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Move Thunderbird 32 profile to new computer with Thunderbird 64

Thunderbird Import and export email
david replied
asc69
asc69

I am moving my Thunderbird (32 bit) data from an old Win 7 computer to Linux Mint on a new machine with Thunderbird 64 bit. I have followed all the advice to copy the old computer profile to the profile folder in Mint, but nothing appears in Thunderbird. My pop3 email server has 2-factor authentication; I can set this up and access or send new emails, but I can't import all my old email folders. The old Thunderbird is version 115.18.0 (32 bit) and says it is "up to date on esr update channel" The Mint Thunderbird is 140.0.6 esr (64 bit) and was recently installed with Mint.

As these versions are 32 bit and 64 bit respectively, I don't see how I can make them the same version, as recommended for transferring profiles.

How can I make this work?

I am moving my Thunderbird (32 bit) data from an old Win 7 computer to Linux Mint on a new machine with Thunderbird 64 bit. I have followed all the advice to copy the old computer profile to the profile folder in Mint, but nothing appears in Thunderbird. My pop3 email server has 2-factor authentication; I can set this up and access or send new emails, but I can't import all my old email folders. The old Thunderbird is version 115.18.0 (32 bit) and says it is "up to date on esr update channel" The Mint Thunderbird is 140.0.6 esr (64 bit) and was recently installed with Mint. As these versions are 32 bit and 64 bit respectively, I don't see how I can make them the same version, as recommended for transferring profiles. How can I make this work?

All Replies (3)

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor

These steps should work if thunderbird is installed in same location on the new PC:

  1. start thunderbird on old PC
  2. click help>troubleshootinginformation
  3. scroll to 'profile folder' and click 'open folder'
  4. exit thunderbird - you should now be in the profile folder. You can verify that by looking to see if abook.sqlite is there.
  5. copy profile content to external media
  6. install thunderbird on new pc, downloaded from thunderbird.net
  7. start thunderbird
  8. click help>troubleshootinginformation
  9. scroll to 'profile folder' and click 'open folder'
  10. exit thunderbird
  11. delete everthing there
  12. now, paste contents of exported profile
  13. if there is a compatibility.ini file, delete it
  14. restart thunderbird
asc69
asc69 Mai mallakar tambaya

Hi David, thanks for the quick reply. When you say "if thunderbird is installed in same location on the new PC",

Bearing in mind that the new PC is Linux, the old one is Windows, the folder structures will not be the same - so is this an issue?

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor

I would try. I do not know for sure, but I think this will work. Please try and let me know. Doing it this way should bypass the normal file structures.

Yi tambaya

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