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Moving an old copy of Thunderbird profile to a new installation that has data in it

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  • Last reply by Johnk860

John
John
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A recent Windows update crashed my laptop and re-installation of the OS Win 10 was necessary. In the process I lost all my apps and data pertaining. My fault for not backing up! I have reinstalled TB ver. 68.0 and have found a TB profile from 2018 saved on an external HD that has at least some of my address book data in it. My email is connected to a paid server where I live. As many will know, TB will automatically go through the motion of installing itself with data from the remote server (which is a really good feature!) and replicate with it, so one has a fully ready email client with no efforts. I am primarily interested in the address book data that I have lost as the result of the recent re-installation of the OS.My question is: Should I copy the entire 2018 profile to the new TB installation, and what will presumably happen if I do that? Since the 2018 profile is not stored on a laptop, I can't use the export/import function, can someone please tell me the best way in their view to move the data between the external HD and the profile folder of the TB software? Thank you in anticipation.

A recent Windows update crashed my laptop and re-installation of the OS Win 10 was necessary. In the process I lost all my apps and data pertaining. My fault for not backing up! I have reinstalled TB ver. 68.0 and have found a TB profile from 2018 saved on an external HD that has at least some of my address book data in it. My email is connected to a paid server where I live. As many will know, TB will automatically go through the motion of installing itself with data from the remote server (which is a really good feature!) and replicate with it, so one has a fully ready email client with no efforts. I am primarily interested in the address book data that I have lost as the result of the recent re-installation of the OS.My question is: Should I copy the entire 2018 profile to the new TB installation, and what will presumably happen if I do that? Since the 2018 profile is not stored on a laptop, I can't use the export/import function, can someone please tell me the best way in their view to move the data between the external HD and the profile folder of the TB software? Thank you in anticipation.

All Replies (1)

Johnk860
Johnk860
more options

Copy the address book file ONLY from the accurate location to the new, inaccurate, location. I've done this a number of times, moving from here to there and, as long as the folder name remains the same, the app will accept whatever is in it. That said, make a copy of the inaccurate folder, just in case. good luck and best regards