How do I migrate e-mails to another computer (the Profile copy does not semm to work)?
I have switched to a new computer. The old one had win 10/32 bit, this one has win10/64 bit. I had/have the most recent Thunderbird on both. I have done the steps described on the Profile page. Installed TB on the new PC, made a new profile (it works, I can send and receive e-mails). Then I copied the old User... Appdata... Thunderbird... Profiles... xxxxxx.default folder to the new computer's same location and renamed it to yyyyyy.default which the name of the new profile. (I have first renamed the original yyyyyy.default to old.yyyyyy.default.old). But I can only see the emails received since the installation, not the ones I had before (nor the folders I had on the old PC). I still have the HDD with the old Win10/32 bit installation so I can access the files. What can I do to get my old emails back?
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another way to do this is copy the Thunderbird folder and all the sub folders. The Thunderbird folder contains the profiles.ini file that points to the profile. As this location is relative to the location of the profiles.ini file copying the old file and the folder structure sets everything to point to the same things.
Also because profiles are relative to the profile ini file (Unless you change that in account settings) it makes not a bit of difference what the user name is. What is important however is placing the information in the roaing part of appdata.
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When I did something similar recently (I was copying a profile from Linux to a new Windows 10 installation) I found that initially it copied only the top level of folders in the profile. I had to repeat the copying process several times before it recognized all the subfolders. Felt like a bug in Windows 10 file manager. I also was shown several dialogues telling me there were incomplete (interrupted) copying sessions, though I don't know what I did to make it think I wanted it to stop. Next time, I think I'd try xcopy or robocopy.
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Thank you. I tried what you recommended but it did not work. The old and the new folders seem to be identical (except for the name, of course).
Can the problem be that I have a different user name on the new PC? (In the C:/Users folder the folder name I am under now is different from the one on the old PC)
Chosen Solution
another way to do this is copy the Thunderbird folder and all the sub folders. The Thunderbird folder contains the profiles.ini file that points to the profile. As this location is relative to the location of the profiles.ini file copying the old file and the folder structure sets everything to point to the same things.
Also because profiles are relative to the profile ini file (Unless you change that in account settings) it makes not a bit of difference what the user name is. What is important however is placing the information in the roaing part of appdata.
Thank you, Matt. Unfortunately this did not help either.
But you gave me an idea. I have searched the old drive for "Thunderbird" and found a Thunderbird folder in Appdata/Roaming. When I copied THAT to the new Windows installation I got back all the emails and folders I had before.
ok, so you did not follow the instructions, you only sort of followed them, in so much as you never copied your active profile in the first place. I makes me feel better to know a copy does work.
OMG, you are absolutely right. I do not know why I was copying the Thunderbird folder from the Appdata/Local location instead of Appdata/Roaming as stated on the Profiles page. But as it was your post that made me find the right solution you deserve the merit so I changed it accordingly. Thanks for the help!