Mozilla Thunderbird may be an excellent email client (and PIM with the right extensions) but for all the wealth of extensions available and it’s myriad of import options, it’s still incredibly difficult to export data such as email, accounts and settings.
I faced that very problem today.
When I’m developing or doing video editing on my main laptop I don’t want to have my email client running. Having it open is not only a distraction but sucks up valuable resources, so today I decided to install a second copy of Thunderbird on my other machine so I could access my email no matter what I was doing or running.
I access all of my email through IMAP, so if I had just a single email address I wouldn’t have worried too much about just installing Thunderbird and manually setting up the account. Unfortunately I am not blessed enough to get by with just a single email address, not even remotely close, so other methods were required.
The method I’m about to show you will work on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, can be accomplished in less than 10 minutes and will allow you keep all of your email settings and email (doesn’t matter if you use POP3 or IMAP).
In order to make the migration, you’ll need a flash drive (preferably with a large storage capacity if you are a POP3 user), portable hard drive or a network connection with shared folders between both machines.
I’ll be explaining how to do it using a flash drive or portable hard drive.
Okay lets get started shall we?
Download the latest version of Thunderbird to the machine you want to install it on ans start the installation process.
While that is installing got to the machine where your email currently exists.
Make sure that Thunderbird isn’t running and plug in your thumbdrive.
Windows Vista and Windows 7 navigate to the following location:
C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Thuderbird\Profiles\
Windows XP users browse to:
C:\Documents and Settings\Paul\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\
Inside that folder you’ll see a file that should be named something like: XXXXXXX.default
Copy this file to your flash drive. You may need to compress it using a tool like 7Zip if it’s too large to fit on the flash drive.
Once it’s copied eject the thumbdrive and and take it back to the machine you just installed Thunderbird on.
Make sure Thunderbird is fully installed and then run Thunderbird for the first time.
Once it starts exit out immediately. Don’t enter any data or set anything up. By letting it run once it set up all the folders you need in your Application Data folder which we can now replace with the file on your flash drive.
Once Thunderbird is closed, navigate to the same folder as you were at before (except on the new machine) and delete the XXXXXXX.default file you find in there.
Once it’s deleted copy the XXXXXXX.default file from your thumbdrive (decompress if necessary) into the folder.
Next Windows Vista and Windows 7 users should navigate to:
Windows Vista and Windows 7 navigate to the following location:
C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Thuderbird\
Windows XP users navigate to:
C:\Documents and Settings\Paul\Application Data\Thunderbird\
Inside this folder you’ll find a file called profiles.ini.
Open profiles.ini using Notepad or your favorite text editor.
It should look something like this:
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/XXXXXXX.default
Change the value of XXXXXXX.default in profiles.ini to match the value of the original XXXXXXX.default file you copied from your flash drive.
Save the file, close all open windows and start Thunderbird.
If you’ve done everything correctly Thunderbird should start up without problems.
If you get an error saying something like: “Thunderbird is already running in another window“, then recheck the value of XXXXXXX.default in profiles.ini.
If it doesn’t match the original value then things won’t work and Thunderbird will keep throwing that error.
If you originally created your signatures for your email accounts inside Thunderbird then you’re all done.
If, like me, you’ve got them saved as text files then you’ll need to copy them to the new machine and go into the account settings for each email account and make sure that it is pointing to the correct location for you signature files.
That’s it, you’re all done 
Thank you so much for posting this information. I had been to so many tech sites that claimed to have easy solutions for migrating Thunderbird from one PC to another but did not. The step by step process you provided worked like a charm.
Bob
thanks for the migration procedure worked like a charm. i’m computer illiterate and still had no problem using your method. most of the other information i found on this job were complicated. yours was so easy even a caveman (me) could do it.
BTW like the brain to mouth quote, been that way since birth and it causes problems…people don’t like the truth
Brilliant post! very useful.
Hi there, Thank you so much for your advice in migrating thunderbird. Your steps were very easy to follow and worked brilliantly.
Some othere sites were so technical you needed a degree to understand it.
So thanks heaps. Got it all done now and only took a few minutes.
Cheers
Thank y0u so much for that. Even a technophobe like me could follow y0our steps easilly. You are a star!!
Having scoured the universe for a solution to this problem, it was a relief to find a simple way that worked without the risk of a complete meltdown!
Thankyou
After much websearching, why has no one ever thought to do this before. Thankyou so much for taking the time to do this step by step instruction. was getting nowhere fast with every other search I have tried. Thankyou again. Rob
Well done, easy to follow. Worked like a charm.
Great! This Thunderbird migration tutorial was exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!
Got here thanks to Google. This is exactly what I needed! I’d done it before from XP to XP, but I wasn’t sure where to go with Win7. Thanks!
Thank you! You made my day!!!!!!
Going from XP to W7 worked great and is so much easier than some other methods on the web, and it takes all the subfolders and email settings etc. all in one swoop! Thanks.
I just migrated from Windows Vista to Windows 7. Thanks to your brilliant support notes I just moved from Thunderbird (with its all 5 email accounts) to the Windows 7 environment smoothly without any hassles.
Thanks for your notes.
Thanks. You did save me a couple of hours.
Well, it doesn’t work for me. I started when Thunderbird first came out and my folders are in my “My Documents” folder. There appears to be some configuration difference between my folder installation and newer versions.
I’m sorry it doesn’t work for you Bob. I hope you find a solution.
Paul – great instructions. Thanks.
Thanks so much for posting this. I found other how-to’s, but none worked or were as complete as yours. You’ve made my folks happy campers that I could migrate their email from one computer to another.
I’m glad you found it useful Kyle
Paul, Thanks a mill! Great, simple and very useful info!
Looks great and easy to use. Will it work in migrating Thunderbird to Windows 8 Pro?
I haven’t tried it, on Win 8, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t – the file structure hasn’t changed.
This has been confirmed working on Windows 8.
Tried it on Win 8 today, works just fine
Such great instructions, easy to follow and it worked perfectly! THANK YOU!
Great instructions! My contacts list is quite large, and rebuilding it manually was unthinkable. Thanks so much!
Thank you so much. Here is to HOURS of work that you just saved me. Really appreciate the clear cut step by step. I made the migration to Windows 8 without issue.
Thanks! Mozbackup failed me twice, but this worked great.
That worked like a charm. No problems, not headaches. Just worked, which is very rare these days.
Thank you so much Paul, a fantastic and easy to follow set of instructions.
I didn’t even use Mozbackup as other sites suggest. Sounded like a real pain the backside.
Your method is the best!
So happy that it worked for you
Just installed an SSD and needed to import my settings for Thunderbird and all of my emails. Thanks for posting this. Very useful and straightforward! Worked without any problems!
I just have to add that this is NOT easy if you have used different hard drives to install Thunderbird onto.
e.g. XP pc was installed at D:\Programs\thunderbird and under Tools, account settings, Server settings (at the bottom: “local directory”)
E:\email\thunderbird\……
On laptop (I don’t have the same luxury of hard drive choice!), installed in same place D:\Programs\thunderbird, BUT tools, account settings, Server settings when checked came out as
C:\E:\email\thunderbird\…… so this got corrupted, as you can see, once this was fixed it all worked fine!
BUT the secret, leave everything at default when installing. Its just that I like things organised and avoid C drive at all costs!
What a pain this was!!
This works OK, unless you (like me!) have installed the original Thunderbird on another drive. (I hate installing programs to C drive)
e.g. I installed on an XP machine at D:\Programs\Thunderbird.
I installed on a windows 7 laptop in the same location. (no problem)
The difference being that under “tools”, “Account settings”, “server settings” local directory was set to E:\email\thunderbird\ E:\ drive does not exist on my laptop!
So, when transferred to the laptop and check this setting, it was actually: C:\E:\email\thunderbird\
As you can see, it got corrupted. I corrected this and (eventually) everything worked OK!!)
To keep things easy, install with defaults!
worked like a charm. I copied the entire contents including the profile.ini so I didn’t have to edit it.
Couldn`t have asked for an easier tutorial…many thanks…..
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Worked like a charm (going from Windows XP to Windows 8) even though I had previously installed and set up Thunderbird on my new computer (too eager). No problem overwriting with the profile info I copied from the old computer. As good as or better than having my own home IT department.
BRILLIANT!! This worked seamlessly, and as advertised, 10 minutes or less, and that was transfering from XP to 7. I had to do the same type of transfer for a Eudora holdout moving to Windows 7 as well, and it toko hours to fix the address box entries and mailboxes. SO THANK YOU!
Like everyone else said this worked perfectly and is so fast. Thanks for the tip.