Move thunderbird emails from a non booting Windows XP hard drive to a Mac
Hi community - I moved from Windows based computers to Apple Mac in 2010. I kept the two Windows machines hard discs with their copies of Windows XP. One drive had Windows XP upgraded to SP3 and the second drive had Windows XP Professional 64 updated to SP3. On both, alongside Outlook/Outlook Express, I ran Mozilla Thunderbird as my email client. I should have made a note of the version. I now have a need for some emails from around 2007/08 that I know were in Thunderbird but am unsure how to transfer them from the HDDs to my iMac. I ran Thunderbird on Mac for a period although I did not transfer data from the Windows machines into it. I eventually reverted to Apple Mail for sole use. The iMac runs MacOS Mojave Version: 10.14.5 (18F132) and I have upgraded Thunderbird to Thunderbird 60.7.0 (64-bit) version. I can plug both Hard Discs with Windows XP into my Mac via an IcyDock connector. I can view all the files in Finder however, because I cannot run Windows XP I think that Finder will not see any hidden Windows files. Would a clever community expert please assist me with a step by step process to find the correct files that I look for and how to add them to Thunderbird 60.7.0? I see from the TB Help Menu on Mac - Troubleshooting - Profile - View in Finder and that directs me to the Profile (xxxx0xx0.default). Can I just copy over the Thunderbird Folder or the Profile Folder and replace the same in Finder? Where do I go from here please WandaP
Chosen solution
Instead of copying over the profile folder, copy the entire Thunderbird folder from the XP drive:
C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows user name>\Application Data\Thunderbird
to the corresponding location on the mac:
~/Library/Thunderbird
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer#thunderbird:mac:tb60
Delete the existing Thunderbird folder on the mac before you replace it with the one from XP. There is an issue when copying between Windows and OS X that requires deleting the pkcs11.txt file from the profile folder, but I don't think that file existed in versions of TB that ran on XP.
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If you can show hidden files and folders in Finder, open the profile folder that was defined in XP.
C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows user name>\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>
The mail files are the mbox files in the Mail/<accountname>, Mail/Local Folders and ImapMail/<accountname> subfolders. The mbox files have no extension and appear with a like-named index .msf file. Copy the mbox files into the Mail/Local Folders location in the profile on the mac (while TB is closed). Restart TB and you should see the folders under Local Folders in the folder pane.
sfhowes, thank you, you are a genius!
The method to find hidden files stumped me. I knew that it existed but just wasn't asking Google the right question!! The Terminal command was immediate and now they are as clear as day.
Now, if I want the whole profile into TB, could I just copy the Profile (8characters.default) and replace the unused one on the Mac with it and then restart TB? That way would I see all of my Local Folders and the pop.provider.com lot as well? WandaP
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Instead of copying over the profile folder, copy the entire Thunderbird folder from the XP drive:
C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows user name>\Application Data\Thunderbird
to the corresponding location on the mac:
~/Library/Thunderbird
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer#thunderbird:mac:tb60
Delete the existing Thunderbird folder on the mac before you replace it with the one from XP. There is an issue when copying between Windows and OS X that requires deleting the pkcs11.txt file from the profile folder, but I don't think that file existed in versions of TB that ran on XP.
sfhowes, great thanks. Yes I am already looking at that support page to see if it is the right way.
Now also another question, if I have my two profiles, one on Windows XP and another on Windows XP 64 bit Professional and I want to see both of them, could I have both profiles on the Mac at the same time and be able to flip flop between them or would I need to delete the Thunderbird folder each time I wanted to check them and follow this procedure to look at them as separate entities?
Again thanks WandaP
On the Mac, you would start Profile Manager (after TB is closed) and create a new profile, choosing the profile folder copied over from another drive. You might have already copied this 2nd profile into the ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles folder, but it won't be recognized until you 'create it' with Profile Manager.
Once the multiple profiles are readable by TB, you can start in any of them by launching Profile Manager. The ProfileSwitcher add-on is useful for launching other profiles while TB is open, and you can even run multiple profiles simultaneously.
sfhowes
Yes, you are officially (in my books) a genius! A thousand thanks.
The very email required for my records found in seconds, absolutely brilliant.
I really cannot thank you enough.
I shall follow the last advice and will have my records going back to 2003, pity I had eventually formatted other old harddrives going back to 1997
Most gratefully yours wingandaprayer