Moving Thunderbird Data to a New Computer
In the article on Moving Thunderbird Data to a New Computer, it says to find the Thunderbird folder, move up three levels, and copy _that_. That's the entire User folder. Why copy that, and not just the Thunderbird directory? Also, the article contains nothing about transferring that data, say on a flash drive, to the new computer. And items 7-13 make no sense: it seems you would wipe out the entire User directory on the new computer.
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The article says, in step 4.:
"From your Thunderbird profile folder, go up three levels."
The profile folder is not the same as the Thunderbird folder. The profile folder's default location on Windows is:
C:\Users\{windowsusername}\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\{8charstring}.default
Step 6. mentions "the drive you are using to transfer your data", which could be a flash or external drive.
Modified by sfhowes
I have the same problem....
Following Mozilla instructions 1-6 in “Moving Thunderbird Data to a New Computer”, I copied my Win7 computer “Thunderbird” folder to a flash drive, which contains the following files:
Crash Reports Pending Pings Profiles axki0sel.default profiles (preceded by a small square icon)
After downloading and installing Thunderbird on my new Win 10 computer, and trying to follow instructions 8-14, I found the following differences between your instructions to move my Win7 Thunderbird profiles to my new Win10 computer, and what the new Thunderbird showed:
8-9. I opened the new Win10 Thunderbird. But there is no (3-slash) menu button. I got to “Troubleshooting Information” from the upper right “Help”. “Open Folder” highlights only C:\ drive. I went down to C:\Program Files (x86) and found a “Mozilla Thunderbird” folder.
10-12. There was no “Profiles” sub-folder in the “Mozilla Thunderbird” folder. I pasted the above flash drive contents of my Win7 “Thunderbird” folder into the Win10 “Mozilla Thunderbird” folder. There was no “current data” to replace, or any random string identifier for the profiles. No default profile was created in the new Win10 installed Thunderbird files.
When I opened Thunderbird again, a few new emails downloaded, but none of my existing Win7 mail folders or address books were there.
Looking at the old Win7 Thunderbird folders, I found my Win7 profiles in the Profiles\axki0sel.default subfolder, which I guess is the random string, and copied all of that data directly into the Win10 Profiles folder. I restarted Thunderbird, but still none of my Win7 mail folders or address book were there.
I set File Explorer to Show hidden files, folders and drives, but the content of “Mozilla Thunderbird” folder didn’t change.
I have no idea what to do now to transfer my Win7 saved emails and address books. In 2 days the support will end for Win7, so I won’t be able to access my old emails anymore. Please help…
The Mozilla Thunderbird folder in C:\Program Files (x86) is where the TB program is stored. The profile folder, with all user data, is in an entirely separate location in: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\8characters.default
Copy the Thunderbird folder on W7 to a flash drive:
C:\Users\w7username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
Delete the existing Thunderbird folder on W10:
C:\Users\w10username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
Copy the folder from the flash drive into Roaming:
C:\Users\w7username\AppData\Roaming
Do all of this with TB closed. AppData is a hidden folder by default.
Windows 7 will not stop working when the official support ends.