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Moved TB profile to network device. New TB on new machine does not use moved profile on network.

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

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I read a number of posts on various forums. My old XP machine did not support some of the suggested mechanisms for backup/restore and the MOZBackup(?) tool crashed when it encountered a too long file name. I then moved the profile from the XP machine to a network drive and then installed TB on the new Win7 machine which is also connected the the network drive. I went into the new profile (on the Win 7 C drive) and edited the file location of the profile to reflect the network address on the mapped drive (W). TB did not find any of the old messages. Then I uninstalled TB from the new machine, deleted any local profiles and reinstalled TB. I then copied the contents of the profile on the network drive(W) into the new profile file created by TB on (C). Still nothing. I read that the msf files should be deleted since TB would recreate them when it restarted. I did that on the profile file on my C drive. Still nothing. I compacted the files from inside TB. Still nothing. Any thoughts or glaring errors?

I read a number of posts on various forums. My old XP machine did not support some of the suggested mechanisms for backup/restore and the MOZBackup(?) tool crashed when it encountered a too long file name. I then moved the profile from the XP machine to a network drive and then installed TB on the new Win7 machine which is also connected the the network drive. I went into the new profile (on the Win 7 C drive) and edited the file location of the profile to reflect the network address on the mapped drive (W). TB did not find any of the old messages. Then I uninstalled TB from the new machine, deleted any local profiles and reinstalled TB. I then copied the contents of the profile on the network drive(W) into the new profile file created by TB on (C). Still nothing. I read that the msf files should be deleted since TB would recreate them when it restarted. I did that on the profile file on my C drive. Still nothing. I compacted the files from inside TB. Still nothing. Any thoughts or glaring errors?

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I did use the profile manager to point to the profile that I moved to a network drive. The profile contains numerous files and a lot of data (GBs). However, TB opens with minimal messages and no folders. Thinking that the network drive might be an issue, I uninstalled TB, reinstalled it and determined the location of the new profile. I then copied the contents of the profile on the network drive into the new profile which resides on the local drive of the new computer. Again TB opens with a mimimal amount of info and no folders. It acts as though the new profile does not exist. I suspect that one file is missing or corrupted and then TB does not see any of the other data. It would be nice to know what the developers look for when TB goes to that profile location. Thank you for responding. This is getting depressing and having a response eases that feeling somewhat.

I wonder how import programs (e.g. to Outlook) deal with TB's file structure.

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Check the local directory is pointing to the correct place:

Tools > Account Settings >Server Settings for the mail account. at the bottom under Local directory: It tells you where the mail account is pointing to. eg; C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\profile name\Mail\mail account name Click on 'Browse' to navigate to the correct directory. click on ok to save changes

Modified by Toad-Hall