Thunderbird stores all its data in a Profile folder. You need to restore that folder from your backup to your new Thunderbird installation.

It looks like you posted your question from Windows 7. You will need to locate the Thunderbird profile folder in WIndows 7 first. You will find instructions for other operating systems there too.

Once you have located the backed-up profile folder, you can restore it to your new installation.

I haven't heard back from you, I suppose my answer was useful.

If you haven't already, please mark the answer that solves the problem as such. This will help other users with similar problems find the solution more easily.

Thank you for contacting Mozilla Support!

I am so sorry that I haven't responded. I had a situation where the evening that I posted this my son got sick and we had to take him to the hospital....found out he had acute mono. So spent a week tending to that. Going to try your suggestion now.

PS I am so frustrated, opened this laptop this morning and noticed all my tabs are closed and my recently closed tabs in my history is grey out. Really upsetting as I had numerous tabs open....I was researching and had these tabs open on how to DIY remodel my kitchen. Took hours and had been doing it for about 3 months. Now they are gone and I am depressed over it.

This part has me soooo stumped, I found the default file in profiles It has a box next to it with a check mark. I located this in the File the repair guy made as a back up of all my files...but I can't get where to move them to. I also had setup thunderbird when I first got it with my emails so I could get the current emails, should I delete that or will there be a way to either have 2 thunderbird email files or will they merge? So confused, I am so bad at computers, especially all these more techincal files. Please help someone...can anyone tell or show this in laymans terms. Also, in each email I had subfolders, will they restore too? I am so desperate for help please. I need to get these emails back for my business.

Moving a profile

Occasionally, you might want to move a profile or tell Thunderbird to use a profile stored in another location.

   Shut down Thunderbird.
   Move the profile folder to the desired location. For example, on Windows XP, move the profile from C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default to D:\Stuff\MyMailProfile. (If you are reverting to a backed up profile, this step isn't necessary. Just note the current location of the profile you want to restore.)
   Open up the profiles.ini file in a text editor. The file is located in the application data folder for Thunderbird:
       On Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000, the path is %AppData%\Thunderbird\
       On Windows 95/98/Me, the path is usually C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Thunderbird\
       On Linux, the path is ~/.thunderbird/
       On Mac OS X, the path is ~/Library/Thunderbird/ 
   In the profiles.ini file, locate the entry for the profile you've just moved. Change the Path= line to the new location.
   If you switch from a relative path to a non-relative path, the direction of the slashes may need to change. For example, in Windows, non-relative paths use backslashes, whereas relative ones use forward slashes. Change IsRelative=1 to IsRelative=0.
   Save profiles.ini and restart Thunderbird.

I guess no one can help me with recovering these emails? I tried to hire 4 different places including Best Buy and no one wants to touch Thunderbird. They tell me that Thunderbird can't even repair Thunderbird. They wouldn't touch it with a 10' pole one guy told me.

Now I am stuck. other than my hard drive biting the dust, was my downfall using Thunderbird? No seems to or wants to help me get my emails back and it is very depressing as there are some emails that were in sub folders that were 3 and 4 years old for references.

Aren't there moderators on here that know how to walk people through this? Or a phone number to call? PLEASE!

Hi Judi, sorry to hear about your problems and lack of progress / response from others :(

About your comment on 28/08/14 17:02: "[I] opened this laptop this morning and noticed all my tabs are closed and my recently closed tabs in my history is grey out. "

Normally upon restarting Firefox you have an option to reload all options from last session (see the attached picture).

Regardless, the tabs previously opened should available in your previous history.

About your following comments, the attached images should show you how to locate the profile folder. This is the folder you need to restore. You need to go to: Three line menu > Help > Troubleshooting information > Show Folder button

Perhaps showing the links I shared before and the images I am sharing would help whoever is restoring your files make sense of them.

Mozilla does not provide commercial technical support for Thunderbird however if all else fails I could take a look. Contact me via my website ( https://www.legoutdulibre.com/en/contact/ ) so we can reach an arrangement.

I have used that before but it would not let me click on it. Nor could I do it through history/Restore previous sessions.

Fabian I am where your images are but I don't know where to go from there on how to restore it. It says at the top Roaming>thunderbird>profiles>11xlxi9t.default>

And as far as someone restoring them....it is me that is trying to restore these I had someone copy all of my hard drive from my old one to my new one and reinstall Win7 but that is it

Thank you, this is most helpful.

You need to find the 11xlxi9t.default directory from your backup and replace your current one with that one. It is possible the name is slightly different, but it will end with .default

Ok the people that redid my computer, being I needed a new hard drive. Took the info from the old drive and cloned it to the new drive, into a folder called Old Data. I go into there and I get this file

    %APPDATA% is shorthand for the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\ folder (Windows 7/Vista) 

Which is the folder that says 11xlxi9t.default Now if I am understanding you right. I need to take that and right click on it to copy it. Go to the new folder with C in it and fine the same as above and past that 11xlxi9t.default in place of current default file that is there.

Problem is they both are 11xlxi9t.default So will it change anything being the same default file? I haven't done it yet but wanted to find out first. I haven't done anything on that computer other than search for that file stuff and install thunderbird and firefox because I have this computer to research and work with. I so appreciate your help.

Here is a weird part.....this computer that I am using as my current work and research computer. Has firefox and thunderbird on it. So for haha's I went to see what its default file is called and I can get to user, my name, but there is no AppData and or Roaming!! What is up with that?

Those are system directories, they are hidden in Windows. Altough you can't navigate directly to them without changing directories options, you can type the address directly in the Search box in the start menu in Windows and a new window will open at the right place.

You can safely change the name of the XXX.default directory before copying it, then use it in a new profile using Thunderbird profile manager.

To start the Profile Manager in Windows, follow these steps:

1. Close Thunderbird completely
2. Select Start > Run... from the Windows Start menu
3. Enter thunderbird.exe -ProfileManager and press OK.

I am still surprised you couldn't find anyone local to help with this :(

I didn't get to try this this today as cox had our internet down all day and I couldn't get your response. By your times looks like your east coast, we are west coast....I am going to give it a stab tomorrow or try cause I still feel like I am missing something. No, I found one guy yesterday that told me he would do it for $200.00 I don't have that kind of money, I so appreciate you helping this naive computer user. If you think of any more details or steps I can use between now and then....please post

What state? If you know anyone using Gnu/Linux (Debian or Ubuntu or other distributions), many use Thunderbird and may be able to help you on-site, for a fee or for free. Do you cook/drive/paint/etc.? Be creative, perhaps you can barter :)

Las Vegas, Nevada

Ok, I tried what you said Here is the problem I have. I went into the files that they saved for me (folder on my desktop that says old files) found the default file. I changed the name of the default file and then copied it. Went into my current (new) C disk did the same process...C>users>my name>appdata>roaming>thunderbird>profiles and when I get to the dafault file, it has the same name as what I changed the old one too. I am so confused. No matter what I change or do in the what they titled Old Firefox Data, it does the same thing to the new. (are grown women allowed to cry....cause I am.) I still have the old hard drive but being it had whatever issues it had, I don't want to plug it in. He gave it to me and said "Just in Case". I think I am doomed and this will destroy my business in a big way. I never never thought I would be in this situation being I was backing up my files.

Well didn't hear from you today Fabian..... And I am assuming you have ran out of answers and also didn't know of any on here in Nevada to help me. If so, I want to thank you for all your help and hope that in your thinking process, that you might think of something else. You can email it to me at jewdln@cox.net

Thank you again Judi

I bought a harddrive enclosure hoping I could access my old default file on the old harddrive but of course that doesn't work and I should have realized it. There is only one C and you need C to access user and so on to get to the default.

So now can you tell me how do I access the dafault file from the old harddrive to install on the new harddrive so I can get back all my emails PLEASE!!!!

Well I took that default file, renamed it>copied it, created a new file and pasted it but it only gives me emails going back to July 28, 2014 which is what I have on this computer. I installed TB and the email accounts on this computer so I could at least still get the current ones. So now the other computer gives me the same emails. I am looking to restore all the emails I had in my account....I had some saved in sub folders from 2 years ago that I used as references. How do I get them back?

There is this group in Las Vegas, although they just had their monthly meeting you can try contacting the admins directly for help. Perhaps they have another discussion forum. Make sure you ask in your local networks, friends, colleagues, etc.

You don't need "C access" - in fact the Profile Manager in Thunderbird can use files from anywhere. This document about moving profiles in Thunderbird, for example, has extensive details about that. I don't mean to keep pushing detailed documentation to you if you don't feel comfortable with that, though - I think at this point you fear losing the data completely and I completely understand that.

I provided as much detail as I can and I believe there would be enough for a local person competent in IT to help out (for free or not). 200$ seems like a reasonable figure to me, but I understand if you prefer to look at other options and wait.