Multiple Thunderbird in different OS's on same computer to access Profile on common logical drive
I installed Windows 8.1 as a alternate OS on a machine that already has Windows 7 (and Thunderbird). The hard drive is partitioned and the T'Bird Profile files are on another logical drive accessible to both OS's with the same drive designation.
I've run into two problems:
1. While the new Win 8.1 installation of T'Bird sees all of the mail folders and messages (and can get new messages from this POP3 account, this setup does not see the address books also within that same profile, and
2. It does not successfully send SMTP (even with the same account settings.
With respect to the last, I recall from working with T'Bird and its predecessor that the SMTP password was set upon initial use, but never again appeared for any editing purposes; the only time it showed up was when creating a new SMTP source. In this case, I don't see where I can re-enter the SMTP password. And, I did try creating a new SMTP setup, but it didn't help. I entered the correct password, but it was not successful. Any ideas on how I can get this set up?
With the Address Books, even though this new T'Bird installation knows where the Profile is (as evidenced by the fact that it does see the mail folders and messages), it doesn't see the Address Books. Again, I don't see where there is the setting for the Address Book(s) location. I looked for the familiar file that tells the program where to find everything else, but I couldn't find it in this new Win 8.1 installation.
Any ideas on these two issues would be greatly appreciated!
Chosen solution
I finally found the answer. I was able to unhide the Users folder in Win 8.1. I simply copied the Thunderbird folders from the Win 7 Users\UserName\AppData\Local and Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming folders to the same location on the 8.1 Users folder.
As soon as I did that, and rebooted, my SMTP was fixed, and all of the address books were available. (And of course, it still works in the Win 7 world, too.)
From what I can glean the data in these folders tell Thunderbird key information no covered by the Folder setting option in the program itself.
I don't know if copying those folders is what 3rd party vendors promise in assisting with relocating existing setups, but it should.
To recap, I am trying out Win 8.1 on the same computer as an pre-existing Win7. I wanted to use my same familiar programs, obviously including Thunderbird, with the same setup and access to the same mail and address books located on a common additional logical drive.
Copying those folders to the new OS, as well as pointing the new program installation to the existing T'bird Profile accomplished it all.
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Tools|Options|Security|Passwords->Saved Passwords and delete any stored password to force Thunderbird to prompt you for a new one next time it is run.
I've seen users complaining that Thunderbird doesn't see address books in copied or transferred profiles.
The default address books ought to "just work" so long as their data files, abook.mab and history.mab are present. Other mab files must be imported, which can be done using this add-on: https://nic-nac-project.org/~kaosmos/morecols-en.html
There is no provision to relocate the address book files, so it's a puzzle as to how they might end up in the wrong place.
Chosen Solution
I finally found the answer. I was able to unhide the Users folder in Win 8.1. I simply copied the Thunderbird folders from the Win 7 Users\UserName\AppData\Local and Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming folders to the same location on the 8.1 Users folder.
As soon as I did that, and rebooted, my SMTP was fixed, and all of the address books were available. (And of course, it still works in the Win 7 world, too.)
From what I can glean the data in these folders tell Thunderbird key information no covered by the Folder setting option in the program itself.
I don't know if copying those folders is what 3rd party vendors promise in assisting with relocating existing setups, but it should.
To recap, I am trying out Win 8.1 on the same computer as an pre-existing Win7. I wanted to use my same familiar programs, obviously including Thunderbird, with the same setup and access to the same mail and address books located on a common additional logical drive.
Copying those folders to the new OS, as well as pointing the new program installation to the existing T'bird Profile accomplished it all.