You don't have to import anything. Instead of creating a new profile, you should just have continued using your existing one, and add the new account to it.

What do you mean with 'IMAP mail files'? Did you move your mail from the previous (IMAP?) account to Local Folders prior to giving up the account?

Thanks for the reply. I didn't know I needed to move my mail from the previous account to my Local Folders. Can I still recover my previous folders and all email from what I backed up? Jim

That was exactly my point - what did you back up? With IMAP all mail is managed on the server. Thunderbird can download an offline copy of every message, this is called synchronization. Did you have that enabled? Then you should be able to recover your messages.

Yes, I had synchronization enabled. I have the old email content saved in a backup, but the new profile can't access it. The account settings were different. What do I do now?

Is your new account IMAP as well?

Yes, both are IMAP

I'd just create a new profile and copy the old one over it.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird#Create_a_new_profile_and_copy_the_old_one_over_it

Start Thunderbird with the new profile, you can use profile manager for this, or create a desktop shortcut.
You should then be able to access the messages from your old IMAP account, assuming they have been downloaded to disk.

Then set-up your new IMAP account again in the new profile.

Thank you for your attempts to help me and for your patience. I'm feeling very stupid but will come back at this again. Please don't give up on me before we get this working. I can go into Thunderbird and change back and forth between my old and new server settings to get my old or my new emails. I'm not fully understanding what's included within a Profile, since my old Profile appears to include the old server settings and when I copy the old contents under my old profile over to my new Profile, it changes the server settings back to old. Please explain to me just how to copy my old profile over the new profile without my server settings reverting back. There is a hole in my understanding of exactly what is included in a Profile. Should I be copying only the IMAP MAIL and MAIL folders over, and not all those dozens of little files that were in the profile folder? Thank you for sticking with me through this process. Jim

One more thing, I don't know how to move my entire old INBOX and Cabinet into the LOCAL FOLDERS section. I've always kept my entire Cabinet up under my INBOX section, but moved selected incoming emails into the appropriate Cabinet folders & subfolders. Maybe the Cabinet folders are actually local folders, but I don't know. In any event, the synchronization of server with my local computer has always occurred, even if my LOCAL FOLDER section is empty. Jim

I can go into Thunderbird and change back and forth between my old and new server settings to get my old or my new emails.

I don't think I understand what you're doing here.

Please explain to me just how to copy my old profile over the new profile without my server settings reverting back.

The profile contains all your mail, account settings, filter settings, junk mail settings, etc., in a word everything. So if you copy the contents of a profile to a new one, you also carry over the server settings from the old to the new profile.

Should I be copying only the IMAP MAIL and MAIL folders over, and not all those dozens of little files that were in the profile folder?

You should copy everything, including the 'dozens of little files'.

What is the folder name of your old profile? Perhaps you can create a screenshot of Windows Explorer.

http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem

I don't know how to move my entire old INBOX and Cabinet into the LOCAL FOLDERS section.

Not sure I understand the question. Did you read (and understand) the steps in the article mentioned above? Please follow the link.

I currently use Windows 7 Pro and have updated Thunderbird to ver. 31.0. Between several computer upgrades & prior problems/issues over recent years, I currently find that I have 20+ different profiles for Thunderbird, many of which likewise have slight variations in number or letter.

I have attempted copying & pasting the various message folders, etc. into the most current profile with intentions of merging same and then purging duplicates. The result is that I now have some 5+ File Cabinets, 30+ Inboxs and a huge number of folders of the same name, though with varying message #s.

Is there some easier, more simple way for me to collect & combine various folders into one complete profile and to prune duplicate messages, etc. without risk of inadvertent deletion or overwriting?

johnpwilson, please raise a new thread for your problem.