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Moved data to new computer; TB is picking up LocalFolders but not accounts or address books
I have used Thunderbird for well over a decade, from back in the days of TB 3. My most recent installation was, IIRC TB 50-something though it might have been high 40's.
I store all my TB data on a data partition at F:\My Documents\GMMail\Thunderbird. So the Mail and ImapMail folders are in the Thunderbird folder. I have numerous POP accounts of which several use Local Folders and about 50 filters to organize incoming mail. A few POP accounts use their own inbox and filters. I also have half a dozen IMAP accounts with their own filters. I also have several address books sync'ed with various Google Contacts accounts. And several calendars stored on Google plus a couple of local ones.
I had a system failure on my 3 year old laptop so I bought a new one and copied all my data over to it from a recent data backup. I replaced the profile.ini file in Appdata\Roaming\Thunderbird with the one from my old C drive backup. It points to my TB profile stored in my data partition.
I launched TB, and I can see all my local folders and the filters associated with it but none of my accounts is present (including their filters) nor are my address books other than Personal and Collected addresses. None of my Calendars are listed either.
Has TB 60 changed how these accounts are accessed? Do I need to install an older version of TB and then migrate to 60? Does TB store some data elsewhere than AppData\roaming\thunderbird? (Appdata\local\thunderbird seems to contain a copy of the profile but nothing else.)
I am on Windows 10 x64. I tried using the builtin Mail program in the meantime but it is missing essential mail functionality like setting the from & reply-to addresses, requesting a Read Receipt, filters, etc. So not a viable option.
Thanks in advance for your help.
All Replies (3)
I presume you have created the same location on new computer. F:\My Documents\GMMail\Thunderbird
I presume that is a copy from the old computer containing all files etc.
Thunderbird must be closed on both computers.
On old computer: Access: C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird Copy the 'Thunderbird' folder.
On new computer: Access: C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming folder. Delete the 'Thunderbird' folder. Paste the copied 'Thunderbird' folder into the 'Roaming' folder.
start Thunderbird.
This is exactly what I did every time I have had to reinstall Windows or move between computers. This is the first time TB has not just picked up where I left off.
I tried TB 60 first and when that didn't work, I uninstalled and installed TB 52. Could TB 60 have "upgraded" some files so that TB 52 couldn't read them?
Thinking out a loud here: Thunderbird would not be able to read any file if 'Windows' has applied a security setting. I mention this because another TB user said that their popstate.dat file could not be opened/edited even with TB closed. They discovered that Windows had applied a security settings to it.
Check to see if you/ your user account have full permissions for all the files and folders in Thunderbird. eg: in 'Mail' folder for pop mail account names folders.