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Can't transfer old mail to a new computer

  • 9 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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Hi,

I changed my computer, installed Thunderbird on the new one, and followed the instructions on how to copy my old mail folders into the new computer. But after the process, the old folders do appear in the side bar, but when I click them, they're empty. What went wrong?

thank you, Idan

Hi, I changed my computer, installed Thunderbird on the new one, and followed the instructions on how to copy my old mail folders into the new computer. But after the process, the old folders do appear in the side bar, but when I click them, they're empty. What went wrong? thank you, Idan

All Replies (9)

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Which mail folders exactly did you copy? Why not migrate the whole profile instead?

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I did migrate the entire "Thunderbird" folder from "Roaming".

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I have a similar problem migrating from W8.1 to W10 using the whole profile. On the old m/c there is a profile folder xxx.default, but on the new there are two, new1.default and new2.default-release. If I copy and rename xxx.default to new1.default, nothing changes in Thunderbird, but if I rename xxx.default to new2.default-release then I get the same symptoms as above, ie list of all my mail folder names but no content. Using Help to display the pointer in the new Thunderbird it points to the default-profile folder. How do I get all my mail across please? thanks

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ps - sorry typo on last line = should read default-release, not default profile

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Are you migrating the profiles while Thunderbird is NOT running?

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Yes. I followed all the instructions, closed Thunderbird before migrating.

The one thing that may be relevant is that the instructions say "skip the setup" before migrating the folder. But I'm not prompted to setup, since the program was already installed. I even uninstalled and then reinstalled it, and apparently setup was not needed anymore (my settings were kept somewhere?). But the local email folders, although appearing in title, are still without content.

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Hi idani, Whilst browsing the forum for my problem, which looks similar if not quite the same as yours, I came across: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1294077 which looks like it might be relevant. I can't get to check it out for a couple of days, but here it is in case it helps you.

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Thanks. This doesn't seem relevant, since I only have one profile there, "Profile: Default".

Still looking for help on this...

Idan

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idanl

It is possible the global database file is causing the issue. This was noted as a bug for some people, so worth trying.

Following instructions to rebuild the global database.