How do I copy my email folders & contact lists to transfer to my laptop after manufacturer repair.
Hi
My almost 3 year old laptop is showing signs of age and I have to send it to the manufacturers for replacing a keyboard and the cd/dvc drive. I will have to save all my photos & documents to a portable drive so I can copy them on to the repairedcomputer after it is returned to me. I also have a load of saved bookmarks which I would like to keep & I think that too is possible. My biggest problem is that I use Thunderbird as a filing system for all important emails and for keeping my list of email contacts and I would like to be able to copy them all when I'm clearing down my computer so I can copy them back on to my newly repaired laptop.
To most of you this task is as easy as copying my photos or documents but I get very confused with profiles etc in Mozilla. I would like it to be as easy as File, Copy emails To ...... but not yet. I would appreciate help on this.
Vahaolana nofidina
Overwriting the Thunderbird profile folder will eradicate the new profile. So you'll have just the old one.
Hamaky an'ity valiny ity @ sehatra 👍 0All Replies (6)
Backup your profile and restore it once you got your computer back. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-tb
Thanks for replying. I have over a week until my laptop is collected so I want to know I can do this now instead of scrambling around at the last minute.
I have done the easiest part of the task and copied the profile from Troubleshooting, Application Basics, Profile Jump Drive and checked that it's copied ok.
The next part is locating where I copy back the saved Profile
This is supposed to tell me how to find the Profile and I now know why I found this confusing in the past. Why is the folder not named ~Profile?????
Each profile is stored on your hard drive in a profile folder. The folder is named using the following convention:
<random_string>.<profile_name>
...where "<random_string>" is eight digits randomly generated by Thunderbird and "<profile_name>" is the name you assigned to the profile. The location of the folder will vary according to the operating system (and whether or not you specified a non-default location when you created the profile): Profile Location Summary
%APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\
%APPDATA% is shorthand for the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\ folder, which depends on your Windows user account name.
When I start to copy my Profile back to my computer will I have to overwrite a Profile - I'm still confused!!
"<profile_name>" is the name you assigned to the profile"
When did I assign a name to the Profile?
Will this procedure also copy my Firefox settings/bookmarks or do I Import and Backup from the Bookmarks Tab,
Novain'i Figgerty t@
You don't really need to know all that. Go up a couple of levels to the folder named Thunderbird and make a copy of that.
When you first run Thunderbird after the repair it will re-create the Thunderbird folder. All you need to do then is close Thunderbird and copy your backup Thunderbird folder over the one it has just made.
And you can do all the same for Firefox too; it has its own profile and again, the Help system can help you find that folder.
Thank you Zenos. You are speaking a language I understand.
Just one question: When I overwrite the new Thunderbird file with the backup version will I end up with two profiles, one with the name of the profile in the backup and one newly created. If so will I delete the new one (identified it via Help & Application Basics. I will need to ensure I am using the backed up Profile and not creating/using a new one.
Vahaolana Nofidina
Overwriting the Thunderbird profile folder will eradicate the new profile. So you'll have just the old one.
Thank you. To avoid any problems I will copy the old backed up profile before I start using Thunderbird and I may just export bookmarks from the Bookmarks file or I see there is a Backup as well.
Thanks a lot for your help and good night.