Move from linux to windows - all I have is the thunderbird files
I have moved from a Linux computer to windows. I have the Thunderbird profile directory from the linux box, which has been dismantled. I know that back in the day you were able to open and import those directories in a new installation. It appears that is not a option in Thunderbird 44. It looks like I can import from outlook but not Thunderbird. I tried the new profile thing but that did not work. I have a bunch on .msf file and I would like to import them. Is ther any way to do that? Also, the suggestion that you upload your email to google and then download it again as a method of importation is ridiculous. If I wanted google to read my email I would use Gmail. Well, thanks for any help anyone can give
Chosen solution
The fundamentals of a Thunderbird profile have not change in almost a decade.
Your profiles.ini file is not part of the installation. It is in the appdata folder, the same tree your profile will be in.
appdata\thunderbird is the profiles.ini. normally the profiles are in a folder profiles below this.
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (7)
I tried the new profile thing but that did not workHow did it not work? I have moved profiles in both directions between Linux and Windows. Apart from some issues with absolute pathnames (Windows doesn't understand ~/.thunderbird) and two incompatible add-ons (Lightning and Enigmail) it works just fine.
I created a new profile using thunderbird -p. That created a directory C:\....\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles\s4wqkgkz.Buddy (My profile is called Buddy). I then copied the entire contents of the old directory which was called .thunderbird\mrz87ie5.default into the new directory. I then started thunderbird with the new profile. There are no emails or anything in the new profile. It wants me to set up an email account. I just want to get at my old emails. The directory ...\s4wqkgkz.Buddy\Mail\Local Folders is full of .msf files. I am sure you used to be able to open them from thunderbird. So, I do not know how it did not work, but it didn't.
msf files are index files and can be re-created from the actual message files. Every msf file is paired with another file of the same name but with no extension. Hence an inbox is represented by Inbox, and indexed by Inbox.msf.
I would guess that you have copied too much or too little or into a subfolder.
Check the contents of profiles.ini. Is the folder name and the path to it stored in profiles.ini consistent with the reality? At some point I found that the profile data had been relocated into a subfolder called Profiles, but my profiles.ini didn't anticipate this intermediate folder.
Modified by Zenos
Well if it is asking you to create a new account, it is not finding a complete profile, or not finding one at all.
Does your backup copy have a prefs.js file?
There is no profiles.ini in the windows installation. I would suspect that the information on which profile to use is stored somewhere else.
There is a prefs.js file. It was copied over from the linux installation to the windows installation, along with everything else.
I am looking at the directory structure for the windows installation. I misspoke earlier. I am on thunderbird 38.5.1. It is clear that this is completely different from my old installation. There are a bunch of directories most of which have the word "cache" in the name. There is no "Mail" directory. There are no .msf files. It is becoming clear to me that I will never view my old emails with the current thunderbird software.
Chosen Solution
The fundamentals of a Thunderbird profile have not change in almost a decade.
Your profiles.ini file is not part of the installation. It is in the appdata folder, the same tree your profile will be in.
appdata\thunderbird is the profiles.ini. normally the profiles are in a folder profiles below this.
I think I have it now. It needed to be in the Roaming folder and not the Local folder. Thanks for all your input.