Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Problem with Backup, Thunderbird still wants me to create new account after copy the Backup files

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 18 views
  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

more options

Hello,

Yesterday I installed new windows on my PC and made a Thunderbird Backup like described in the Support. Copied the whole Thunderbird Order in "Roaming", installed a fresh copy of Thunderbird, opened it, got directed to Profile Files, deleted the Thunderbird Order in "Roaming" and Copied the Backup files on the same place. After re-opening TB, it doesn't show any of my accounts and still wants me to open a new account.

I did this procedure like one year before with two computers without problems. I thought maybe I copied the backup wrong, went to my second computer, made a backup there too, but this doesn't work either.

Doesn't it work anymore with the new TB Version? Are the other methods to install a backup to a fresh installed TB? I still have a working Thunderbird Profile on my Work-PC, so make a new Backup for my Home-PC is not a problem.

Hope someone can help me here, thanks :-)

Hello, Yesterday I installed new windows on my PC and made a Thunderbird Backup like described in the Support. Copied the whole Thunderbird Order in "Roaming", installed a fresh copy of Thunderbird, opened it, got directed to Profile Files, deleted the Thunderbird Order in "Roaming" and Copied the Backup files on the same place. After re-opening TB, it doesn't show any of my accounts and still wants me to open a new account. I did this procedure like one year before with two computers without problems. I thought maybe I copied the backup wrong, went to my second computer, made a backup there too, but this doesn't work either. Doesn't it work anymore with the new TB Version? Are the other methods to install a backup to a fresh installed TB? I still have a working Thunderbird Profile on my Work-PC, so make a new Backup for my Home-PC is not a problem. Hope someone can help me here, thanks :-)

Chosen solution

I'm presuming you copied the backup 'Roaming'/'Thunderbird' folder into the 'Roaming' folder after deleting the default one. I'm presuming you did this whilst Thunderbird was closed.

First try this: Exit Thunderbird. Access Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/'profile name' folder delete the 'global-messages-db.sqlite' file. Restart Thunderbird.

If it does not work: Please try the info at this link: https://thunderbirdtweaks.blogspot.com/

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (3)

more options

Chosen Solution

I'm presuming you copied the backup 'Roaming'/'Thunderbird' folder into the 'Roaming' folder after deleting the default one. I'm presuming you did this whilst Thunderbird was closed.

First try this: Exit Thunderbird. Access Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/'profile name' folder delete the 'global-messages-db.sqlite' file. Restart Thunderbird.

If it does not work: Please try the info at this link: https://thunderbirdtweaks.blogspot.com/

more options

Hello Toad-Hall,

thank you very much. I solved my problem with your last link. It was enough to set the new imported profile as primary in the "about:profile" page. It was not mandatory the last time I did the backup, but it seems like it is with the new Thunderbird version.

more options

Thanks for feedback. Good to hear you are up and running again.