How do I move a profile to a different drive and save space on my C drive?
I have installed Thunderbird on my Notebook and managed to copy my profile from my desktop PC. However, all the messages etc are on the Notebook C drive, which is tiny. I need to move the profile to the external storage device (Drive D.)
I have followed the instructions from "Use the Profile Manager to move your profile" and checked that it is actually on drive D. I created a new profile via the Profile Manager as instructed, and selected that as default. But Thunderbird starts with a blank slate, asking me to create an account.
It will not recognise the selected profile. I have now deleted the folder on my D drive, and don't want to try again until some kindly tech might tell me where I'm going wrong! Any answers?
Some of the procedures described in "Use the Profile Manager to move your profile" do not correspond exactly to the Windows 10 dialogues; presumably they relate to an earlier OS. Would that matter?
I read somewhere about editing the profile.ini file, but that frightens me. It took a whole afternoon of trial and error just to get my desktop PC profile running on the Notebook C drive!
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now copy the contents of your old profile into the new one. Then if it works you can delete the old profile from C: using the profile manager again.
Thank you for your comment Matt, but I'm wondering if you could clarify 'copy the contents of your old profile into the new one'? My response is a bit late since I've been trying all sorts of things before posting again.
My old profile exists on the C: drive of my notebook. I opened the folder location (C: >Users >name >AppData >Roaming >Thunderbird). That folder contains four sub-folders only: Crash Reports, Pending Pings, Profiles, profiles.ini.
I copied the contents of this folder to the D: drive on the notebook.
Using the Profile Manager I created a new profile on the D: drive and set Thunderbird to open using this new profile. When Thunderbird opened I used the Troubleshooting tab to open the new 'blank' profile folder.
Opening this folder showed a list of 13 sub-folders and 46 files; including three sub-folders and one file, each with same name/s as those of my old profile folder.
I closed Thunderbird and pasted the contents of my old profile folder into this new one, choosing when prompted to replace the existing files.
I opened Thunderbird, but was again presented with a 'blank' profile. I checked that the Profile Manager was set to open this supposedly 'updated' profile.
Do you have an idea as to what I'm doing wrong? I have run out of ideas now and will be happy to give more info if necessary. In the meantime Windows updates are piling up because there is not enough space on my C: drive.
Thanks again.
On D: Drive Create a folder called 'TBProfiles' and put the 'profile name' folder into 'TBProfiles' folder. old profile.... C: >Users >name >AppData >Roaming >Thunderbird > Profiles > 'profile name' 'profile name' folder is usually called 'xxxxxxxx.default' where it x's are letters and numbers.
Thunderbird will be installed on the C drive and upon first time running will create a default profile. This means thunderbird will run using ; C: >Users >name >AppData >Roaming >Thunderbird It will use the 'profile.ini' file contained in 'Thunderbird' folder to tell where to look for the 'profile name' folder.
Exit Thunderbird. Start 'Profile Manager' It is best to use the 'Profile Manager' to create a new profile which will update the 'profile.ini' file to point to the location of the 'profile name' folder on the D drive. Profile Manager : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/using-multiple-profiles
create a new profile. enter a descriptive name for the profile. Click on the "Choose Folder..." button. A "Choose Profile Folder" window will open. Locate and Select the 'profile name' folder you copied into the 'TBProfiles' folder on D drive. click on 'Select folder' button click on 'Finish'
select that new profile name. select 'Use the selected profile without asking at start up' Click on 'Start Thunderbird'
I have to ask, when you go into your account settings for the actual mail account. what is the Local directory shown in server settings.
We assume that this has not been changed from default, but when someone does change it it make the advice the get that relies on a default location for their mail data completely useless.
The default location for actual profiles is (Per your post) is a sub folder of ; C: >Users >name >AppData >Roaming >Thunderbird)> Profiles