Thunderbird Community Forum

So, I recently got rid of Spectrum as my internet & email provider. I have used the Archive function to archive all the emails from that account but still need to be able to access them after I remove the spectrum email account from Thunderbird. Does Archiving the emails keep them accessible or do I need to so something else. Further info, all of my emails are downloaded to thunderbird and not kept on the server, so they are physically on my computer inside thunderbird program

Hi. Please could you guide me through moving my email messages from a POP3 account on one Mac to another? I have an old iMac (late 2015, Monterey) that I am tearing down for parts, but this has been my main Thunderbird computer. It is running the latest version of Thunderbird (153.0.2), as I updated it to do the Export. I am trying to move my email accounts onto my M1 Macbook Pro. When I first installed Thunderbird on the Macbook I was delighted to see that my data and settings for the IMAP accounts had somehow miraculously (to me!) migrated. But I have a POP3 account which has only partially moved across. It seems to be receiving new emails, but all the Inbox history is missing, and other folders such as Drafts and Sent are not there either, I just have Inbox, Spam and Deleted. I have tried your Export/Import method twice, but to no avail. In the expanded profile on my USB stick I can see Mail>mail.oddplanetstudios.co.uk which looks like it might contain all the files and messages. Now I want to move them across into Thunderbird, but I don't know what the steps are to do this. I would be very grateful if you could lead me through this, if it is indeed what I need to do, or give me some directions to do it differently. Many thanks.

Old PC died and will not start up. I bought a new PC and was able to recover most file in the initiating the new desktop. I installed Mozilla Thunderbird on the new PC, but when I opened it only 55 EMAILS were available with the oldest being about 2 weeks old dating back to July 16, 2026. Is there a time limit for maintaining EMAILS online? Also, all of my contacts and Calendar events are not available.

I had created several folders to save important EMAILS and none of those sub-folders are visible to me. How do I get to those folders and EMAILS? Contacts and calendar are not as important, but they were used all of the time to communicate and stay on schedule

I tried to import using the tool provided, but received the following message: Import failed unexpectedly, more information may be available in the error console.

I have lots of important information that I can't access!

Help

I have 3 computers. Two are running Windows, and one is running Linux. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Linux Mint has Thunderbird built in. I keep the two Windows computers in sync with a file compare program, "Beyond Compare" Are my local folders compatible between the two operating systems so I can sync my Linux Thunderbird local folders with the ones I have stored in Windows Thunderbird local files?

Are txt files stored the same in both NTFS and ext4 systems?

I'm changing email servers and need the best way to automatically backup my complete(multiple domains and user accounts) emails in thunderbird to a separate drive or local machine before changing servers. I would prefer an automated way to do this so I can continue to update backup file routinely

I already back up my profile regularly to a remote drive

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to access some old emails which I know were stored on a laptop running Ubuntu 20.04. The laptop was wiped years ago but I have restored the data from a backup in October 2023 or thereabouts.

When I try to open Thunderbird it throws up a dialogue saying 'You have launched an older version of Thunderbird' suggesting I need to re-create my accounts. I just need to access the emails from the restored data and I'm worried if I connect to the mail server that my settings might just erase the emails all over again.

What should I do?

Thanks in advance. Any help would be gratefully received.

The Windows 10 PC crashed after an update, but I have command line access. I copied the profile folder from the Thunderbird installation to a USB drive, but can't find a way to move the subfolders (like 'name' and 'name.msf') to an existing installation on the new PC.

Is there a way to import these into the new installation?

Essentially, I’m wondering if thunderbird can be used to store old emails on a hard drive. I am wondering because I would like to be able to access them without the ability to use the internet because it would be on an old computer with no WiFi card or Ethernet capabilities. I would like to be able to store all of these emails with as little connected to the internet as possible.

Hi, I had/have an IMAP account at my ISP Host, with TB connecting to.

There has been a number of occasions where I have used the Servers IMAP copy of emails as a back up, and from memory am sure that when connecting a fresh client, all emails/folders etc updated and down loaded from the server > client, in fact nothing got deleted on either side, and both sides synced.

My host (Fasthosts - I will name and shame) deleted my whole IMAP account by mistake.

They hastily re-instated just the package but all the emails had been wiped from the server.

I did though have a full copy of all emails on my TB IMAP client.

When I reconnected my client to the server after the re-instatement, i expected my clients emails to upload to the server, but instead they 'vanished' - and I have nothing but empty folders.

Am I able to recover any of these emails from my client, ie are they sitting in a file/folder still ??

TB has restarted a number of times since, and I fear the folder may have been compacted, but I cannot be sure.

Thoughts appreciated.

I use Thunderbird as a POP server and keep some historic read emails in my inbox as well as archiving others to local folders. I am moving to a new windows 11 computer from an old windows 8 computer. So I exported my Thunderbird profile on the old computer, copied it across to the new computer, installed Thunderbird on it, then imported the profile. All my local folders are there with their historic emails, but there are no read emails in the inbox, only the unread ones ?? Be grateful for any explanation of why this is and how I get them back. thanks Martyn Jones

Put up a message regarding support to resolve issue with Thunderbird this morning. Cannot see the message or if any answers? Query was ref downloading email & history to Thunderbird while moving to another server provider (Gandi) and all history now missing.

Migrating from a Win 10 laptop to a Win 11 laptop. Need to move the local folders as well but they were assigned a different ID and I can't change the target address in the new installation. Thanks in advance for your help. Rick.

I have installed Thunderbird in my new computer and moved the entire contents, accounts, etc. from the old one to the new one. Alas the Local Folders did not follow. Therefore to move my Local Folders from Thunderbird in one computer to another I have followed the following procedure:

On the old computer, go to Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Folder and click Open Folder.Exit Thunderbird.Open the Mail folder, then enter the Local Folders directory.Locate the large files without extensions (e.g., Inbox, Archive) and any corresponding folders ending in .sbd.Copy these files to your USB drive.

I do not know where I should put these folders in my new computer so that they will appear under Local Folders in my new computer.

I have downloaded the latest version of Thunderbird. The old computer uses Windows 10 and the new Windows 11. I have put the folders on the desktop of my new computer pending the reply to where I should put them so that they appear in Local Folders.

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, I'm running unsupported Win 7

And yes, I could not find anything in the "help" system that related.

I maintain a Hotmail account and copy traffic to my local system. Upon reboot Thunderbird shows some files from 2024 and no local folders where I stored all my re-directed traffic.

I've run some system / disk checks and no obvious problems.

Any thoughts besides upgrading to current OS etc? Is there a Thunderbird backup solution to move files away from the active drive to protect them?

Hi, I accidentally deleted all my emails on my desktop. I was in Account Settings and pressed the red "Delete" button that appears next to the account name on the screen. I was trying to reset the email account settings but when i pressed delete, the mail account and all my old messages were deleted from my desktop.

I do see a file in the folder in User/appdata/roaming/thunderbird/profiles.../mail/mail.server.co.za that says "Inbox" and I THINK that might be my old emails but I can't seem to get Thunderbird to open the file. I've tried using ImportExportNG but it still won't open that file.

Is there a way to recover my old emails without having to take my computer to a specialist?

Appreciate any help. Hani

Hi, I am Div, and I have a large number of EML files which I want to send to Thunderbird. Can anyone tell me the best ways?? I know the manual method, but it didn't work out for me because I want my files to be imported safely in bulk, as it is my daily work. I want a reliable solution. Will be really thankful if someone suggests a safe and quick solution.

This morning I noticed that all emails prior to May 1 were missing from folders that I created. I assumed (incorrectly) that they were in the sbd file that I backed up in April. So I moved that file into the proper destination location but nothing popped up. I then restored the old sbd file back and now I don't even see any the the folders that I created. Note: when I click on the sbd file I do see the folders but they don't appear under Local Folders I've googled and used AI....no luck

I’ve set up a new email service type, IMAP, to take the place of my old POP email. The POP email doesn’t have a synchronization and storage feature, so I’m wondering: First, how can I combine the old POP emails with the new IMAP address; and second, how do I transfer DRAFTS and SENT EMAILS from the old to the new one?