I-Thunderbird Community Forum

Hi, Just got computer back from shop where - rather than upgrade - they did a clean install of Win11. I was under the impression from them they'd backup everything on a new "backup" drive they installed to double my capacity as part of the upgrade process.

They're version of backing up Thunderbird left me with a folder "Thunderbird_profile_backup.zip" that is 9,698,657kb in size.

I am attempting to install Thunderbird on the essentially new computer and restore all data from the previous installation.

Is this even possible anymore at this point?

I have data in that file that is important not only financially but archived family info from now deceased members... I'd really like to recover it.

In short help! lol.

Mark

I have a new laptop and did a backup of my files on the older laptop (Windows Home) and restored them to the new laptop (Windows Pro). Then I installed Thunderbird on the new laptop and I already had e-mails on it. But there are thousands of e-mails in the wrong folders.

The Windows Home has Thunderbird 128.10.oesr (32 bit) and the Windows Pro laptop has Thunderbird 128.9.2esr (64 bit). What should I do? Should I uninstall Thunderbird on the new laptop? Then what?

I need to do something with a profile folder, right? But what?

Please help.

It's a mess right now.

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 exported my profile to an external drive, then reset my Windows 11 PC. The resulting file is a zip file. When I import, the import starts, then stalls and gives an error. The error log is incomprehensible to me. How can I not lose my local folders and messages? I tried unzipping and importing that folder, but another error. I need help! Ideas? Thanks.

Image of the error attached.

I was forced to erase my PC because it was infected with malware. I saved my Tbird profile to my HDD before erasing. I pasted the saved profile to %Appdata% >Thunderbird, copying 1,777 items. When I brought up Tbird, I got the Account Setup window, so I don't think the profile was actually there. What did I do wrong?

I am trying to upgrade from 128 esr version to the new 139 version. I tried several ways to transfer data from the old version to the new version - I tried to export and import a the Thunderbird zip file. I also tried to open profile manager and creating a new profile that refers to a copy from my old version. Nothing has worked. In the old Thunderbird 128 version, if I select Help and Troubleshooting Information and then Open Folder next to the Profile Folder I get an error in Thunderbird that it can’t find my profile. I get the same error message when I go to Tools, export and select "open profile folder." This in spite of the fact that the old version continues to correctly display my contacts, tasks and events

After several hours of this, I finally decided to download version 139 using the standard Mozilla set up even though my Thunderbird 128 version is located someplace else. So, at this time I have two working versions of thunderbird on my computer – the old 128 version with all my data and the new 139 version with no data.

I think I need help figuring out which Profile has my contact, calendar and task data. Then I need help getting it to the new version.

Thanks

Luke

I am on Thunderbird Flatpack version 115.5.1 and I want to transfer to Thunderbird for Android, how do I do that, please? I am running on Chromebook using the Linux partition. I have exported the profile to a zip file, but Thunderbird for Android won't read it. The zip file is 2.5GB so maybe it is too big. But I am not adept at Linux and I can't find my way to the profile files for a manual copy. When I go into Troubleshooting Information the Profile Directory - Open Directory button does nothing. Alonside it it says "(Lolcal drive)". Maybe I should upograde Thunderbird first, but how do I do that, please?

Hi,

I'm trying to move Thunderbird from my Windows 10 laptop to one where I just installed Linux (Zorin Pro 17.3). I followed the instructions here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer

I installed Thunderbird 140.4.0 esr, which is the latest version. Both laptops now have that version installed.

But when I open TB on the Linux computer, and close the Account Setup window, and go to the Troubleshooting screen, next to "Profile Directory" it says "Open Directory", but when I click on that, nothing happens. So how can I paste my TB profile? Do I have to start a new profile first, and then copy over that?

I installed TB from the "Software" area, which I believe is a Flatpak. I'm very new to Linux, so just fumbling around here. There were 3 options of Thunderbird. I installed the one that had the most information and seemed most up to date. That was confusing.

I would LOVE some help on this.

Thanks!

I am about to change desktop computers - upgrading to Windows 11. How or can I transfer all my Thunderbird data, saved emails, address books,layout, etc, to my new computer? Can I export everything to an external hard drive and then import to the new PC? Many thanks for any advice. heers, Ron

I have two computers on which I use Thunderbird. I have never been able to successfully copy my email filters from one machine to the other, no matter what method I employ. It seems that this should be at least part and parcel of copying my profile to the new computer, but I find I have to rewrite the filters yet again. Please assist.

I have two Microsoft accounts on the same computer: one corrupt and one good. Thunderbird format/layout that I prefer is in the corrupt account. I downloaded Thunderbird to the good account but the format/layout is totally different. Consequently I would like to copy my preferred format/layout from the corrupt account to the good one. How do I go about it?

I have been trying to migrate all my accounts to maildir, but Export/Import doesn't work.

Even after I ensure that the old profile is backed up in another location and deleted from the previous path, and then I try "/mac path/thunderbird -P" and the first thing I do is set "maildir" as the storage for new accounts in settings.

After that, I imported (only accounts and settings) from the backed-up profile .zip, but the mail store type per account gets overridden by the old profile, it seems, and is set to "mbox" (uneditable).

Is there a way to retain the settings except for the mail store type? I am fine with entering every password again; I just hope to not have to do all the config again (settings for subscribe, junk, etc… and… what not) again for all those accounts.

Can I do it via prefs.js, etc.? If so, will I have to modify something in those files? What files will be needed?

Hi Folks,

I hope you can help me with my little problem.

Thunderbird was damaged during the migration to the new Mac, so I installed a new version of Thunderbird on the new Mac and now want to get the emails from my old Mac into the new Thunderbird. I think I know where the files for the new Thunderbird are: /Users//Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/xxxxxxx.default-release/imapMail/map.xxx.net, so is it as easy as replacing those files with the files in the equivalent folder on the old Mac?

Alternatively, I just discovered this function within Thunderbird itself: "Import Settings and Data from a Thunderbird Profile." Might this be useful, and if so, how would I go about it?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Cheers! Chris

Ho effettuato un backup con la procedura guidata ma il file è più grande di 2Gb. Ha creato il file zip ma quando provo a dezipparlo per importare le cartelle dice che potrebbe essere corrotto. C'è un modo per recuperare il profilo? Grazie

The import function does not work. I exported a Thunderbird profile in its entirety into a zip file that is only 127 megabytes when extracted. When I go to import the Thunderbird profile, I select the ZIP file, import, and it restarts, and nothing happens.

I have tried the method of going to the profile folder, manually copying the files from the extracted profile, and pasting them into the profile folder and overwriting all of the existing files, which will work for a few seconds- it briefly shows all the emails, and then they disappear. The top of the inbox indicates the correct number of emails, but no emails show up in the inbox, and when I restart Thunderbird, everything disappears.

Hello,

We ARE on version 145.

I spend an ENTIRE DAY following this information, especially that section regarding to "alternative method for manual transfer between Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers"

[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-com...]

IT DOES NOT WORK! I may not be doing something (I could not find it), but in this consideration, I'm wondering WHY it's left there? Does it work for 144. Can I FIND 144?

Thanks, Lizzie's mum

An alternative method for manual transfer between Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers

This section assumes you have a default Windows installation and will work on computers upgraded to Windows 10 from previous Windows versions.

   Locate the master profile folder on the source computer as above.
   Locate the master profile folder on the destination computer as above.
   Note out of interest that your username (indicated by ~ below) on the two computers might be different due to legacy issues, but it will make no difference with a manual transfer as below.
   Close Thunderbird in both computers.
   On the source computer, copy the Thunderbird folders in both Windows(C:)/Users/~/AppData/Roaming and Windows(C:)/Users/~/AppData/Local to your transfer media, in separate folders so you do not overwrite them.
   On the destination computer, remove (or rename if you need a data backup or to preserve an old profile) any Thunderbird folders in the destination folders Windows(C:)/Users/~/AppData/Roaming and Windows(C:)/Users/~/AppData/Local directories.
   Copy from your transfer media the correct Thunderbird folders into the two folders above to replace the ones you have removed or renamed.
   Restart Thunderbird on the destination computer and test it, noting that your inbox tab should be identical to source, but that other tabs may have opened with Thunderbird messages.

Bonjour est il possible q un développeur ai pensé à un manière de sauvegarder les comptes paramétrés dans Thunderbird ? et ne me parler pas du dossier profil puisque d une version a l'autre cela ne fonctionne plus!

(je viens d en faire les frais !)

Hello, is it possible that a developer has thought of a way to save accounts set up in Thunderbird? And don't even get me started on the profile folder, because from one version to the next it doesn't work (I've just had to pay the price!).

merci de votre aide thank you for your help

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.

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

I need to copy my Thunderbird profile from my Linux partition to the MSWindows one. All the tutorials I've seen claim I can just let MSWin create it's AppData directories, exit TB, then copy my profile and profile.ini over to there.

Doesn't work. It ignores my existing profile and starts creating a new one, and wants me to enter a new account. have 10 different accounts, filters, and other customizations, and I am *NOT* going to manually recreate everythin