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how to display old TB emails from a mac time machine backup?

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  • Last reply by sfhowes

mailbox1
mailbox1
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When I moved Thunderbird to a new computer (mac) I didn't migrate all old emails. Now I realise that I can not browse these old emails (I'm looking for something ...) in the time machine backup which I have from the old, now broken, laptop. Is there a way to import old emails into a newer version of thunderbird that is already being used - without wiping out the last 6 months of mails? I thought of adding a new account to my current TB, with a placeholder email-address and somehow feed it with the old mails, which I can then search and read as usual in TB. (Although this would mean I have to load all old emails into the new installation, which I wanted to avoid initially. I do wonder how this problem is dealt with usually. Does everyone just carry on migrating all emails?)

Or - that would be even better - is there a tool to open my backupped thunderbird library folders, so that one can actually search and read the emails within? Any help is very much appreciated

When I moved Thunderbird to a new computer (mac) I didn't migrate all old emails. Now I realise that I can not browse these old emails (I'm looking for something ...) in the time machine backup which I have from the old, now broken, laptop. Is there a way to import old emails into a newer version of thunderbird that is already being used - without wiping out the last 6 months of mails? I thought of adding a new account to my current TB, with a placeholder email-address and somehow feed it with the old mails, which I can then search and read as usual in TB. (Although this would mean I have to load all old emails into the new installation, which I wanted to avoid initially. I do wonder how this problem is dealt with usually. Does everyone just carry on migrating all emails?) Or - that would be even better - is there a tool to open my backupped thunderbird library folders, so that one can actually search and read the emails within? Any help is very much appreciated

All Replies (1)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Look in the backup for the old profile folder. The current profile's location can be found from Help/Troubleshooting, Profile Folder, Show in Finder, which will help locate the old profile. Open the account subfolders of Mail (POP accounts) or ImapMail, and Mail/Local Folders, in the backup profile. Look for the large files with no extension, named after folders, such as Inbox. Copy these (mbox) files into the Mail/Local Folders location of the current profile, with TB closed. Restart TB and find the folders under Local Folders in the Folder Pane.