Moving 1000s of emails to TB on a new computer

[Kent Slimm]

I have tens of thousands of archived emails -- some created in TB and some converted from Outlook Express into TBs format -- on my desktop and laptop. I'm about to replace the hard drive on the laptop. The last time I did this, it was a nightmare to recreate the same folders and subfolders and move all the messages.

I gather there are three ways to do this: (1) with Windows Easy-Transfer Wizard (which I've never used before; I have Windows 8 on my desktop and Windows 7 on the laptop); (2) with an Import/Export tool plug-in; or (3) by manually copying and pasting the files in their folders. Perhaps there's a 4th possibility: restore the message files directly from a backup program (CrashPlan) that stores all my data in the cloud.

Any thoughts on the most reliable and least complicated technique?

[DanRaisch]

It is possible to simply migrate the profile in its entirety; settings, messages, passwords, etc. See the information in this link -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_ ... hunderbird
For a concise, less detailed version of the process, see this thread --
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 5#p7251375

For an alternative approach, see tanstaafl's posts in this thread -- http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14209121

[n2ubp]

Does MozBackup still work?
http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/
MozBackup is a simple utility for creating backups of Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla Sunbird, Flock, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite, Spicebird, Songbird and Netscape profiles.

It allows you to backup and restore bookmarks, mail, contacts, history, extensions, passwords, cache etc. It's an easy way to do Firefox backup, Thunderbird backup ...

[DanRaisch]

For simple profiles located in the default location on the boot drive MozBackup may work. However the utility is no longer supported by the author and has been problematic for some users.

[Kent Slimm]

Update: I used the manual method - copying folders to a thumbdrive and then pasting them into the correct place in the new computer. Tried this with Archive1 and when I reopened TB - there were the messsages. Beautiful. But with the next folders - Archive2, Archive3, etc., the messages don't show up. I looked more closely and discovered that TB had recreated Archive1.msf. (I only moved the .mozmsgs folders.) But for some reason there were no Archive2.msf or Archive3.msf folders. And I can't figure out why - or how to get TB to create them (assuming that's the cause of the problem).

A Google search for .msf problems yields two common solutions. The first is to delete the existing .msf file so TB will recreate it, but of course that doesn't apply here because the whole issue is the absence of an .msf file. The second is to right-click on the .mozmsgs folder, click Properties, then General, then Repair. But no repair option shows up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[DanRaisch]

(I only moved the .mozmsgs folders.

That's your problem, right there. Those do not store the full message files. "Each (wdseml) file is a partial copy (up to 49KB) of a message in the mail folder, stored in a .mozmsgs subdirectory. It is used by Windows Search Integration (requires Vista or a later version of Windows). They're actually renamed .eml files."

The files you need to move to bring over your messages have the same name as the folders in which the messages are displayed in Thunderbird and have no file name extension. In other words, messages you see in the Inbox in Thunderbird exist on the hard drive in a file named Inbox, with no extension. The file Inbox.msf is a "message summary file" or index that is related to the file Inbox but which will be rebuilt by Thunderbird if it does not find the .msf file on start up.

[Kent Slimm]

I hadn't moved any other file along with Archive1, yet somehow it worked - so I assumed no other files were necessary. But you were exactly right. After moving the non-extension files corresponding to the .mozmsgs folders, they appeared. So thanks very much for your help.

[DanRaisch]

You're welcome. It's possible that the messages you checked were small enough (less than 49kb) that the entire message was stored in the wdseml file so it appeared to be a successful move of the full archive.

[Kent Slimm]

A related question now that my messages have been moved and I'm up and running again with TB on two computers: I view a batch of new messages on my desktop (and either delete them or move them to an archive folder). Later, I turn on my laptop. The same messages are downloaded from the server to the inbox...and then, a few seconds later, vanish. This never used to happen. I'm using POP mail. My desktop TB is set to leave messages on server for 3 days; my laptop TB is set to leave messages on server until I delete them. What's going on?

[DanRaisch]

First, no offense but confirm that the laptop is, in fact, set to access that account as a POP type account and not IMAP.

[Kent Slimm]

No offense taken! In fact, my first reaction to your message was "That must be it!" - and to hope so because the solution would have been easy. But, no, the server is indeed configured as POP. What else you got?

[DanRaisch]

Do you have any filters ( http://kb.mozillazine.org/Filters_%28Thunderbird%29 ) defined in Thunderbird on the laptop?
Have you confirmed that there there is not a retention policy set on the Inbox of the laptop Thunderbird installation? Right click on the folder name and select "Properties" then "Retention policy".

[Kent Slimm]

There are no filters. The retention policy for Inbox is "Use my account settings" - and that setting, as I mentioned, is "keep messages until I delete them." I just changed it (for Inbox only) to "Don't delete any messages."

Then I did some more investigation and figured out that the incoming mail on my laptop wasn't being deleted -- it was all being moved to the Junk folder! I suppose I could either train it from scratch by marking all these messages as "not junk" or else uncheck "enable junk filter logging." Kind of curious that 100% of my mail, most of it not suspicious at all, would be classified as spam...

[DanRaisch]

I could either train it from scratch by marking all these messages as "not junk" or else uncheck "enable junk filter logging."

Or you could try copying the file training.dat to the laptop from the other system. That's the file that contains the...wait for it...training data from the Junk Mail Controls.

[Kent Slimm]

I'll try that. Thanks!
Since you're being so responsive and helpful, I'll press my luck with another question. Since installing TB on the new laptop, clicking on a new message in my inbox no longer causes it to be marked as read (i.e., stop being boldfaced). I had already checked "mark messages as read immediately on display," so I changed it to "...after 3 seconds," and, paradoxically, that worked -- for awhile. Then that setting, too, failed to do what it was supposed to. I have to open up the message itself in order for it to be marked as read. Any idea why?