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How To Move Thunderbird Local Folders To Another Computer? Get Solution

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Written By Chirag Arora
Anuraag Singh
Approved By Anuraag Singh  
Published On September 21st, 2022
Reading Time 7 Minutes Reading

This article helps users to transfer Thunderbird local folders to a new computer. Users can easily move all Thunderbird data onto a new computer by exporting all Thunderbird data to an external device. This data may include Thunderbird emails, contacts, appointments, calendars, address books, sites, passwords, and other data from one computer to another. Learn how to move Thunderbird local folders to another computer?

Thunderbird’s free manual and advanced methods help a user to transfer Thunderbird data to another computer. This simple tutorial will enable users to resolve queries such as how to move Thunderbird local folders to another computer and to keep the security and retention of all folders and configuration data. For non-technical users, this is a very critical task, which is why we discuss the possible solutions in the simplest way to achieve this task.

Challenge While Transferring Thunderbird Local Folders to New Computer

Thunderbird is one of the most popular email clients because it is easy to use and supports multiple email protocols such as POP3, IMAP, SMTP and more. The most important reason for its global reach is that it is free and available for open source for further development. For many of us, a store of important information and business contacts could be in a mailbox file. Similarly, Thunderbird stores all important data in the profile directory, such as email, contacts, calendar, address book, settings, saved passwords, additional data, and more. Unfortunately, the Thunderbird settings have no options for exporting your data and sites to another file supported by Thunderbird. In this case, the only possible method is to manually copy the configuration folder to the new computer and allow Thunderbird to access the profile folder.

Is this method worthwhile, however? Then data security and hierarchy folders, email attributes, directory analysis, email integrity and is not a safe way. There is always the possibility of losing data and format. Therefore, you must have any professional Thunderbird Backup Software to prove it is very powerful. Before we discuss how to transfer Thunderbird’s email to a new computer, we analyze some queries from users to see the exact case:

“I just bought a new Windows 10 computer and want to transfer my Thunderbird email to my new computer in new user account. Please explain how to move Thunderbird local folders to another computer? – but it seems there is no direct solution, Can you help me?”

Garry Orton, New York, March 1, 2019

“One of my clients installed a new Windows 7 and wondered if the account settings on Mozilla Thunderbird could be translated / copied in some way, so it didn’t want to replace it. All these installation moves to a newly installed email client Mozilla (Thunderbird) saves lots of time and work.”

Sophia Jones, Canada, February 11, 2019

How To Move Thunderbird Local Folders To Another Computer? Free Solution

There is no doubt that if users want to switch Thunderbird emails to a new computer, the main option is always free. The good thing is that it is really possible. Unlike Outlook, Thunderbird saves its mailbox items and storage in its Profile directory instead of the Program directory. Therefore, you only need to copy all the Thunderbird Profile directory to an external device and then paste it into the target computer, allowing Thunderbird to load data from the generated configuration path.

To know How to move Thunderbird local folders to another computer, just follow the below-mentioned steps:

    • Browse Thunderbird Profile folder path on your system or your computer. You can browse it the way you want: run Thunderbird menu >> Tools >> and click on Settings Account Settings >> Select Server Settings and you will see the local directory path at the bottom. Click the Browse button and copy the path. Run Windows Explorer and paste the path into the explorer’s address bar. The requested Thunderbird Profile folder will be displayed immediately

How To Move Thunderbird Local Folders To Another Computer?

  • Another way to locate the path to the Thunderbird configuration file is to copy ‘% APPDATA% Thunderbird‘ in the clipboard text. Press the Start button, then press the CTRL + V option and press Enter. The requested profile path will be displayed.
  • There may be one or more Thunderbird configuration folders. You can use the Change Date sorting feature to select new Thunderbird Profile directories
  • After successfully selecting the folder, select the external folder by right clicking on the property or press ALT + ENTER to check the folder size by folder size, such as CD, DVD, Blu-ray, Pen drive, hard drive, etc. Copy all folders and paste them into the requested external device, then delete the device from the host computer
  • Now insert the external device into the new computer. Paste the Profiles folder to the application site of your new computer. While this depends on your choice, it is recommended that these items are affixed to the same Thunderbird configuration file location
    Follow the procedure 2 to do this. Copy ‘% APPDATA% Thunderbird‘ into the clipboard and paste it from the Start menu into the Windows search box
  • Run Thunderbird and go to Tools menu >> Account Settings and select Server Settings. Now browse to the safe folder and click “OK
  • If the user wants to create a new Thunderbird configuration file for the mailbox project generated for further use. Run the Thunderbird Profile Manager. Copy ‘thunderbird-profilemanager‘ from the clipboard and paste it (CTRL + V) from the front menu into the Windows search box
  • The Thunderbird Profile Manager window should now be displayed. Click the “Create Profile” button. He says “Welcome to the Create Profile Wizard“. Click Next and the Name of the New Profile will be displayed. The default is “Default User” – use it and then click the “Select Folder” button. By default, Thunderbird goes to the “standard” location where the configuration files are stored on the hard drive. At this point, you should see two folder profiles: the new profile created when Thunderbird was installed on the new computer, and the old profile copied from the media. Select the old profile folder, click on the Finish button, and then click Exit
  • Launch Mozilla Thunderbird and you will see that the old Thunderbird profile data was transferred to a new computer with a precise email format and folder hierarchy.

Limitations and disadvantages of using free solution: The main problem with this is that Mozilla Thunderbird is a cross-platform email client. Thus, a Thunderbird file directory path can be very much from one operating system to another system. For example, the Thunderbird configuration settings on different operating systems are:

Windows OS: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

Mac OSX: Users/UserName/Library/Application Support/

Therefore, carefully copy all local Thunderbird folders and save them to ZIP, TGZ, DMG or any other compressed folder.

How to Move Thunderbird Local Folders to Another Computer – Automated Solution

Due to the limitations and deficiencies in the free mode, it is a sensible choice for users to select a professional method with the assistance of third-party applications, SysTools Thunderbird Import Wizard. The software provides users with direct options to import Thunderbird Mail data into the Thunderbird Mail client. Users need only select the Thunderbird Profile source, and the software will immediately import these items into a new Thunderbird program on the new computer. This utility has features to move data from one Thunderbird program to another Thunderbird program.

Conclusion

In this article we discussed how to move Thunderbird local folders to another computer. We discussed the key challenges, user needs, and implementation. We use the highway by transferring a Thunderbird profile directory to a new computer. The profile folder stores everything, such as email, emails with attachments, mailing lists, account settings, Thunderbird settings, stored passwords, tasks, calendar details, and add-ons data. Copy the Thunderbird configuration file file to an external storage device and paste it into your new computer.

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By Chirag Arora

Having around 9+ years of experience in technical writing. Knows about the core technical areas. Also, provides easy and reliable solutions to resolve difficulties faced by users while working with different platforms.