rename the pcv file as a zip and use a zip program.

I don't understand. Maybe I wasn't clear but I don't see how anything ZIP can address my issue.

I need to restore a profile into Thunderbird. The only copy of the profile I wish to restore was made by Mozbackup and is a .pcv file.

Running Restore within Mozbackup seems to run but the profile does not appear in AppData/Local/Thunderbird where it should. The Restore using Mozbackup runs but does nothing.

If this can be accomplished using 7-Zip I don't see how. Would you please show me the steps if that's the case? Thanks.

I think Matt may have meant to just rename the suffix from pcf to zip, and to then unzip the file. A comment I'll share is that Mozbackup is not current and its profiles are known to not be compatible. We regularly recommend that it NOT be used for backups.

My current backup was lost in the disaster so I have to fall back on using an old, very old back up that was done with Mozbackup two years ago. I do not plan on using Mozbackup to backup in the future but rather the current backup program that produces .bak files.

However, for now I'm stuck with using that .pcv file (not a pcf) that has the profile I need. It'll mean losing 2 years of mail but it's better than all my mail & contacts which is where I am now.

Alternatively, if I can d/l an old copy of Thunderbird that accepts the output of Mozbackup and then update, that'll work too.

Or I'll accept suggestions. I would prefer getting an old Thunderbird that was current with Mozbackup, restore to that and then update but if there's a better way, I'm all ears. Right now I'm facing an utter disaster.

Ver 78 came out in 2020, so it may work. Download is at https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/78.1.1/

Thanks, David. It took some tweaking but I did manage to recover my address book. The rest will likely never be seen again.

I was saying simply rename the file. Mozbackups are zip files. So anything ZIP can help. A lot!

While there have been many changes, the fundamentals of mbox files have not changed in 20years. So you can import the mail stored in MBOX files(the only option until a few years ago). Regardless of how it was backed up using the impoprtexporttools. https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools-ng/?src=ss

Note that in your backup you will have mbox files with no file extension paired with an MSF file, but only if mozbackup was a complete backup. It had lots of minor backups that contained basically nothing.

The address book likewise have changed to a SQLite database files, but the old format MORK is imported by the default import of address books from a file.

There are other ways without the tools to get your old profile, but it is easier for most folks to use a menu driven system as telling them to copy file around just looses them at the first step. Just as I lost you.