Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Followed your procedure to copy email to a new Windows 10 computer, but Thunderbird knows the profile was replaced and creates a new one, won't use the copy.

  • 2 ŋuɖoɖowo
  • 1 masɔmasɔ sia le esi
  • 17 views
  • Nuɖoɖo mlɔetɔ Ed

more options

Followed your procedure successfully back in January, but now I am doing another computer and it is not working. I paste the Thunderbird folder from the old Windows 7 computer into the Roaming folder of the new computer and choose replace files. When I launch Thunderbird it creates another profile with a name of it's own choosing and leaves my copied profile intact in the same directory. Tried running "Thunderbird -p" but the Profile Manager will not accept the existing profile from the old computer either.

Followed your procedure successfully back in January, but now I am doing another computer and it is not working. I paste the Thunderbird folder from the old Windows 7 computer into the Roaming folder of the new computer and choose replace files. When I launch Thunderbird it creates another profile with a name of it's own choosing and leaves my copied profile intact in the same directory. Tried running "Thunderbird -p" but the Profile Manager will not accept the existing profile from the old computer either.

Ŋuɖoɖo si wotia

Yes, the directory structure looks identical when I am done. I also tried run -> %appdata% to get to the right location.

I found another procedure that had me copy the profile from the old computer before installing Thunderbird and then skip the account creation steps. Of course, I had to uninstall Thunderbird and all profiles first. I did this, and although Thunderbird created a profile as usual, this time I was able to use the Profile Manager to switch to the desired profile. The other profile is still hanging around - not sure if I will be able to delete it or not. That procedure was at:

https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/how-to-move-your-thunderbird-profile-email-to-a-new-windows-computer/

When Thunderbird came up I was able to see the Inbox in the left hand pane with the count of unread emails, although I got an error message when I clicked on it, and then a blue circle showing it was busy. Had to perform a further step of deleting all the *.msf files. Next time I launched Thunderbird the Inbox, Sent and Draft folders started populating with emails as it rebuilt it's indexes. It is now working.

I would like to thank those who responded to my original post.

Xle ŋuɖoɖo sia le goya me 👍 0

All Replies (2)

more options

Are you sure you are copying and pasting at the right spot? It sounds like you are not copying the profile.ini file over. (Which lives a level or two above the profile directories.)

In the instructions at:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer

At steps 4 and 12 it says: "From your Thunderbird profile folder, go up three levels. " These steps are critical.

Daveh110 trɔe

more options

Ɖɔɖɔɖo si wotia

Yes, the directory structure looks identical when I am done. I also tried run -> %appdata% to get to the right location.

I found another procedure that had me copy the profile from the old computer before installing Thunderbird and then skip the account creation steps. Of course, I had to uninstall Thunderbird and all profiles first. I did this, and although Thunderbird created a profile as usual, this time I was able to use the Profile Manager to switch to the desired profile. The other profile is still hanging around - not sure if I will be able to delete it or not. That procedure was at:

https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/how-to-move-your-thunderbird-profile-email-to-a-new-windows-computer/

When Thunderbird came up I was able to see the Inbox in the left hand pane with the count of unread emails, although I got an error message when I clicked on it, and then a blue circle showing it was busy. Had to perform a further step of deleting all the *.msf files. Next time I launched Thunderbird the Inbox, Sent and Draft folders started populating with emails as it rebuilt it's indexes. It is now working.

I would like to thank those who responded to my original post.