Thunderbird Community Forum

My os crashed. I have been a t.bird user for years. Luckilly took a backup file .thunderbird on flashdrive very recntly. new zorin loaded and comes with t.bird installed. i have no password. i have not yet done anything and ask for step by step help i have opened t.bird abd it asks for email and password. i did not enter anything

Hi, i copied my Thunderbird (windows 10 Prof)) to a new Notebook (windows 11 Prof) by overrighting the Standard-Profilfolders (in ROAMING and LOCAL) of the new Installation with the Folders of the old Installation (both are Version 146.0.1 but old is 32-Bit and new is 64-Bit) I use more than 2 accounts, and in some accounts, I created subfolders in the 'In' folder to preselect the emails by rules after they arrive Result is: alls Subfolders are missing and some accounts' 'In' Folder are empty. The Account settings seems to be corrct, means i can load new EMails even if the IN-Folder is empty. But i miss the exosting EMails there and the Subfolders content.

I just installed Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS to an old computer and I want to export my profiles and contacts from my other Windows computer Thunderbird, over to the new Linux version of Thunderbird. I suppose the other option is to re-import from Gmail contacts. Please advise. As others migrate from Windows to Linux this could be a common question.

I've been using Thunderbird for years under windows 7 and keep my data on a separate drive. Is it possible to migrate or move the whole program and data base into Linux at a later date? I haven't used Linux yet, but need to know if it's possible to successfully make the move before I jump. Thank you.

I didn't find anything quite like this in the forums.

I have a new windows 11 laptop. Transferring from a windows 10 laptop. I have installed Thunderbird on new machine. It is also my email on old machine. I have clicked on import within Thunderbird. The instruction is to go to C:/Users/myusername/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/b4553kng.default NB I can't find backslash on my keyboard, so I'm using / When I look in myusername, there is no folder called AppData There is a folder called Roaming, but it just has folders Intel/Wireless, which is empty. In C: Program Files, there is a folder called Mozilla Thunderbird, but it has no folder called Profiles. I have seached C: for any folder called AppData, but no results. Can anyone help?

I've saved my thunderbird data from Win10 computer following the instructions but when I copy the file to the new computer win11 it doesn't seem to work I'm not sure whats happening. The process I followed is install thunderbird, go to help menu, trouble shooting , open file (profile), close thunderbird, go up 3 levels to roaming, then paste the copied file in the thunderbird file and close. then open thunderbird. It still wants me to set my account up and there is no data. Is there something I'm missing. Thanks for any help in advance. Cheers Stuart

Have TB on my laptop (146.0.1 (64-bit) on Win11) all set up the way I want it. Would like to "clone" those settings/profiles to my desktop. AI site said, "Copy profiles folder and profiles.ini to the new machine." Didn't work. Asking me to set up from scratch. Laptop is on "standard" edition, think desktop is on beta. Is that the problem? What do I need to do?

Any user views on Betterbird over TB. The developer has done a great job and has one thing I do like and that is the ability to colour the highlighted email account rather than just the envelope icon. Experiences are appreciated so I can make the informed decision on which to use. Should I decide to use it how does one just port TB and its settings over to Betterbird.?

Thanks for views.

TB has now locked for me saying "Downloading message 158 of 289 in Inbox..." However, that is just the latest of TB behaving bizarrely over the last few days: filters not working, TB repeatedly re-downloading whole folders and now this is the last straw. Same sort of short pause then total lockup in troubleshoot mode too.

I have to have an Emailer I am not constantly fighting and debugging. My sense now is that the main database structures of my TB have somehow been corrupted.

I think this may go back to [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/que.../1541906]. That problem transferred to a different folder when I changed my filter to redirect the routine messages to that different filter so it wasn't the folder, I didn't have time to sleuth it further and as it only affected those messages, which were not important, I ignored it and TB worked fine for other things. Then it even stopped happening with new ones of those messages but still if I opened one of the old ones, TB would lock. Again, I didn't really need the old ones so I ignored this.

Disconcertingly, Firefox, my main browser, has today become afflicted with something similar: launches, OK for about a minute, then locks, no different in troubleshoot. I will report that and come back and add the link here but perhaps some mix of Mozilla and KDE and or Ubuntu recent changes are behind this but the TB problem above was there on Ubuntu and has been brewing all week so a shared Firefox/TB issue is not the whole story.

I am not sure how much longer I can persist with TB given the frequency with which I have had really nasty problems with it in recent years. However, I feel a loyalty (I am a financial contributor) and I know that rebuilding my filters in another Emailer will take probably a full day (and I don't know what I'd swap to, using Kmail/Kontact for now so I'm not Emailless). So I would like to have one last go and my wish is to create a clean install and then I hope, rescue my address books and filters from the dying version and see if one last go can resuscitate things. So my questions, as I think the correct answers to this have varied a lot over recent years. I would like answers known to work for TB is 140.5.0esr (64 bit) on Kubuntu 25.10 if possible but Ubuntu 25.10 is obviously close.

• How do I best save and transfer the address books?
• Ditto all my filters (a lot!)

TIA, Chris

I have a Windows 10 machine, have been using Thunderbird and pobox for years.

In case you're not familiar with pobox, it is a mail forwarding service; I pay for an email address and they forward email to up to three servers. I've thereby kept the same email address for a very long time, just changed the address(es) they forward to as I change ISPs, etc. At some point I quit using my ISPs server for my email and just used the one at pobox.com. Pobox was purchased by Fastmail, and so they have some new server names; my old ones have continued to work on my current system.

I use POP3 instead of IMAP because I want the email on my machine, not on a server somewhere. I configured Thunderbird to do this long ago, and so I don't remember details; I've been depending on being able to extract any needed information from its configuration. I am confident I have the password correct; I can log into the web interface to my email, and the password works there.

My new machine is a dual-boot Win11/Ubuntu; my plan is to use the Ubuntu machine almost exclusively and only boot Win11 when necessary. I want to move email operations to the new Ubuntu machine.

I've read info on moving Thunderbird; I find the profiles on the source machine, move up two directory levels, find the equivalent directory on the new machine, copy with replace. I found:

c:\Users\name\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

on the Win10 machine, and

Home/snap/thunderbird/common/.thunderbird

on the Ubuntu machine, so I copied the files from the first to the second.

Having done that, when I start up Thunderbird, it displays a page saying "Set up your existing email address". If I do that, of course, it will create a new profile, and I still won't have the old one. I've tried creating it manually, but (a) I don't know how I will then merge it with an old profile and my thousands of email messages, and (b) I'm having trouble figuring out the incoming and outgoing server settings. I remember struggling with that back on Win7 or whenever it was.

Anyway. Anyone got suggestions on what might be going wrong here?

I bought a Windows 11 computer that I am transitioning from a Windows 10 computer. I like to start out with a clean slate and install from scratch. I exported my feeds into a.oplm file from the Windows 10 Computer. Opening up the .oplm file is see text as "xmlUrl="https://feed.podbean.com/potcast name/feed.xml". Is that the url entry that I used to enter in the URL for the feed if I manually subscribe to a Thunderbird RSS feed?

Hello,

We ARE on version 145.

I spend an ENTIRE DAY following this information, especially that section regarding to "alternative method for manual transfer between Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers"

[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-com...]

IT DOES NOT WORK! I may not be doing something (I could not find it), but in this consideration, I'm wondering WHY it's left there? Does it work for 144. Can I FIND 144?

Thanks, Lizzie's mum

An alternative method for manual transfer between Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers

This section assumes you have a default Windows installation and will work on computers upgraded to Windows 10 from previous Windows versions.

   Locate the master profile folder on the source computer as above.
   Locate the master profile folder on the destination computer as above.
   Note out of interest that your username (indicated by ~ below) on the two computers might be different due to legacy issues, but it will make no difference with a manual transfer as below.
   Close Thunderbird in both computers.
   On the source computer, copy the Thunderbird folders in both Windows(C:)/Users/~/AppData/Roaming and Windows(C:)/Users/~/AppData/Local to your transfer media, in separate folders so you do not overwrite them.
   On the destination computer, remove (or rename if you need a data backup or to preserve an old profile) any Thunderbird folders in the destination folders Windows(C:)/Users/~/AppData/Roaming and Windows(C:)/Users/~/AppData/Local directories.
   Copy from your transfer media the correct Thunderbird folders into the two folders above to replace the ones you have removed or renamed.
   Restart Thunderbird on the destination computer and test it, noting that your inbox tab should be identical to source, but that other tabs may have opened with Thunderbird messages.

Hello, When I first built this Linux Mint laptop I just grabbed the first Thunderbird install I saw, never realizing it would never update, now understaning how this works I want to install the flatpack version so I can be up to date. what is the best way to attack this, can I just install the flatpack and it will capture all my mailbox settings or do I need to start from scratch?

Thanks in advance Guy

Hello I have Thunderbird on my Laptop. When I try to install it on my PC I got the message: server not found. I use the same parameters than the ones on my laptop. Can I synchronize these parameters on my PC? Regards Gabriel

I wish to move my Thunderbird and lightning application, including all filters and old emails, to a new computer. In the old versions that I used to use, this was as easy as copy and paste, but that seems to not be the case with version 140, so I have to bother you with a request for help.

I am running LinuxMint Mate 22.2.

I followed the directions in one of your articles and found myself at the Troubleshooting page, Profile Directory entry. I clicked the Open Directory button next to it as instructed, but nothing happens. So, since your instructions said that that action would just take me to a .Thunderbird directory anyway, I attempted to search for that with hidden files turned off. But no joy their, either.

Can you let me in on a secret, like what is the path is to this hidden folder, rather than having me use your mystery button? Then I can just move the files myself, if that is indeed the solution.

Thank you for your assistance.

I am trying to upgrade from 128 esr version to the new 139 version. I tried several ways to transfer data from the old version to the new version - I tried to export and import a the Thunderbird zip file. I also tried to open profile manager and creating a new profile that refers to a copy from my old version. Nothing has worked. In the old Thunderbird 128 version, if I select Help and Troubleshooting Information and then Open Folder next to the Profile Folder I get an error in Thunderbird that it can’t find my profile. I get the same error message when I go to Tools, export and select "open profile folder." This in spite of the fact that the old version continues to correctly display my contacts, tasks and events

After several hours of this, I finally decided to download version 139 using the standard Mozilla set up even though my Thunderbird 128 version is located someplace else. So, at this time I have two working versions of thunderbird on my computer – the old 128 version with all my data and the new 139 version with no data.

I think I need help figuring out which Profile has my contact, calendar and task data. Then I need help getting it to the new version.

Thanks

Luke