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

Thunderbird for Mac email import question

  • 5 iimpendulo
  • 1 inayo le ngxaki
  • 16 views
  • Impendulo yokugqibela ngu sliboots

more options

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)

more options

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.

Ilungisiwe ngu Stans

more options

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

more options

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

more options

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

more options

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