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Thunderbird for Mac email import question

  • 5 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 16 views
  • Last reply by sliboots

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Successfully using Thunderbird for Mac v.68 with Verizon / Yahoo email account for some time. Upgrading to Thunderbird 78 caused a problem where everything was lost except the smtp server setting. So we uninstalled that version and installed v.68 again. Upon opening, it said that the profile had been updated by a newer version of Thunderbird and could not be used with the current version, and asked if we wanted to create profile. So we did. Now all the old mail appears to be lost. However, before going back to v.68, we did make a backup copy of the Thunderbird profile folder. Is there any way to import mail from that folder into Thunderbird v.68? Thank you.

Successfully using Thunderbird for Mac v.68 with Verizon / Yahoo email account for some time. Upgrading to Thunderbird 78 caused a problem where everything was lost except the smtp server setting. So we uninstalled that version and installed v.68 again. Upon opening, it said that the profile had been updated by a newer version of Thunderbird and could not be used with the current version, and asked if we wanted to create profile. So we did. Now all the old mail appears to be lost. However, before going back to v.68, we did make a backup copy of the Thunderbird profile folder. Is there any way to import mail from that folder into Thunderbird v.68? Thank you.

All Replies (5)

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Quit Thunderbird (this is important) then open the new profile folder and delete everything from it, rendering it empty. Open the old profile folder's backup, copy everything it contains then paste them into the new profile folder. Launch Thunderbird with the --allow-downgrade command-line switch so that it can launch the v78 profile without that "older version" message.

Modified by Stans

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Thank you. And this will work on a Mac? I imagine this launching with a switch would be done in Terminal?

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And if we'd be launching from Terminal, could I bother you for the exact line we'd enter there?

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Yes, works on a Mac and yes, you launch Tbird via terminal. The exact line would be

/Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/MacOS/thunderbird-bin --allow-downgrade

IF Thunderbird is installed in the Applications folder. If it's installed in a different path, use that path instead.

You may also want to check out Profile Manager - Create and remove Thunderbird profiles

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Thank you so much. We'll give that a try. Appreciate your assistance.