Tbird migration to new PC not working despite following "Moving Thunderbird Data to a New Computer" instructions
I'm back and forth between houses in two different cities. Up to this point I've used Teamviewer to check email on my main PC. That's become problematic so I wanted to install Tbird on the remote PC, copy the profile from the main PC to it and have everything on both PCs. Once setup I planned on using a sync service to keep them in sync (I already have this going for my docs).
The problem is Tbird on the remote doesn't recognize and import the profile from the main machine.
I installed ver 102.15.1, the same one on the main machine. After Tbird ran the first time I closed it without configuring anything.
I took the "Thunderbird" folder from %APPDATA%\Roaming off the main machine and pasted it into the same location on the remote machine.
When I open Tbird it goes into the setup for establishing an email account. It has my address book but nothing related to email, no accounts, folders, etc.
Checking Help/Troubleshooting Information/about:profiles shows both "Profile: default-release" and "Profile: default" the same as the main machine, same paths, folders.
I discovered there is a Tbird folder at %APPDATA%\Local and I tried copying that also, no affect.
Trying an "Import from another Thunderbird installation" and pointing it to the copy of the profile folder just results in an error:
"Uncaught (in promise) DOMException: Could not open the file at C:\Users*******\Thunderbird\Profiles\cjwu4w3o.default-release\prefs.js "
All the "How To" posts I've seen, including the one here, says this should work.
I have 4 different email accounts with years of archived emails on the main PC. I don't want to just set those up anew on the remote machine. I want access to everything, including the archives, on both machines.
Any ideas on what's going wrong, why this isn't working??
Chosen solution
Very important to have Thunderbird shut down prior to copying the profile. Otherwise, it will be corrupted and will act as you described. I suggest creating fresh backup of old PC with TB not running, copying the appdata\roaming\thunderbird folder as you indicated. And the copy to same place on new PC with TB NOT RUNNING there either.
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Chosen Solution
Very important to have Thunderbird shut down prior to copying the profile. Otherwise, it will be corrupted and will act as you described. I suggest creating fresh backup of old PC with TB not running, copying the appdata\roaming\thunderbird folder as you indicated. And the copy to same place on new PC with TB NOT RUNNING there either.
Thanks for the response. I was certain to make sure it wasn't running on the remote PC when I copied the profile in but I can't say for sure that was the case when I copied the profile originally. I'll give it another try, take a clean copy of the profile.
That was it, once I had the new, clean, copy in place it recognized it and everything's there.
I do have one question though. I planned on using Syncthing to keep the two installs sync'd. Now I'm wondering if I'm going to muck up both if the sync process runs while Tbird is open on either machine. I was expecting to sync just the profile folder, not the entire "Roaming/Thunderbird/" folder.
Your thoughts?
I am not well-versed in all the nuances of network interactions, but my recommendation is to NOT attempt to sync. If the accounts are IMAP, they will be in sync, and if they are POP, then it's best to leave alone.
They're POP mostly (4 different accounts). I'm going to sync manually, put a copy of the profile in Dropbox when I move from one house to the other. That way I can make sure Tbird isn't running during the process.
Thank you for your help, it'd greatly appreciated.
You're very welcome. Dropbox looks like a clean solution.