I'm confused. Normally, the old profile has everything and is easy to move to new PC, but it seems you do not want that; you just want to copy some local folders. If it is just some local folders, just a few steps: - exit TB - on old pc, using File Explorer, copy the desired local folders (normally two entries, such as MYSTUFF and MYSTUFF.msf) and paste them into the local folders area of the new PC's profile. - restart TB

- And, you're COPYing them, so that ensures my simple steps do no harm.

Thanks David. Helped but not really resolved.

You see, I did want all the c.250 folders and c.3,000 files copied across to the TB local folders on the new PC. I had set up the new PC with TB again thinking it should be OK to copy and paste all the backed up email messages into the new Local Folders.

Having tested it now, your copy and paste routine works fine with the MYSTUFF and MYSTUFF.msf folders. Trouble is that there are some 3,000 to paste manually as I have been unable to copy over the 'umbrella folders'.

Having set up a bunch of temporary local TB folders on the new PC, pending the planned copy/paste transfer, I duly deleted all those emails from gmail inbox and labels. So my recent stuff resides only on the new PC new local folders and gmail All Mail.

At risk of understatement, I suspect my procedures on all this could have been better ...........

Any rescue method that occurs? (There are 222 messages in the new temporary folders.)

KR, Bill 31may22

Dear David and All,

Having spent quite a number of hours failing to resolve this, it is all getting a bit much.

I found it possible to copy and paste a few folders into the new TB local folders on File Explorer and they appeared OK under local folders in TB itself.

However, when doing a batch of these MYSTUFF and MYSTUFF.msf items, they seem to be pasted but then I find the folder names are there but the emails completely missing.

Next, it is possible to gradually delete these empty folders but they then reappear later. As for the enclosing folders, these cannot be deleted at all. nor can those empty ones now in the Deleted folder.

Otherwise, the whole process is too slow to be viable because even if my efforts had worked, I have only worked on a tiny percentage of the total 25 GB of messages and I cannot afford to devote this amount of time.

Failing a solution or a workaround, it means that I have in effect, lost over 10 years of emails that are wanted for future reference.

Would greatly appreciate guidance on this.

Yours desperately, Bill

My original impression was just that you had local folders to copy, which is normally straightforward. Is your IMAP account a new account, or the old one? I ask because, if what you really want to do is move 100% of the old PC to the new, that's much easier. You indicated copying the old profile, but also indicated the local folders were separate, so it's unclear what you have. Normally, local folders are within the profile. If everything is in the profile, and you have already copied the folder to the new PC's hard drive, setting up is easy. If that is the case, just click the windows key and R and then type thunderbird.exe -p which should start the profile manager. click the 'create profile' button and then 1: enter a name, such as MYPROFILE and then, 2: click the browse button to locate and select the profile, wherever you put it. And then you're good. If this doesn't do it, then I'm still unclear on what you have. Tell me more .

Hi David,

This is a short response because it may be you can refer me to a setting or similar in order to resolve.

I carried out your advice and wound up with another profile which I then used for the old emails, i.e. copied and pasted these folders and their contents directly into the Mail section of the new profile in Explorer. I then added it to the Google account and had some security messages, had to tap the mobile phone to verify etc.

When I go to the new profile via Explorer, I find, as planned, about 23 GB of folders and messages are now in place under the Mail part of the Local Folders. However, they do not appear on the TB main page which shows only Outbox and Deleted (both empty) under Local Folders.

Hence, 2 points: how can I get the old emails to appear in TB in some way please? And, never having had more than one profile in the past, how can I get back to the previous profile to make use of all the recent emails (because I now see that as the current system and the old emails as a separate source of future reference only)?

If the above is insufficient to fix things, I am happy to send the full info to tell you more as suggested.

KR, Bill 3jun22

Okay, to get back to the other profile, I think a repeat of the 'thunderbird.exe -p' will work, or you could click help>moretroubleshootinginformation and scroll down to Profiles and click 'about:profiles' and then select the other profile. If the only difference is that one has some local folders, those could be copied (when TB is not running) from one profile to the other, storing in Local Folders. Not seeing exactly what you have, I think that will do it.

Hi David, Having done the Start and R routine, created some profiles and later deleted them after renaming, having had to respond to Google setup again etc., I was relieved to get back the ‘recent profile’ i.e. the one with recent emails and some of the files I had managed to copy and paste from the old PC into its Local Folders. Present profiles thus include the default-user profile (recents) and the OLDPCPROFILE (the one with 23GB copied into the Local Folders in Explorer but no messages showing when I open TB). Also, there is a default profile and a Default User profile making 4 altogether. The default takes you to Google Account Setup but I decided not to delete it. Default User has the same 8 character ID as default-user (recents), so again I decided against deletion. So far so good. Reverting to your advices, I need to say that both relevant profiles have Local Folders on Explorer but only default-user profile has visible messages. Hence, it is not the case that only one of the profiles has Local Folders because both have them in Explorer. If possible, I would prefer to have a profile purely for future reference from the old PC messages and simply access them when needed via Start and R. As these messages are already sitting in the Local Folders of that profile, is there any way they can be made to appear in TB as the usual readable messages please? In the hope it could help, I am attaching a snip of the contents of the backed-up folder of old PC messages. KR, Bill 3jun22.

If I understand you, the folders with the desired messages are in two profiles, visible in one, but not in the other. Would you please post screenshot of the GOOD (can read messages) and the BAD (cannot read messages)? If we get this figured out, you won't need more than one profile.

Hi David, Thanks for this; however, I did just now try one more throw of the dice and it worked. Having gone to Explorer for the OLDPC folder, I arrived at Mail and fully deleted its contents in Local Folders whilst ensuring the TB was closed. After a restart, with TB still closed, I went back to C Drive and found the empty Local Folders folder again. Then it was time to copy from the Desktop folder into Local Folders. That Desktop folder was the result of copying the entire backup of TB messages, previously only existing on the external HDD. And this time, I copied everything in the folder rather than just the 2 main sbd folders. Having closed down Explorer, I did the Start and R and OKed the thunderbird.exe -p again so getting to choose the desired profile. When I chose OLDPC, everything was there. It is a huge benefit to have access to all this research again and I am happy with the setup, i.e. choosing the ‘recents profile’ for day-to-day and the OLDPC one for reference purposes. Many thanks for your help. KR, Bill 3jun22

Hallelujah! I'm very pleased you saved your messages. Nice work!