థండర్బర్డ్ Community Forum

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

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