All Products Community Forum

Hi, Just got computer back from shop where - rather than upgrade - they did a clean install of Win11. I was under the impression from them they'd backup everything on a new "backup" drive they installed to double my capacity as part of the upgrade process.

They're version of backing up Thunderbird left me with a folder "Thunderbird_profile_backup.zip" that is 9,698,657kb in size.

I am attempting to install Thunderbird on the essentially new computer and restore all data from the previous installation.

Is this even possible anymore at this point?

I have data in that file that is important not only financially but archived family info from now deceased members... I'd really like to recover it.

In short help! lol.

Mark

My thanks again to sfhowes, Rick and others for assisting me to get back my ability to once again send e-mails from Thunderbird. Now for the next step.

Just days ago, I migrated my years of Thunderbird e-mails on a POP protocol to IMAP. Before doing so and before also uninstalling my old Thunderbird because of e-mail sending problems and then reinstalling a new version, I saved a profile. Now with the most current version of Thunderbird, I lost (i)a decades worth of saved inbox e-mails (but for the last 2 years), (ii)I lost all of my sent e-mails but a few odd ones, (iii)I lost my archived e-mails in Local Folders and (iv) I lost all of my contacts and saved group e-mail address lists.

My profile is saved on an external hard drive. Obviously the new installed version of Thunderbird must have somehow found the last 2 years of my inbox e-mails but nothing beyond that as mentioned above. Can you share please a recommended procedure where I can better import what I assume I saved correct on the profile I saved twice (I saved a master folder named Profile and separately saved 4 folders - 2 folders ending in default and 2 ending in default-release. Thank you.

I cannot find anywhere on my Firefox browser where I can export my personal bookmarks to another browser (Duck, Duck go). I do not like the most recent Firefox update, changing my everything Firefox!

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 am on Thunderbird Flatpack version 115.5.1 and I want to transfer to Thunderbird for Android, how do I do that, please? I am running on Chromebook using the Linux partition. I have exported the profile to a zip file, but Thunderbird for Android won't read it. The zip file is 2.5GB so maybe it is too big. But I am not adept at Linux and I can't find my way to the profile files for a manual copy. When I go into Troubleshooting Information the Profile Directory - Open Directory button does nothing. Alonside it it says "(Lolcal drive)". Maybe I should upograde Thunderbird first, but how do I do that, please?

I copied my home page from my old installation to another (new computer) - yadda.htm

I found out that the bookmarks toolbar is Installation Specific (boo) and that the export/import process on Firefox for the toolbar (according to Google) is hidden, convoluted. and a complete enigma (to me - can't be easy for anybody, really)

Could you please tell me how I can add to my new bookmarks toolbar from my old browser/installation without having to recreate them from scratch at my new installation?

Thank you.

I have a huge and vital archive of past emails in Thunderbird on my old Windows 10 PC. The hard drive containing the Thunderbird profile has now failed and I can't access its contents. I have a new Windows 11 PC and have installed Thunderbird on it. I thought I had backed up my Thunderbird profile on an external drive, so have copied this backup onto the new PC, and have tried to use Thunderbird's Import function, but I get an error message each time, saying 'import failed unexpectedly'. The backup I'm using was saved using a data backup program called Bvckup2 and consists of folders called '$Archive', 'Cache2', 'Safebrowsing' and 'StartupCache'. Am I doing something wrong? Is it possible I've been backing up the wrong thing? Am I going to have to send the failed hard drive to a data recovery specialist and hope that they can access it?

I am trying to setup Thunderbird on a new Windows 11 PC. My current PC is running Windows 10. I am thoroughly frustrated to the point where I might just switch to Outlook!

First some basic parameters.

On a "techie" skill level I am about a 3 on a scale of 10. I have been a Thurderbird user for a long time, 15+ years. The Thunderbird version on the Windows 10 PC is 140.3.1esr(32-bit) The Thurderbird version on the Windows 11 PC is 143.0.0(64-bit) I managed to stumble through a Thunderbird migration change 6 years ago when I purchased my current Windows 10 PC.

Here are the issues I am having.

1. I do not know how to locate and transfer to the new PC all of my contacts. 2. I do not know how to locate and transfer the sent mail history. 3. The Windows 11 PC version is not synchronizing with the mail server (Comcast.net). When I read, delete, or move an email it is still showing as unread on my other devices. (The Windows 10 PC, iPad, iPhone) Conversely, if I read an email on one of the other devices, it still shows as unread on the Window 11 PC. 4. The is no Junk mail showing in the Junk folder on the Windows 11 PC, but junk mail will show in the Junk folder on the Windows 10 PC. I clean the Junk folder regularly. However, the junk mail is being filter out on the Windows 11 PC because it is not showing in the Inbox. 5. (Somewhat minor) On the Windows 11 machine the preview panel is on the right. On the Windows 10 machine the preview panel on the bottom. I prefer the bottom. I don't see in settings were to change this.

What I have done so far: 1. I compared setting for setting from the old PC to the new PC. I noticed in the new Windows 11 version there is no settings called "Message Synchronizing". 2. I was able to locate the file that contained all of my local files. I copied it to the new PC and directed Thurderbird to use this file. Works fine. 3. I have read the Help instructions for "How do I find my profile", "Moving a profile", Backing up a profile", Restoring a profile backup", Method using a transfer device", and "An alternative method for manual transfer between Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers".

As state above, my skill level is about a 3. When I start dealing with hidden files I am getting beyond my skill level.

My questions are: 1. Since Thunderbird seems to be setup and running, although not how I like, is it necessary to do the transfers described in the Help articles. Would I be over writing the manual setup I have completed when I compared the setup pages from the old and new PCs? 2. Can the files name for where the contacts are store be provided so I can manually copy over? I would think this would not be a hidden file. 3. How do I get the Windows 11 version to synchronize with the Comcast mail server? If the synchronizing occurs, will I get all of the "Sent" history or is this in a file that needs to be copied. FYI, the emails I sent from the Windows 11 PC has synchronized to the Windows 10 PC. 4. What are the settings for the Junk mail. The settings on the Windows 10 PC and the Windows 11 PC are the same. 5. Last but not least, how do I get the preview pane on the bottom. :-)

Thanks, and HELP!

Mike Jacks

I have just downloaded the browser to both my iPad and iPhone 17. I do not have a desktop computer. I am trying to get my bookmarks from safari to populate into Mozilla on both my iPad and iPhone. How can I make this happen please?

Thanks

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

I've usede Safari for years, but want to try Firefox. I've tried to import data, bookmarks and so from safari, but can't do it. Firefox says: Select the Safari file. But which one? And where do I find it? I've find the app Safari – but there's a lot of files underneath it.

You listed some processes for importing Bookmarks,folders and files from a laptop with Google Chrome Bookmarks with passwords from CSV files or Bookmarks from HTML files. I didn't have my printer installed on my new Linux Mint Firefox Laptop so I couldn't print out the instruction to follow. Hopefully, I now have my Canon Printer installed on my Linux laptop so that I can print out all the instructions in detail. The information was posted to the right of this comment box. Please post the information again so that I can print it for reference and to follow. Thanks very much.

                                             Robb Paterson Eckner