Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Lolu chungechunge lwabekwa kunqolobane. Uyacelwa ubuze umbuzo omusha uma udinga usizo.

Is there a way to copy message filters from one email account to another?

  • 7 uphendule
  • 1 inale nkinga
  • 17 views
  • Igcine ukuphendulwa ngu krtbuser

more options

I have several message filters set up for one of my email accounts, and would like to copy them to the other one rather than rebuild them from scratch. Is this possible? Thank you!

I have several message filters set up for one of my email accounts, and would like to copy them to the other one rather than rebuild them from scratch. Is this possible? Thank you!

Isisombululo esikhethiwe

Thanks for the help and the link - that led to me being able to solve the problem, but the location of the file was unclear, or has changed. After a little hunting, I found it is at C:/Users/[my user dir]/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/xc91cy0h.default/ImapMail/[my imap server name], in the case of a Windows installation. (I am guessing the xc91cy0h.default directory name is generated and probably different for each installation, and the ImapMail directory is called something like PopMail or whatever, for different mechanisms.)

I was able to edit and merge the one rule I actually already had with the others I copied, but beware using Excel to do this - it inserted extra quotes on each line. Better to use a text editor.

Funda le mpendulo ngokuhambisana nalesi sihloko 👍 0

All Replies (7)

more options

Copy the msgFilterRules.dat file from one account to another:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Filters_(Thunderbird)#Export.2FImport

Help/Troubleshooting Information, click Open Folder to open the profile folder in Explorer, close TB, copy or edit the files.

more options

Isisombululo Esikhethiwe

Thanks for the help and the link - that led to me being able to solve the problem, but the location of the file was unclear, or has changed. After a little hunting, I found it is at C:/Users/[my user dir]/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/xc91cy0h.default/ImapMail/[my imap server name], in the case of a Windows installation. (I am guessing the xc91cy0h.default directory name is generated and probably different for each installation, and the ImapMail directory is called something like PopMail or whatever, for different mechanisms.)

I was able to edit and merge the one rule I actually already had with the others I copied, but beware using Excel to do this - it inserted extra quotes on each line. Better to use a text editor.

more options

Hi, I tried this and the rules show up under my other email, but none of the folders into which the specified emails should be moved show up. I've compared the copied version (with updated email address) to my original, and can't figure out why the new on isn't working. I tried creating a new filter to see how it got formatted, copied that format to the others filter rules, but no joy. Am I going to have to manually re enter every target folder?

Any suggestions on what I'm missing?

more options

Copying a set of filters from one account to another doesn't copy the folders that the filters refer to - you have to create the folders manually. Unless I misunderstand your question. The only time this would be unnecessary is if the folders are the same, independent of the account, e.g. subfolders of Local Folders.

more options

Hi, I copied all the folders from the old email address to the new email address before doing the message filter file update. So all the folders are there, but the message filter file doesn't seem to recognize that fact.

more options

I would open the msgFilterRules.dat file in a text editor and see if you can find any reason why the filter is not recognizing the folders. You can also activate the Filter Log in the Tools/Message Filters window.

more options

Um, yes, and I discovered a user error. One can't substitute "/" for "." and have things work, lol! Thanks for nudging me to take a closer look. Once I fixed that, all worked as designed.