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Need help migrating Thunderbird from dead computer to new computer

  • 5 respostas
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by 53timr

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My old computer died however I salvaged the hard drive and it is still good.

I had several email accounts set up in Thunderbird, some were IMAP and others POP. I also had several years of emails saved to local folders.

I can always set up all the email again, but it would be easier if there were some configuration file I could salvage from the old hard drive.

More importantly, is there any way I can get back my saved emails???

Also, my files were backed up on Carbonite and I could access them there, I just have no idea which files I need.

My old computer died however I salvaged the hard drive and it is still good. I had several email accounts set up in Thunderbird, some were IMAP and others POP. I also had several years of emails saved to local folders. I can always set up all the email again, but it would be easier if there were some configuration file I could salvage from the old hard drive. More importantly, is there any way I can get back my saved emails??? Also, my files were backed up on Carbonite and I could access them there, I just have no idea which files I need.

Chosen solution

Hi there, I've just done a similar thing myself. Everything is stored in your "Profile", (though not sure about multiple mail accounts as I have only one). Your Profile is located in "C:\Users\**<username>**\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles" If it/they are over 2GB in size you need to manually copy it/them. If less, then you can use the Export option from Thunderbird.

Hope that helps. Jules

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Chosen Solution

Hi there, I've just done a similar thing myself. Everything is stored in your "Profile", (though not sure about multiple mail accounts as I have only one). Your Profile is located in "C:\Users\**<username>**\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles" If it/they are over 2GB in size you need to manually copy it/them. If less, then you can use the Export option from Thunderbird.

Hope that helps. Jules

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Thank you Jules. I will try to manually copy those files from the old C: drive to my new one.

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Just a couple of comments for anyone else in this situation. Make sure you have file explorer set to show hidden files.

1. Find the directory C:\Users\your-user-name\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird on your old hard drive and copy it to the new hard drive.

2. Then install Thunderbird.

My file was about 17 GB in size because I had saved a lot of mail in local folders over the years. Thanks Jules for pointing me in the right direction. This saved me a ton of frustration and work.

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A tip: with thunderbird 102, just - start thunderbird - ignore prompt for new email address and click 'home' tab - on that next screen, click the import button and then select import from other machine and then select wherever you have the saved profile, such as USB stick.

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David, good to know! Thanks for the tip.