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Move Thunderbird profile from W7 desktop to new W10 desktop

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by hewhit

hewhit
hewhit
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I'm trying to move my Thunderbird email reader from a W7 desktop to a new W10 desktop. I been trying all the suggestions on the "http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder" site and nothing works. Any ideas what is preventing the profiles.ini from loading my profile? I've tried many iterations of the ini file and paths with no success. Any ideas where to look?

Thank you Regards, HW

I'm trying to move my Thunderbird email reader from a W7 desktop to a new W10 desktop. I been trying all the suggestions on the "http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder" site and nothing works. Any ideas what is preventing the profiles.ini from loading my profile? I've tried many iterations of the ini file and paths with no success. Any ideas where to look? Thank you Regards, HW

Chosen solution

I have done these steps to move an install:

1. Find the profile location on machine A. Create a ZIP file of it (Thunderbird not running) and copy the file to machine B. 2. Install Thunderbird on machine B. Set up an initial account so it populates the profile. 3. Find the profile location on machine B. (On W10 I find this at C:\users\{user}\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird.) Create a ZIP file of it (Thunderbird not running) just as a backup. 4. On machine B, delete the profile and unpack the profile folder from machine A in its place. 5. Run Thunderbird on machine B, it should have the same profile as that on machine A.

I did the ZIP of the Thunderbird folder, not Thunderbird\Profiles. The ZIP may be quite large if you have a lot of email in your accounts.

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All Replies (3)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Move the Thunderbird folder; it includes profiles.ini.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer

mathieuf
mathieuf
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Chosen Solution

I have done these steps to move an install:

1. Find the profile location on machine A. Create a ZIP file of it (Thunderbird not running) and copy the file to machine B. 2. Install Thunderbird on machine B. Set up an initial account so it populates the profile. 3. Find the profile location on machine B. (On W10 I find this at C:\users\{user}\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird.) Create a ZIP file of it (Thunderbird not running) just as a backup. 4. On machine B, delete the profile and unpack the profile folder from machine A in its place. 5. Run Thunderbird on machine B, it should have the same profile as that on machine A.

I did the ZIP of the Thunderbird folder, not Thunderbird\Profiles. The ZIP may be quite large if you have a lot of email in your accounts.

hewhit
hewhit Question owner
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Thank you all for your replies. I was able to get it up and running by copying the entire thunderbird folder all it's contents then replacing the entire thunderbird folder in the new machine. Support went me this link. - Thank You! https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer Now I need to dissect the profile folder and profiles.ini to see what I was doing wrong. It did create a user name I didn't expect.

Modified by hewhit