I can't get the most recent Tbird 45.0 to accept a profile from Tbird 44.2 in a manual transfer from an older computer.
I have followed instructions to move my Tbird profile from an older machine to the latest version Tbird on a new machine. Did this about six weeks ago with great success. A system problem forced a reinstall of the machine's 'as new' setpoint. I reinstalled Tbird and it will not now accept the old profile. I've installed the profile manager add-on to help insure that Tbird is seeing it correctly but to no avail. It all seems to work properly except that I can't recover my old mail or contacts.
Wšykne wótegrona (6)
If you can't do it via the profile manager you can simply copy the old files and folders into the new one. Read here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder 'other ways to move your profile'
I have read the mozillazine material. The copy and move option is what I have been attempting to accomplish. After attempting to paste new folders directly into the profile folder without success I used the profile manager to create a new folder to paste my old profile into. Also, I am NOT attempting to set up roaming profile and it isn't indicated as something I must do.
On your new machine you have a profile folder -- let's call it 'abcdefgh.default' for example. Your Thunderbird works with this but it doesn't contain your mails and contacts. You also have the old profile folder with the mails and contacts you want to use. Have you tried this: 1) Close Thunderbird. 2) Move 'abcdefgh.default' somewhere else (e.g. the desktop). 3) Copy into the location where that profile was the old profile folder. 4) Rename the old profile folder 'abcdefgh.default'. 5) Restart Thunderbird. I've done this a couple of times when I have reinstalled operating systems and it's worked -- maybe it will for you.
I've been doing very similar but not identical exercises. I've attempted your specific recipe without success.
Goodness I'm running out of ideas. (Running out of time too -- I need to log off soon.) The only other thing I can suggest is to try editing the 'profiles.ini' file. You can read about it here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird (follow the links as well) If you close Thunderbird and delete that file, when you restart it it should create a new blank default folder: you may be able to copy your old profile contents into it then. The article recommends saving a copy of 'profiles.ini' though, just in case. Good luck!
I've tried that approach as well. I'm now wondering if the fact that the mail in the old profile had been compressed. I can't see that this should be a problem but I can't think of anything else at the moment or what to do about it.