How do I restore my contacts, messages and folders from a back-up drive?
I had to replace my main C: drive. My old Thunderbird install is on another internal drive. I have installed Thunderbird on the new drive. I can access all the files on the back-up drive. But how do I do a restore of my mail, mail folders and contact list? How do I locate the necessary files?
I desperatly need my old folders for some software infoamtion.
Any help would be greatkly appreciated.
Thanks.
Ted
Chosen solution
Mission accomplished. While waiting for your reply,. I found an article that mentioned a copy/paste of the following code from the old pref.js to the new pref.js:
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo.position", 0); user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_1.description", "Outlook Express Address Book"); user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_1.dirType", 2); user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_1.filename", "impab-1.mab"); user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_2.description", "Outlook Express Address Book"); user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_2.dirType", 2); user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_2.filename", "impab.mab");
That identified the impab.mab file, and now all my contacts are showing.
Here is a link to the article: http://nctritech.com/thunderbird_contact_groups.php
Case closed. Thanks everyone for all your help.
Ted
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do you have mail in a "new" installation?
If you are asking if I am receiving mail with my new install, the anser is Yes.
For IMAP accounts you're done. For POP accounts and the Local Folders account you can install this add-on, and import the mail files from the old profile into the new one. Note mail files are mbox files.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/
You may need to manually create sub-folders in the new profile in case you have any.
To carry over your address book follow these instructions.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_address_books_between_profiles
It would have been much easier to simply carry over the entire profile contents prior to start getting mail in the new profile, but it's too late for that now.
Making progress. I have successfully restored my Local Folders. And I have retreived some of my address book. I moved all the .mab files from the old profile to the new profile. There were apparently three books, abook.mab, impab.mab and impab-1.mab. However when I look at the address book, most of it is old data, and is not showing my current, up to date address book. Am I missing something?
There are no other .mab files to be found. I am grateful for your help in getting me this far. One last hurdle. Thanks for your help.
Ted
Did you read the article about moving address books?
Chosen Solution
Mission accomplished. While waiting for your reply,. I found an article that mentioned a copy/paste of the following code from the old pref.js to the new pref.js:
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo.position", 0); user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_1.description", "Outlook Express Address Book"); user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_1.dirType", 2); user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_1.filename", "impab-1.mab"); user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_2.description", "Outlook Express Address Book"); user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_2.dirType", 2); user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_2.filename", "impab.mab");
That identified the impab.mab file, and now all my contacts are showing.
Here is a link to the article: http://nctritech.com/thunderbird_contact_groups.php
Case closed. Thanks everyone for all your help.
Ted