Thunderbird not recognizing imported profile
I am trying to import a Thunderbird profile from a crashed Windows 7 computer to a Windows 10 computer. I am not sure what version of Thunderbird was on the Windows 7 computer, but the full profile was recovered.
I followed the on-line instructions for importing profiles. Started Thunderbird to create the new default profile, then closed it, then copied all the old profile data to the new default profile folder, then restarted Thunderbird. It did not recognize anything in the imported profile, with the curious exception of the address book. I still get the default "Do you want to set up your email" message when Thunderbird starts. I checked the profiles.ini file, and it is pointed to the correct folder.
I then tried just copying the old profile folder straight into the new roaming/profiles folder, and redirecting the path in the .ini file. Same result.
I then tried working through the Profile Manager, creating a new profile pointing at the old profile folder (that had been copied to the new roaming/profiles folder). Same result.
It seems I have exhausted the common sense alternatives. Any help would be appreciated!
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When your problem is fixed, can you mark the topic as 'Solved' please? Thank you.
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Edit: Please ignore the 'Duplicate topic' thing.
Modified by christ1
I followed the on-line instructions for importing profiles.
It is a miracle to me why people always want to import and export stuff. There is no need for that. Just copying the profile will do.
It seems I have exhausted the common sense alternatives.
Did you consider the possibility that the profile rescued from the Win7 computer is damaged or incomplete?
Another possibility: When copying over the profile something got lost. There have been reports here in this forum from Windows users before. So you may want to compare the size of the rescued profile, and what you copied over.
My fault with poor choice of words. As you can tell from my further description, I didn't use the "import" functionality (such as it is), but did indeed copy the files.
The size of the folders/files is exactly the same in all cases.
I did consider the possibility that the profile was damaged, but 1) no other data was damaged, and 2) if it is, there's nothing I can do about it, so trying other options seemed most useful. ;)
What you can try: Create a new empty profile. Manually transfer the stuff you need from the recovered profile. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Thunderbird
Already tried that (per above), but tried a new way. Created a new empty profile through Profile Manager without starting Thunderbird, then copied everything into that new folder, set it to default, and started Thunderbird. Same result.
I'm going to see if I can use another email program to import the mail files, just to see if they are viable.
Checking in to report problem solved!
The root of the problem appears to have been that there multiple profile.ini files in the old folder, one of which was a recent/blank one, that had become the default. When I used the profile.ini file dated to the day of the crash and then manually transferred over the mail and calendar files, everything came up roses.
Thanks!
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When your problem is fixed, can you mark the topic as 'Solved' please? Thank you.