Migrate Thunderbird profile from backup to new computer Windows 11
So my hard drive crashed and my computer got a new hard drive and was updated from Windows 10 to Windows 11. I have an old backup for Thunderbird which is now on my desktop that I would like to get Thunderbird to use so I have my saved folders and their contents. However, I did set up Thunderbird on the repaired computer and now have several weeks of emails I don't want to lose. Is it possible to use the saved profile to restore the old emails and still keep the new emails? Thanks for your help, Kathy
Chosen solution
Ok, my comments assume your POP account was in the Mail\<accountname> folder of profile. - exit TB - on old profile, locate the account's folders. They are generally with two names, such as inbox and inbox.msf - copy them and paste into the Mail\Local Folders folder of new profile. - restart TB and the messages should be viewable.
You should now be complete, with messages in multiple folders. If you wish to merge the messages, you can do that within TB by highlighting and copying from the new folders in Local Folders back to the primary folders. Be sure to do that when NOT downloading new messages. To be safe, I suggest clicking File>offline>work offline prior to doing that. And then I suggest doing a backup for safety.
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (6)
If IMAP, I presume no difficulty, so your accounts are probably POP? If so, you can easily copy the mail folders from the old profile to the new profile, BUT as separate folders. Once copied, you could optionally move from one folder to the other. Here are the basics: - POP mail folders are typicallly in the Mail\<accountname> folder (e.g., inbox, inbox.msf) and can be copied to new profile in Mail]Local Folders folder when TB is not running. Post back for more specifics or to provide more details.
Yes you are right, my account is POP and the emails are not saved on the server once they are downloaded to my computer. I went into the profile a bit and do see some of what you mention. Please provide specifics on how I can use/access them.
Chosen Solution
Ok, my comments assume your POP account was in the Mail\<accountname> folder of profile. - exit TB - on old profile, locate the account's folders. They are generally with two names, such as inbox and inbox.msf - copy them and paste into the Mail\Local Folders folder of new profile. - restart TB and the messages should be viewable.
You should now be complete, with messages in multiple folders. If you wish to merge the messages, you can do that within TB by highlighting and copying from the new folders in Local Folders back to the primary folders. Be sure to do that when NOT downloading new messages. To be safe, I suggest clicking File>offline>work offline prior to doing that. And then I suggest doing a backup for safety.
David, Thank you for your help. It took a bit to finally find the old messages and they didn't go back into separate folders, just 1 big one but I can sort them out. I will be certain to find a better way to backup my TB profile for the future. Thanks Again, Kathy
You are welcome. My personal suggestion for backups is - be sure Thunderbird is not running - copy c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird to an external drive
Then, should you ever need to restore, just - be sure Thunderbird is installed, but not running - copy the backup to c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming
Proprietary backups often cause problems because they run when Thunderbird is running, causing important, locked, files to not be copied.
David, Thanks also for the backup tips. Much appreciated!