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Trying to Move Profile to a new HD as Primary disk too full

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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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Have read many of your support articles on how to store email files on a different HD but I am failing to move my email files to a different HD within same desktop. My computer's C drive is almost full while my D drive is fairly empty. My Thunderbird files are very large so I want to move them to the D drive and delete them from the C drive. I did the following: 1) Backed up profile file (after shutting down Thunderbird) by copying and pasting the profile file to new folder on the D drive. 2) Used the profile manager to create a new profile on the D drive 3) Copied the backup file to the profile folder on the D drive 4) Opened up the "Profile" file located on the C drive in the "AppData>Roaming>Thunderbird" folder. 5) Changed the Path line to the new profile on the D drive and saved it as a "Profile.ini" in the same location on the C drive (see copied in below) 6) Tried opening Thunderbird with two different results:

   - If I use the "default" Profile, Thunderbird opens but when I check the profile location it appears to be still located on the C drive - see copied below.
  -  If I open Thunderbird with the D drive profile, Thunderbird wants me to set up new email accounts which then appear to be located on the C drive.

++++++++++++++++++++++ PROFILE PAGE ++++++++++++++++++++++ [Install8216C80C92C4E828] Default=Profiles/h9oswna1.default Locked=2

[Profile2] Name=Default User IsRelative=0 Path=D:\EMAIL

[Profile2] Name=TedProfile IsRelative=0 Path=D:\EMAIL

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=2 Path=Profiles/h9oswna1.default Default=2

[General] StartWithLastProfile=2 Version=2

++++++++++++++++++ APPLICATION BASICS ++++++++++++++++++ Name Thunderbird Version 78.7.0 Build ID 20210126033722 Distribution ID Update Folder C:\ProgramData\Mozilla\updates\8216C80C92C4E828 Update History Update Channel release User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.7.0 OS Windows_NT 10.0 Application Binary C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe Profile Folder (Local drive) +++++++++++++++++++++++++ ABOUT PROFILES PAGE +++++++++++++++++++++++++ About Profiles This page helps you to manage your profiles. Each profile is a separate world which contains separate history, bookmarks, settings and add-ons. Profile: default This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted. Default Profile yes Root Directory C:\Users\XPS-8930\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\h9oswna1.default Local Directory C:\Users\XPS-8930\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles\h9oswna1.default

Profile: TedProfile Default Profile no Root Directory D:\EMAIL +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thank you so much. I have been working on this for 6 hours and just seem to be going in circles.

Have read many of your support articles on how to store email files on a different HD but I am failing to move my email files to a different HD within same desktop. My computer's C drive is almost full while my D drive is fairly empty. My Thunderbird files are very large so I want to move them to the D drive and delete them from the C drive. I did the following: 1) Backed up profile file (after shutting down Thunderbird) by copying and pasting the profile file to new folder on the D drive. 2) Used the profile manager to create a new profile on the D drive 3) Copied the backup file to the profile folder on the D drive 4) Opened up the "Profile" file located on the C drive in the "AppData>Roaming>Thunderbird" folder. 5) Changed the Path line to the new profile on the D drive and saved it as a "Profile.ini" in the same location on the C drive (see copied in below) 6) Tried opening Thunderbird with two different results: - If I use the "default" Profile, Thunderbird opens but when I check the profile location it appears to be still located on the C drive - see copied below. - If I open Thunderbird with the D drive profile, Thunderbird wants me to set up new email accounts which then appear to be located on the C drive. ++++++++++++++++++++++ PROFILE PAGE ++++++++++++++++++++++ [Install8216C80C92C4E828] Default=Profiles/h9oswna1.default Locked=2 [Profile2] Name=Default User IsRelative=0 Path=D:\EMAIL [Profile2] Name=TedProfile IsRelative=0 Path=D:\EMAIL [Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=2 Path=Profiles/h9oswna1.default Default=2 [General] StartWithLastProfile=2 Version=2 ++++++++++++++++++ APPLICATION BASICS ++++++++++++++++++ Name Thunderbird Version 78.7.0 Build ID 20210126033722 Distribution ID Update Folder C:\ProgramData\Mozilla\updates\8216C80C92C4E828 Update History Update Channel release User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.7.0 OS Windows_NT 10.0 Application Binary C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe Profile Folder (Local drive) +++++++++++++++++++++++++ ABOUT PROFILES PAGE +++++++++++++++++++++++++ About Profiles This page helps you to manage your profiles. Each profile is a separate world which contains separate history, bookmarks, settings and add-ons. Profile: default This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted. Default Profile yes Root Directory C:\Users\XPS-8930\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\h9oswna1.default Local Directory C:\Users\XPS-8930\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles\h9oswna1.default Profile: TedProfile Default Profile no Root Directory D:\EMAIL +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thank you so much. I have been working on this for 6 hours and just seem to be going in circles.

Chosen solution

The 'Ted Profile' is not pointing to any profile, it is just pointing to an 'Email' folder. I do not know if you have anything in that 'Email' folder or what it contains at this moment.

If the D:\EMAIL folder is empty then follow Part 1 and then Part 2 below.

If the D:\EMAIL folder does not contain a 'h9oswna1.default' folder but contains other files then remove those files so Email folder is empty then follow Part 1 and then Part 2 below.

If the D:\EMAIL folder already contains just the copied profile folder called 'h9oswna1.default', so directory is D:\EMAIL\h9oswna1.default then jump to 'Part 2'.

Process: Part 1. Exit Thunderbird. Copy the Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\h9oswna1.default folder and paste it into the D:\EMAIL folder so it now says: D:\EMAIL\h9oswna1.default

Part 2. Start Thunderbird Help > TRoubleshooting Information Under 'Application Basics', near the bottom of list - click on 'about:profiles' which opens in a new tab click on 'Create a new Profile' Enter name eg: TED Default Click on 'Choose folder' Select the D:\EMAIL\h9oswna1.default folder

When happy click on 'Finish' to create profile. This automatically updates the 'profiles.ini' file. Profile will now be listed in the 'about: profiles' tab Below that new profile is a button - 'Set as default profile' - click on it. Then click on the 'Launch profile' button to open in a new window.

Close the original Thunderbird window.

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Chosen Solution

The 'Ted Profile' is not pointing to any profile, it is just pointing to an 'Email' folder. I do not know if you have anything in that 'Email' folder or what it contains at this moment.

If the D:\EMAIL folder is empty then follow Part 1 and then Part 2 below.

If the D:\EMAIL folder does not contain a 'h9oswna1.default' folder but contains other files then remove those files so Email folder is empty then follow Part 1 and then Part 2 below.

If the D:\EMAIL folder already contains just the copied profile folder called 'h9oswna1.default', so directory is D:\EMAIL\h9oswna1.default then jump to 'Part 2'.

Process: Part 1. Exit Thunderbird. Copy the Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\h9oswna1.default folder and paste it into the D:\EMAIL folder so it now says: D:\EMAIL\h9oswna1.default

Part 2. Start Thunderbird Help > TRoubleshooting Information Under 'Application Basics', near the bottom of list - click on 'about:profiles' which opens in a new tab click on 'Create a new Profile' Enter name eg: TED Default Click on 'Choose folder' Select the D:\EMAIL\h9oswna1.default folder

When happy click on 'Finish' to create profile. This automatically updates the 'profiles.ini' file. Profile will now be listed in the 'about: profiles' tab Below that new profile is a button - 'Set as default profile' - click on it. Then click on the 'Launch profile' button to open in a new window.

Close the original Thunderbird window.