I presume you performed the steps in the Moving Thunderbird Data to a New Computer article, correct? That would be according to the section about Manually moving files, followed by the steps for Restoring a profile backup or Restoring to a different location in the Profiles - Where Thunderbird stores your messages and other user data article. You did you follow the copy steps when Thunderbird was closed, didn’t you? If not, profile data will be overwritten allright.

Also make sure that if you create a new profile first as described in the steps for Restoring to a different location, you exit the profile manager as described, so that you basically use that only for creating the profile folder name / structure. When launching Thunderbird after the restore to that profile, you should also make sure to choose the newly created profile - you might be starting the older one instead. Doesn’t starting Thunderbird offer you a profile choice when launching it?

If not or if you have not used the Profile Manager for any other reason, chances are you copied the profile and restored it into the new folder, but the profile folder names do not match, and you may not be offered a profile choice. If so, I think there may be a step missing in the article, which is you would need to copy the profiles.ini file from the parent folder of the other computer’s Profiles folder and copy that to the new computer as well when doing the restore. Make sure the folder names match, or have a look at the Moving a profile section in that article for more info about the file.

Does this help? If so, please let us know what you think could be improved in the article(s).

Hi Tonnes - thanks for the suggestions.

What I did was this - copied the content of the profile on the Windows 8.1 machine on to a USB stick. I had to compress the folders in the profile as the Inbox folder was over 4GB and wouldn't transfer onto the USB stick. Before that I had manually created archive folders by year and moved a fair number of the emails to these in an effort to reduce the size of the Inbox folder (which did not appear to work). Then I copied the folders and files from the profile on the 8.1 machine into the profile on the Windows 10 computer - so that the filename for the profile on the new machine was unchanged. Thunderbird was closed during this. I have done this several times and checked that the profiles in the folder had been updated. Starting Thunderbird after this I could see all the folders and their contents as on the old machine but a number of new empty folders had been created e.g. Inbox 1,2, 3 ... Closing Thunderbird and relaunching it resulted in all of the transferred folders and files disappearing - except for one local folder. Again this has happened several times. Calendar information seems to have transferred OK. Finally I tried sending a test message but got an error message saying that it had failed to save the message to the sent folder - although the message was received by the recipient - I asked them ... I have not attempted to transfer the profile.ini file from the old machine but it seems to me that if the name of the profile remains as set by Thunderbird on installation of the new machine that this would not work

This the old .ini file:

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/w3ej7et9.default Default=1

with the random string from the old machine - surely this would need to have the string from the profile folder created on the new machine?

Thunderbird does not give me an option to use a different profile on either the old or new machines.

I will try again but if you have any further thoughts I would appreciate it.

Paul

Hi,

Yes, you would need to change that entry to match the new profile folder name.

The issue is, some people have a flawless knowledge about Mozilla profiles and their files and folders and are able to create, rename or move folders how they like. However as some TB settings correlate to files and folders, it is typically best to either let TB create its own profile first, exit it and then replace any existing files (not folders) from the new profile by the ones from the old one, OR to rename the newly created profile folder after starting TB for the first time _{(or by launching the Profile Manager as described, which will also cause it to be started when TB launches from then on until ticking Dont’t ask at startup)}, copy the old profile folder with its original name to the other system’s Profiles folder and just make the new install point to that folder in profiles.ini like above. If not, folders can be recreated by Thunderbird (as -1, -2 etc) when they already exist due to manual creation, failed (skipped) copy steps, and TB not being aware of their proper settings/locations, and anything can happen.

As I understand from what you posted, it seems you have done so as well, except perhaps that you may not have removed the previous content or skipped existing files as created by the install? Another advantage when copying entire profile content rather than file by file is that everything should be set up similar as on the other system, including message filters, flagged messages etc. Sometimes people want to remove an account or do other things during such a "migration", and that’s where things may go wrong (though I think you did not) - it’s best to do so after the new system had been set up as the old one. I have used the advised methods several times without issues.

There is one additional other thing however: when copying another profile, chances are some folder settings may not be right or identical as refered to above. That generally involves any setting containing either file or directory in the prefs.js file that stores them - you can open it with an editor for viewing it, but do not edit and save anything. Therefor after launching TB with the restored profile, it’s good to check all folder locations from within Thunderbird’s Account Settings (such as Local directory: under Server settings and the Local Folders account), let them adapt if they do so automatically and press OK once, rather than editing the prefs.js file. This may apply when upgrading from XP to a recent Windows version where the profile folder can have another location, i.e. c:\Documents and Settings\... has been replaced by c:\Users\<user>\AppData\... Perhaps you only need to change these folder locations in TB to fix your issue?

Thinking of... there is also a cache folder for Thunderbird (and Firefox) with an identical name except for Local instead of Roaming. I’m not aware of how Windows 10 handles them, but when renaming profile folders manually, perhaps the cache folder is responsible for restoring some content even though TB should not look at it at all, plus it will be an orphan not listed in the profiles.ini file. The fact it’s there however always made me choose the method of using the Profile Manager method, so I’m a) sure to create an almost empty and proper profile folder structure before restoring the backup, and b) it allows me to clean the previous profile and its cache that were set up by Thunderbird during install. It also gives some insights about profiles for people not familiar with it.

So the best advise I can give is to follow the steps in the provided article and try to see if they work for you. I’ll admit the article about copying or moving profiles may not be perfect at this point, but it should provide the easiest method that works for everyone.

If you feel comfortable enough with profiles already, you could just start the Profile Manager by (temporarily) adding -p to the TB startup shortcut or a copy of it (outside the quotes - see the Profile Manager article) and create several of them - you could even have 3, 10 or more - and play around with the restored backups until satisfied. Don’t forget to remove the unnecessary ones as they can contain sensitive data and fill up your disk.

With regard to archiving and disk space: you would probably need to compact the Inbox folder after the archiving step in order to free up its space. Since you are already involved in restoring backups, this is a good occasion to do so after restoring successfully rather than doing so on the previous system and creating a new backup.

Does this help?

Hi, I tried the Profile Manager method with same result as before ...

Perhaps I am doing something wrong.

I just created another new profile on the Windows 10 machine - and had a look inside the folder - it has only one file in it

times.json

no folders - just this file

is this how it should be?

Yes, it only creates that file when exiting the Profile Manager afterwards.

What happens if you copy the backup profile contents there?

I have copied the folders/files into the new profile, replacing the times.json file with the one from the old profile.

Have changed default profile in profile manager and restarted TB.

So far so good - and have reached this position before - all the emails folders etc are there except for the Sent folder - this is empty ...

Also tried sending an email but got same error message that it failed to save to the sent folder ...

Next I have restarted TB normally - not safe mode - as before all the folders disappear except for the local folder .... :(

Oops. Did you check all folder and path settings as mentioned? It obviously can’t find the folder even it should be there on disk.

Also, did your previous install (and hence profile) contain any add-ons?

I think the folder and path settings are compatible between windows 8.1 and 10 - but did not check everything.

There is a calendar add-on but his seems to have transferred OK.

The files and folders were all there after first restart following changing default profile to the new one - somehow TB has lost and/or overwritten them when it was closed and started again ...

This is getting Interesting. The calendar add-on is integrated in Thunderbird and should not cause issues - I was thinking of add-ons that might be known for issues in Windows 10, though there shouldn’t be any. For some reason TB does not keep settings after its first restart, at least not the ones copied from the old profile.

I would try the same method and verify the path settings at the first launch to see if that helps.

If not, I would try the other option, so create a new profile using the Profile Manager and start Thunderbird from there right after by selecting the newly created one if it isn’t already. (This should be similar to TB being set up for the first time on a new system.) Click Cancel where you can i.e. don’t set anything up yet, though it would do no harm, or create a fake account in order to not change anything on mail servers when restoring afterwards. You could also just change some toolbar views for instance. Then restart Thunderbird at least once and check if these settings are still applied or lost as well. You can have a view at the profile contents (or copy it elsewhere) before restarting TB for an impression of a pretty clean profile, and perhaps to do some comparison when interested. If that works so that everything is as set before, copy the old profile’s content to the new profile, overwriting existing files, and see if this works both at first launch and after some restarts.

I am going to try un-installing TB on the windows 10 machine and start again from scratch.

OK - seems to have worked now - fingers crossed.

I re-installed TB, having deleted all the old profiles and ini files.

Then set up a gmail account I don't use much on TB and made a few new profiles with some changes. That seemed to work OK so made another new profile which came out empty except for times.json file.

Then copied in profile from the Windows 8.1 computer - having deleted a duplicate empty folder that it seemed to have acquired.

Perhaps it was not having the duplicate folder or that it didn't have to overwrite any files except times.json but several restarts later it seems to be stable.

Thanks for your help

Paul