Thunderbird to Thunderbird Mail Transfer Tutorial (windows)

Discussion of general topics about Mozilla Thunderbird
montag451
Posts: 66
Joined: September 8th, 2003, 3:40 pm
Contact:

Thunderbird to Thunderbird Mail Transfer Tutorial (windows)

Post by montag451 »

============================================

MOVING MAIL BETWEEN TWO THUNDERBIRD INSTALLATIONS
(Windows)

<b>Feel free to update with any additional info</b>

There comes a time in every Mozilla users life when they
find little instruction on how to transfer mail and settings
from Thunderbird, to Thunderbird. Whether you're transferring
from another computer or from a backup profile, there aren't any
instructions. These instructions are for Windows users only.

I used windows XP, but the instructions are the same on
any TB windows install.

I have an old TB profile folder on my laptop, which I am reformatting.
I want to save all of my accounts, mail folders, address book, and filters.
The address book is easily exported, yet that is not the case with the
rest of the profile information.


Begin by downloading TB, and unzipping it somewhere in your system.
Open it up, and you can create dummy account info (just so that
a profile folder is created).

Open your old Thunderbird profile directory...

Go to your Application Data folder, \Thundbird\Profile

Copy the _________.slt folder within that profile folder (All we care
about is the stuff inside the folder, copying the folder itself
just makes it easier to keep track of).

Find your new TB Profile folder, open it. Open the new ______.slt
folder, and select ALL of its contents. Delete them.

Now, you're new TB Profile/_____.slt folder should be empty.

Open your OLD Prolfile/______.slt folder that you copied
earlier, and select all of the contents. Cut and paste them
into your new _______.slt folder that you just trashed the
contents of.

This is replacing your old settings, mail, filters, and address book
into your new TB profile folder. You're almost done.

In the stuff you just pasted, look for prefs.js.

All you need to do is edit this file:

Replace all of the directory addresses, with correct ones. If you have the exact
same setup as you did before, you can ignore this.

For example, I tranferred the folder from a computer, with a profile
address of:

C:\\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\\MIKE\\APPLICATION DATA\\THUNDERBIRD\\PROFILE

but, the new computer had a different user name:

C:\\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\\MICHAEL\\APPLICATION DATA\\THUNDERBIRD\\PROFILE

Just do a search and replace for the first address, replacing it with
the second address. This way, TB knows where it's profile info is.

Next, because we copied from an old profile folder, we need to update
the name of the profile.

For example, my OLD folder was called 2qrtu7b.slt
But, the new folder I pasted the old stuff into is
called u3qnmi3x.slt.

The prefs.js file will have the old profile folder name.
Just do a simple search and replace. Search for the old
folder name, and replace it with the new folder name.

Then the prefs.js will reference the profile folder name
correctly.

Open the TB program and it will reflect all of your accounts, all
of your mail settings, message filters, and address book.

Hope you found this helpfull... it took me a few days and testing to figure it all out.
moz
Posts: 6
Joined: September 23rd, 2003, 5:51 am

Post by moz »

Thanks for the info... You saved me (and I'm sure others) some time.
GinoCyber
Posts: 75
Joined: June 15th, 2003, 5:22 pm

Post by GinoCyber »

maybe I'm missing something but I just dragged the mailbox file and its associated msf file from tb on pc 1 to tb on pc2 and all was fine. Both installs of tb were in completely different paths including the mail location.

For some of my mailboxes, I just re-created the folders.
Bucan
Posts: 55
Joined: September 28th, 2003, 10:23 pm

Post by Bucan »

it does not quite work for me, and I cannot figure out why.

Evereything looks fine. However, I only have like a headline for each account, but I cannot access the folders. Nothing happens when I click on the accounts to open the folders. Does anyone know what's wrong?
Dunderklumpen
Posts: 16224
Joined: March 9th, 2003, 8:12 am

Post by Dunderklumpen »

Would not using this simple piece of software also work?

http://backup.jasnapaka.com/
Bucan
Posts: 55
Joined: September 28th, 2003, 10:23 pm

Post by Bucan »

point made and taken...

Thanks, it worked
User avatar
Lestaticon
Posts: 36
Joined: January 8th, 2004, 9:57 am
Location: Vermont
Contact:

Post by Lestaticon »

I had to also edit my chrome.rdf file and update all the lines there which pointed to my old profile directory.
User avatar
Carina
Posts: 11
Joined: October 27th, 2003, 2:23 am
Location: The Netherlands

Post by Carina »

Dunderklumpen wrote:Would not using this simple piece of software also work?

http://backup.jasnapaka.com/


do not seem to get it working, keep getting encrypt error..........
User avatar
yoannez
Posts: 18
Joined: January 22nd, 2003, 7:23 am

Post by yoannez »

Thats for windows blahhhg
Gentoo Linux www.gentoo.org
User avatar
Carina
Posts: 11
Joined: October 27th, 2003, 2:23 am
Location: The Netherlands

Post by Carina »

yoannez wrote:Thats for windows blahhhg


If you don't have anything usefull to say, then kyms !
User avatar
haz
Posts: 38
Joined: February 2nd, 2004, 12:29 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by haz »

Bucan wrote:it does not quite work for me, and I cannot figure out why.

Evereything looks fine. However, I only have like a headline for each account, but I cannot access the folders. Nothing happens when I click on the accounts to open the folders. Does anyone know what's wrong?


I get this behaviour after copying .msf files too.
User avatar
wildman
Posts: 222
Joined: June 20th, 2003, 12:20 pm
Location: Florida

Post by wildman »

New versions of the moz apps that support 'mbox' occaisionally need to generate new "summary" .msf files. Before copying them launch your Mail app using TB/MozMail/NSmessenger in your source profile. *Empty your Trash & Compress your folders* This will clean up any inconsistancies & make a cleaner migration of the mbox files (with no .ext). Exit all TB/Moz apps. Next go to your mailbox directory with a file explorer & sort by extension, select all the *.msf files and delete them, this needs to be done recursively. Now copy the mail dir to new profile & when TB/MozMail is started it will uncompress the mbox files, genereate new .msf summary files & recreate your local folders. I have fixed a number of corrupted mail problems using this method.

Manually Transfer Mail Files from Communicator, Netscape 6/7, Mozilla, to Netscape 7/Mozilla
http://home.att.net/~cherokee67/ns7mailtrnsfr.html

Unofficial Mozilla FAQ: How can I import Netscape 4 email into Mozilla Mail?
http://mozilla.gunnars.net/mozfaq_use.h ... cape4_mail

NETSCAPE & MOZILLA SOLUTIONS: Mail and Address Book
http://home.att.net/~cherokee67/index6.html#7mailab

Everything I know about Netscape-Mozilla Profiles is here... -HTH

Mozilla Profile Migration & FAQ - Mobile Profiles - MozillaZine Forums
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=54104
User avatar
Free Email Tutorials
Posts: 7
Joined: April 13th, 2006, 6:45 pm
Contact:

MozBackup &/vs Manual Backup

Post by Free Email Tutorials »

This page contains detailed information on how to transfer your profile manually, and covers what MozBackup does:

http://www.FreeEmailTutorials.com/mozil ... estore.cwd

HTH!
User avatar
linuxhelp
Posts: 7
Joined: January 8th, 2006, 11:37 pm

how to recreate a remove account in my TB-Profile

Post by linuxhelp »

Prio 1
#####

Hi all

need help to readd my old accounts for read old
mail from the removed inbox file
the old account was renamed

account.de to account-1.de

How can i import it or read the inbox??

Thanks Tom
User avatar
Daifne
Moderator
Posts: 123071
Joined: July 31st, 2005, 9:17 pm
Location: Where the Waters Meet, Wisconsin

Post by Daifne »

linuxhelp,

Dragging up a three year old topic for help with current versions isn't the best idea. Changes to the program will effect the answer. Please start a new topic. Thanks.
Locked