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Thunderbird on MSWin will not use transferred filters file

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by sfhowes

SenileOtaku
SenileOtaku
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I transferred my Thunderbird profile from my primary Linux system to a fresh MSWin10 install. I had long since figured the edits I needed to do in prefs.js in order to bring the profile over, and where I need to copy the profile to.

It is able to see all my emails, and email accounts, but even though I have the msgFilterRules.dat for the IMAP account in it's mail folder, it steadfastly refuses to recognize ANY of the filters I had defined. And all the sites I've found for transferring filters says this precisely the way it should be done (the .dat file in the appropriate imap folder).

Sh what's happening, is the Linux filters file incompatible with MSWindows? Both the Linux source system and the MSWin destination are running Thunderbird 78. Or does the MSWin version store it's filters file in some undocumented location rather than where it's supposed to be?

I transferred my Thunderbird profile from my primary Linux system to a fresh MSWin10 install. I had long since figured the edits I needed to do in prefs.js in order to bring the profile over, and where I need to copy the profile to. It is able to see all my emails, and email accounts, but even though I have the msgFilterRules.dat for the IMAP account in it's mail folder, it steadfastly refuses to recognize ANY of the filters I had defined. And all the sites I've found for transferring filters says this precisely the way it should be done (the .dat file in the appropriate imap folder). Sh what's happening, is the Linux filters file incompatible with MSWindows? Both the Linux source system and the MSWin destination are running Thunderbird 78. Or does the MSWin version store it's filters file in some undocumented location rather than where it's supposed to be?

All Replies (3)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 25 Contributor
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The dat files must be stored in the account subfolders of Mail or ImapMail, e.g. Mail/pop.gmail.com or ImapMail/imap.gmail.com. But if a filter refers to an external folder, check that the path has the correct format for Windows, instead of Linux. The dat files can be viewed or edited in a text editor.

SenileOtaku
SenileOtaku Question owner
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But that's exactly where it is. I've copied the folders over exactly as they are on Linux, so msgFilterRules.dat is in ./ImapMail/imap.gmail.com.

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Activate the filter log and see if it provides any clues, and see if the filters run manually. What kind of filter action is defined?

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1661870