Thunderbird Community Forum

My desktop win 10 computer system crashed. While the operating system was zapped, the actual c: drive was intact. A new c: drive was installed with win 11 pro but when I connect the old drive to the new system, I am locked out of the user>apps>thunderbird folders ( access denied). Is there a way of overriding this security feature? I was hoping to be able to import my profile with several email addresses and their associated archival data. This is more complicated than I was expecting.

I am running Thunderbird 140.8.1esr on macOS Tahoe 26.3

I created an IMAP account in Thunderbird to replace a POP account

I want to copy the Thunderbird message filters from the POP account to the IMAP account

I read articles on Mozilla Support and these said to copy the msgFilterRules.dat file but I cannot find this file

How can I copy the message filters?

I have a window home computer that was upgraded from w10 to w11. I had to buy a new w11 machine at my vacation home because the old one was not upgradeable. I was successful in moving the profile from home to vacation home. But a month later I corrupted w11 on my new vacation machine while loading my earlier version of Adobe Photoshop from their instilling disk. W11 could not be repaired and I had to reinstall new w11 while keeping my files etc. This time Thunderbird would not let me move/use my old profile file. No mater what I tried!!

In the past, I've always moved the profile file "Thunderbird" in Appdata file to the new machine and renaming the installed Thunderbird file with XXX after it. It always worked in the past. My profile file is over 2mb. I've tried using all of the logical import options in this new instillations and only get error messages that it could not import the data and to look at the error console? Which I don't know where that is located. I will look for it in w11.

I think that the only difference (which I don't think should make a difference) is the directory name file difference after "users"

Any help would be much appreciated!!!!!!!

Jim Flora (Long time Thunderbird user and supporter)

I'm reading this> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-export#thunderbird:linux:tb148 Looks great but all of my messages sit on IMAP servers and I don´t need a backup of those. I _do_ need a backup of settings, passwords, pgp keys, to move to another workstation. It is unclear what exactly is exported.

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've been upgrading from Win 7 and Thunderbird (TB) version 68.1.1 (32 bit) to most recent TB Version 145.0.7632.117 (Official Build) (64-bit) NOTE: From a old Dell Inspiron 580 to Alienware Aurora Act 1250.

With new system and TB, I can export with handy-dandy exporter for TB 145.0.7632.117 but need them off old Windows 7 box. I see that the Legacy Add-on "Password Exporter" doesn't have versions high enough to work with most recent TB. And, I can't find a exporter for the old TB.

I have tried listing them in the old TB, but can't Capy/Paste. I made good quality screen caps and pieced them together in to one list. I was hoping to put the screen cap through a OCR but too costly for just one operation, and won't put it to a Online OCR - not when the image contains such things as ID';s and passwords.

Is there any way the data and passwords can be extracted from the old TB?

Many thanks for your help,

~r

I tried transferring TB to new computer, nothing has worked. w11 TB148. Manually didn't work, tried coping from Troubleshooting Information/profiles. I don't know why there are 2 TB's? Under local and roaming but I tried. The video is out of date. It's a new install of TB so it opens with create account, both computers W11 and TG148! Please somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong? Thanks.

I have a new PC and want to copy my existing filters on to my new PC. I have 116 filters set up and do not want to have to manually add them. I tried exporting my profile from my old PC but it is 38Gb

Hallo, ich habe meine E-Mail-Konten in Thunderbird umgestellt von POP zu IMAP. Meine Filter-Einstellungen waren bisher gültig für "Lokale Ordner" (die Filter musste ich manuell starten) Wie kann ich die Filter-Einstellungen auf den Posteingang meiner IMAP-Konten kopieren/migrieren? Danke, und Grüße aus Berlin

Hello. I have followed the instructions to copy the profile file to a drive and take it to the new computer so my Thunderbird will be the same on both laptops.

BUT I get a message that the profile file is not available. And I searched for the file by name and found nothing!

The actual message is attached.

I need to copy my emails to the new laptop.

I am updating from an old iMac to a new MacMini.

My new macMini does not seem to like my old Thunderbird program so I have downloaded a current version. 

How do I transfer all my old email contacts and old emails to the new platform? I am, in no way, technically savvy so I need simple answers, Many Thanks, John

My hard drive is going to have to be replaced, how do I move everything to a new hard drive. I pay my bills from folders I have added in 'Tbird so it is imperative that I move it all intact AND that I have access to all of it after I do manage to relocate it to a fresh hard drive. Thanks, God bless....Arthur Kelly

I've been using Thunderbird for many years. My current version is 45.2.0. My computer runs Linux Kubuntu 15.10

So yes, it's ten years old and it's showing its age. I have a new box I built, and have Kubuntu 25.04 installed. It installed the then current version of TB. I have yet to set things up, but migrating is a priority now.

Some solutions say (on ubuntu/kubuntu) to just copy the directory "/home/username/.thunderbird/profile.default" from the old to the new box. I would likely do it by zip, rar or ssh transfer.

If I do that, when opening up TB on the new box, does the data get converted? and if so, is it automatic? It seems to me that after then years, the data format would have some changes.

I'd appreciate any insight on this. Thank you.

Hello, I'm getting a new PC next week and I am concerned how to install Thunderbird in the new PC. And is there anything I need to do in the old PC to make the move smooth so it continues to work.

Thank you for your time and efforts ahead of time.

I want to transfer my files from win10 to win11. I tried to use the thumbdrive but my files were too large. I also downloaded the Wave Browser,, but didn't like that. If I cancel my win10 and reinstall Thunderbird on my Win11 will it transfer? I'm looking for an easy method. I'm 83 and not that tech minded?

Hello

I have Thunderbird set up on my Android phone and I’d like to transfer the settings to my desktop (Linux Mint) Thunderbird.

The only export option that I can find on Android produces a .k9s file but I can’t find any way to load that in to Thunderbird desktop (although it worked great going from Android to Android).

There seems to be plenty of Help to go from Desktop to Android but nothing about going the other way.

There’s always the option to enter the IMAP ans SMTP settings manually but, surely, there’s a better way?

Mike

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