Without viewing your screen it is impossible to know where you made the error. You may have dropped the old profile folder anywhere: Directly into Roaming, into Thunderbird, into Profiles. ..... Please show us screen shots with the contents of the folders Thunderbird and Profiles on the new PC. Also post a screen shot with the contents of the profiles.ini file which you'll find in the Thunderbird folder.

Thunderbird folder on new PC: https://assets-prod.sumo.prod.webservices.mozgcp.net/media/uploads/images/2025-07-05-07-17-12-bb0963.png https://assets-prod.sumo.prod.webservices.mozgcp.net/media/uploads/images/2025-07-05-07-17-48-aaea7e.png

Notice that there is no profiles.ini file in this folder

Profiles folder on new PC: https://assets-prod.sumo.prod.webservices.mozgcp.net/media/uploads/images/2025-07-05-07-22-24-6b8fa0.png

https://assets-prod.sumo.prod.webservices.mozgcp.net/media/uploads/images/2025-07-05-07-22-32-72e3f7.png

Thank you for the prompt Reply The contents of the Thunderbird folder on the new PC: https://assets-prod.sumo.prod.webservices.mozgcp.net/media/uploads/images/2025-07-05-08-11-45-bb0963.png https://assets-prod.sumo.prod.webservices.mozgcp.net/media/uploads/images/2025-07-05-08-11-53-aaea7e.png

The contents of the profiles folder on the new PC: https://assets-prod.sumo.prod.webservices.mozgcp.net/media/uploads/imaghttps://assets-prod.sumo.prod.webservices.mozgcp.net/media/uploads/images/2025-07-05-08-12-05-72e3f7.pnges/2025-07-05-08-12-00-6b8fa0.png

Lastly, you've asked for the contents of the profiles.ini folder. I don't see a file with this name in the first or second screenshots above. More info on its location, please.

Thank you! We don't need the screen shots of the "Mozilla Thunderbird" program files (the two images on the left) The two images on the right show the contents of your newly created profile folder "uf56a7gd.default-release". We can see that this is pristine profile since the prefs.js file has a size of only 6 kB and the profile contains no directory "Mail" neither "Imapmail".

But what makes my eyebrows raise is a folder with the strange name "zs6jybkq". It furiously sounds like a profile folder name. Please open this folder; if it is empty forget it. If it contains folders and files please show them in a screen shot. I had asked for the contents of the folder "Profiles" and the file "profiles.ini". You'll find them both in ....\AppData\Roaming\thunderbird\. ... (see my picture, it is taken on a Mac but the contents of "thunderbird' are the same) If you see a profiles file instead of a profiles.ini file , that means that your system doesn't display file extensions.

Thanks for your patience. zs6jybkq is my Thunderbird profile from my old computer that I saved to an external HDD. I can send you a three-page screenshot if you wish. Most likely this profile is in this folder from one of my earlier failed attempts to move Thunderbird to my new PC.

First image below is the Roaming folder. Next image is contents of profiles folder. The rl7m7y4f.default folder contains only a 1KB file named times.json. The other folder you've previously mentioned: uf56a7gd.default-release is not 6KB, but rather quite large, as shown in the next two images.

Last image is profiles.ini

Sorry. profiles.ini is below.

Thanks again for your screen shots. So - as I suspected - you dropped the profile folder copy from the old PC directly in the thunderbird directory on the new PC where TB couldn't recognise it. We'll try to repair this as follows: • move the zs6jybkq (old profile) folder to the folder Profiles and rename it in zs6jybkq.default-release • open the Thunderbird profile manager as described in this SUMO article https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-thunderbird-profiles#thunderbird:win11:tb128 • in the profile manager window choose "Create profile ...", in the Profile Wizard enter the new profile name, then click "Choose Folder..." and navigate to folder zs6jybkq.default-release in Profiles • select zs6jybkq.default-release, click "Open" and in "Conclusion" click 'Done" You should see your old accounts, messages, address books, ....etc

I am stuck at your last bullet point above. When I select zs.... and click "Open", the contents of that folder are shown. There is no "Conclusion" option.

OK, let's try again with new images: Image 1 : after selecting your old profile folder zs6jybkq.default-release in "Profiles" in the navigation box don't you see the button "Open" in lower right corner of the window? When you click on Open the navigation box should close and you should be back in Image 2 : the Profile Wizard "Conclusion". Here you have to click on the "Done" button, and Thunderbird should open in your old profile!

My images have been made on a Mac and the navigation box might be a bit different on Windows.

Nope. Image below is what I see after renaming and moving zs... to Profiles. You can see that TB wants to use this profile. The zs... profile appears to be intact, containing 124 items of 6.85 GB of data

This is really getting frustrating. How much money must I donate so that when somebody downloads Thunderbird, the welcome screen has two boxes; New User or Import My Stored Profile?

No, no and no!! Your screens shot shows that in the Create Profile Wizard you had not navigated to select the zs6jybkq.default-release profile folder containing all TB data from your old PC but instead you selected the pristine profile folder uf56a7gd.default-release

Some more screen shot of the following steps. When you navigate to uf56a7gd.default-release select the folder itself and not some file or folder within this profile folder. After clicking on the Open button the navigate box will be closed and you are again in the Profile wizard (image 3). Click on the Finish button, the Profile Wizard will close and you are back in the Profile Manager (image). In the Profile Manager your new profile will be automatically selected: click on the blue "Start Thunderbird" button and you should see your TB data from your old PC

How much money must I donate so that when somebody downloads Thunderbird, the welcome screen has two boxes; New User or Import My Stored Profile?

You have not to donate anything. Thunderbird is a free email client and any help in the forum is free. I don't know why you improvise instead of following instructions. You were on the right path by creating a new profile but then in the profile wizard you selected the virgin profile created on the first TB start on your new PC, instead of your old profile folder which we had moved to folder "Profiles". Have a look on the message which I sent you in the meantime (at 10:12 AM) and the images and ask again if you don't understand.

My second post is sarcasm. Thank you for your help. I'm taking the rest of the day off from Thunderbird, and will revisit fresh tomorrow.

Thank you for spending so much time on the telephone with me to solve this problem. I will donate to Thunderbird today!

You are welcome! I am glad we could finally integrate your Thunderbird profile folder from the old PC in the Thunderbird installation on your new PC