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Combine two Thunderbird setups

  • 3 replies
  • 0 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by david

carlwark
carlwark
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I have bought a new W11 PC to replace two indvidually-owned W10 PCs, and now its time to set it up for us both. I have created myself as the administrator user, and a second standard user on it. I haven't yet installed Thunderbird. Each of us has their own set of addins, but both include Cardbook and the Google Calendar Provider for syncing to our acconts, and with the intended standard user having an emoji add-on I don't use.

The aim is that when either of us log in, the Thunderbird app and our mails/calendars/address books are there, syncing as expected, with the data in the right places for a two-user computer.

I'd be grateful if someone could let me know the right sequence of steps to make that happen. Maybe not full detail for each step, but listing every install step in the right order so I don't louse it up.

I do think it's odd that it's easy to find stuff about two people having to share a Windows sign-in and switch Thunderbird profiles, or one person having a profile on multiple computers, but not what I'm doing, which is surely the right way for two people to share a PC!

I have bought a new W11 PC to replace two indvidually-owned W10 PCs, and now its time to set it up for us both. I have created myself as the administrator user, and a second standard user on it. I haven't yet installed Thunderbird. Each of us has their own set of addins, but both include Cardbook and the Google Calendar Provider for syncing to our acconts, and with the intended standard user having an emoji add-on I don't use. The aim is that when either of us log in, the Thunderbird app and our mails/calendars/address books are there, syncing as expected, with the data in the right places for a two-user computer. I'd be grateful if someone could let me know the right sequence of steps to make that happen. Maybe not full detail for each step, but listing every install step in the right order so I don't louse it up. I do think it's odd that it's easy to find stuff about two people having to share a Windows sign-in and switch Thunderbird profiles, or one person having a profile on multiple computers, but not what I'm doing, which is surely the right way for two people to share a PC!

All Replies (3)

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
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This can be done several ways, but here is my simple approach: - install thunderbird with one of the two profiles - copy the other profile to same folder c:\users\<userid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles (although any place would work) - on desktop, copy and paste the thunderbird icon so that there are two on desktop - rightclick on second icon, select 'target' and add to right 

    -profilemgr  "c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles\<profilename>" (or wherever you placed the second profile)

- rename icon as desired.

carlwark
carlwark Question owner
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I suppose the second user would have to never open Thunderbird from a menu. Without the instruction in the shortcut to use their profile, I expect it would try to load the first user's (which might not be visible in their login) and hit problems.

Can't help thinking Thunderbird should be slicker at dealing with multi-user operating systems where everyone has their own UI and data folder.

Modified by carlwark

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Yes, you can set up profile manager to o that. Profile manager is a Thunderbird tool to do that. I gave a simple solution, but you may prefer Profile manager. Do what you feel best.