanks much for any assistance!

Thunderbird is working on osx.

Installed and working on windows 11.

Then realised that I could migrate!

Followed this article

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1257585

However there are profiles in both %appdata% and %localdata%

Just copying over the Thunderbird folder from Osx to windows as per

".../AppData/Roaming on Windows, replacing whatever Thunderbird folder that may already exist"

Does not seem to work.

Hi all, I have a new Computer and I'd like to transfer my Thunderbird installation with the complete settings (folders, mails, archives, address-book, ...). Also the calender would be of interest, because I have some settings which I want to keep. Is there any way to do this? I have access to my old computer, so I could export everything there and import that on the new one, but I did not find something to do that. Can you help me? Regards, Gerhard