See my other response You seem to have two threads open for the same issue. And, when copying from Lenovo to new computer, be sure to do that when Thunderbird is NOT running. Otherwise, the copy is corrupt.

Thank you for answering David. Yes, I did get two threads started but now I can't find the previous thread here on the forum though it is still on my email. I have thunderbird 91.7 not 97; it took me awhile to find where it said which version it is, and possibly I misheard my husband when I thought he said version 97. So I guess that isn't a 'beta'(I had to look up what that term means) As you may have guessed by now I am a not very computer savvy 70 yo retired woman. As to following your instructions for copying to move it to new computer that has windows 11 on it(I would have preferred windows 10 but those are almost impossible to find now), I am stuck on the part of putting in my ID. What is my ID and where do I find it? Do you mean my password? That I know. Or my username? I know that too. BTW when looking for my password, Last Pass has two different ones listed. Could I have two thunderbird accounts? Both have the same username listed. Maybe my husband copied one I am not using and that is why no contacts or archived messages transferred. Is there any way to tell? also where do I put the c:/users/ID/appdata/roaming/thunderbird? And BTW where is the backslash on most keyboards? I only see the front slash I used here? So, do I understand correctly that I do no open thunderbird on the new computer; once I enter the above instruction start

Okay, I understand you're a bit flustered. My apologies if I gave too much info. To properly copy everything from a computer, you need to get to Windows Explorer (the feature that shows all files in folders. I think you can open Explorer by clicking the Windows key on keyboard and then typing the word explorer and pressing enter. (I'm using win 11 so not sure if that works for you.) Then 1. locate entry in left side for C drive 2. click that and directories should appear in right pane 3. scroll down to folder called Users 4. click that and it will show folders inside the Users folder. One of them relates to you. That is what I was referring to as 'user id'. 6. 5. click that and you should see a folder called Appdata. click that and you should see folder called Roaming. 6. click that and you should see a folder named Thunderbird. Copy that folder to a USB or other external drive. Be sure to do that when Thunderbird is NOT running. 7. Locate the user folder on new computer. The 'user id' may be different, but there will still be an appdata folder and a roaming folder. There may also be a Thunderbird folder, having been created by an install of Thunderbird. DELETE that folder and replace it entirely with what you copyed in step 6. 8. now start Thunderbird and I think it will run.

On other questions, the \ is normally above the Enter key. And, the folder you copied already has your passwords so if you were able to log in from old computer, you should be able to here. Let me know how it goes.

I tried this but I still this don't have my contacts or most of my archived messages. What archived messages it does transfer are not sorted by year like they are on my windows 10 lenovo thinkpad. I can't find the appdata folder on the windows 11 Samsung galaxy. I think part of the problem is I can't find the appdata folder. If I search file explorer I can see there is an appdata folder but I can't open it to see any folders inside it.

My apologies. The 'problem' is that Microsoft decided that users shouldn't see their data files - and that has been the cause of many/most problems I see. You need to right-click the windows icon in taskbar and select 'File Explorer'. Then click View>show>hidden items . After doing that, you will have full access to see the appdata\roaming\thunderbird folder and can replace with your own thunderbird folder. do this AFTER having installed Thunderbird, if it's not already installed. Let me know how it goes.