[throoper]

The Windows version shouldn't matter.
You mentioned in post 11 that it was creating a .default folder on exit.
I wonder if it's lost track of where it's profile is located.
You might try creating a new profile. Name it New so the folder created will be ******.new.
Be sure to open Thunderbird in the new profile to activate it.
Then use the *****.new folder for the file swap.

[Abraham Y. Chen]

Hi, throper:

Good to know that Windows versions do not matter.

But, you lost me on the .default folder. What do you mean by "open Thunderbird in the new profile to activate it."? I having been invoking Thunderbird by double clicking on an desktop graphic icon representing it. The ****.default folder is created after I have exited Thunderbird. Are you saying that I should find something in the profile copied from my source PC and double click it to start up Thunderbird?

Abe (2008-12-15, 20:32)

[throoper]

Here are the step by step instructions for moving the profile from an old machine to a new machine.

On the new machine.

Press the Win+R keys to open the Run box.
On the Comand line type thunderbird.exe -P (note the space between the exe and the -P). Click OK.
In the Profile Manager, click "Create Profile".
On the Wizard, click "Next".
On the "Enter Profile Name" line, type New.
Click Finish.
Uncheck "Don't ask at startup".
Select New on the list and click "Start Thunderbird" to open it in the New profile.
Don't set up any accounts or Import anything. Close Thunderbird.

Go to the Profile folder. There should be 2 folders in it, ********.default and ********.new (with ****** being 8 random characters).
Open the ********.new folder and click Edit>Select All.
Click File>Delete.

If you haven't done this already, place a copy of the entire ********.default folder from the old machine onto the Desktop of the new machine.
(This assumes that this is a properly working profile on the old machine, meaning accounts, mail, everything works)
Open the ********.default folder on the Desktop and click Edit>Select all.
Click Edit>Copy.

Now in the empty ********.new folder, Click Edit>Paste.
Open Thunderbird.
The Profile Manager should come up.
Make sure New is selected and click "Start Thunderbird".
Thunderbird should open with everything exactly as it was on the old machine.

If the new profile is OK, the next time you open Thunderbird, highlight and delete the default profile in the Profile Manager.
New should now be highlighted, and you can place a check in "Don't ask at startup" so the Profile Manager doesn't open when you start Thunderbird.

[Abraham Y. Chen]

Hi, throoper:

1) Thanks for the step-by-step instruction. It works!

2) To minimize head-scratching for future readers of this thread, I like to make the following notes:

A. There are actually two places under WinVista on my HP pavilion DV6500CTO Notebook that have this "Profile" folder:
a. One is under \username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\
b. The other one is \username\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\

Somehow, when I was going through the cloning process, I could not find the ********.New folder that I just created under the second path which looked more logical. Since I recall that the word "roaming" was mentioned earlier, I went through the first path and found it.

More interestingly, after I got the cloning process completed and the original ********.default folder deleted, I found only ********.New in both paths (with the same name). However, the one under "Roaming" has two sub-folders, "extensions" and "Mail" plus 25 other files, while the "Local" path has only two files, "XPC.mfl" (978 KB) and "XUL.mfl" (1,335 KB). So, the first one is complete clone (about 1.75 GB). (This probably explains why I could not get this done previously, because I was trying to do the file copying to the "wrong" folder.

B. I am not sure how to follow the steps toward the end where the contents of ********.New are deleted and then replaced with those from the working PC. I just used basic Windows Explorer procedures for highlighting , then deleting or copying followed by pasting. They did the tasks need.

Thanks again.

Now I will to work on cloning Thunderbird onto my Ubuntu.


Abe (2008-12-17, 10:25)

[throoper]

Well, it works now on Vista so you're halfway there.
Can't help you with finding things on Ubuntu, but the principle for putting the old profile into the new should be the same.

The folder under Roaming is the Profile that is used for your settings and mail.
The one under Local is the cache information and can be ignored unless you need to do a "Clean Install".

The way you did the swap is fine. You can do it using Folder Tasks, Menu bar commands, Right click menu, or Keyboard. They are all different ways of doing the same thing and it's just a matter of what you're used to.

T.

[TerryNet]

To review Ubuntu, the .mozilla directory you found is because Firefox is installed by default.

If you installed Thunderbird and ran it once, I do not understand why there is no .mozilla-thunderbird directory.

[kindMess]

Thanks guys! This worked perfectly.
I did not know about the "roaming" vs "local" folders.
(moving from XP to Vista)

As Abraham Y. Chen kindly pointed out, the problem for me was that I incorrectly pasted the profile into the AppData\Local\Thunderbird\ folder.

Worth mentioning again:
Paste the profile into the AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\ folder!

Thanks again.