16 Comments

• Just like Firefox, you can just copy your profile from the old machine into your new profile.
  

• just type %APPDATA% in start/run and you will have the explorer open to the application data folder where you can just copy your profile under thunderbird to your new machine and you are up and running.
  

• I already tried copying the .msf file and folder from the ImapMail folder on the old machine to the ImapMail folder on the new machine, but the new Thunderbird does not recognize the new files as accounts...
  

• I tried that utility, but it ended up wiping my accounts clean.
  

• I agree, even to today, 2 years later, it's still a pain in the ass to export/import mail. I guess it never comes up with the developers. Outlook was as simple as can be. Export to a PST file, import the PST file and that's it.
  
  1) Thunderbird, copy a bunch of files over, hope they work.
  
  2) Export all of your messages to .eml files, import all the .eml files in OE, import mail from OE, reorganize them.
  

• "no wonder a majority of people use Microsoft products as opposed to the others"
  
  McDonalds sells more burgers than anyone else , but that doesn't mean that their food is good.
  
  Similarly, people blinly clinging to Microsoft just proves that the majority of people no nothing about stability or usability.
  
  Use Outlook and it will infect your machine with a virus without even opening the maicious email. Ever wonder why you can't attach .exe files anymore?
  
  Stop blaming others for your own incompetence!!!
  
  Did you ever think to backup important data BEFORE messing with something you don't understand? Did you ever wonder how the tool can be used successfully by thousands of people every day, but it doesn't work for you?
  
  You're just too stupid to use a computer...much less read directions.
  

• I too have been searching for a good import/export utility for Thunderbird. I've successfully copied over accounts from profiles on old machines, but this manual file management is counterintuitive to making Thunderbird popular to everyone. Everyone should have something on a menu that says export Thunderbird account (Tools>Export?) which lets the user choose which of their accounts export. Let say it writes the entire account to an xml file within a zip (maybe 7z format?) file to hold other binary data. The compressed file could be a new file type, say... cta (compressed thunderbird account) or how about xta (extensible thunderbird account)? This xta file could be copied over to the new machine and imported into the new Thunderbird profile via Tools>Import>Mail>From File. A tool like this would really help a lot of Thunderbird users maintain their own machines, and encourage others to try Thunderbird, knowing that they will be able to instruct their non-geek friends on the phone about how to move to a new PC while using Thunderbird only.
  

• learn to spell, then give out Verbal lashings.
  
  
  

• How about your mail were they moved too?
  

• i  have one profile to import to an existing mozila acount.
  
  I have the other profile saved in
  
  AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\85s8qpq9.default\Mail\Local Folders
  
  im trying to import using this comands.
  
  tools\import\mail\eudora
  
  and then i place the location where the profile is saved but when i try to import it says: it didint found any email box to import
  
  what the hell am i doing wrong ????
  
  

• putting all the bickering on this site aside, where is a simple solution PLEASE?  i consider myself a fairly computer literate person, but all the solutions in the google searches that i've seen so far are bloody complicated and don't seem to be appropriate for all types of systems...
  
  why oh why did I change from outlook when changing PCs was so simple?
  
  I'm really starting to think that thunderbird was made by nerds and is for noone but nerds.
  
  

• I wish to move my mail messages from one machine XP to another Vista. Where do they live on XP? I will move my profile as well, which I beleive is covered above. What has not be covered is "how do I move my mail messages". This should be as simple as copying a parent mail folder over. Any help would be appreciated.
  
  For the record, I stopped using Outlook a while ago because it couldn't handle the amount of emails I wish to store - it crashed, burned and corrupted my machine. Thunderbird has been great.
  

• go into your old profile folder and fetch the "inbox" and "inbox.msf" files, rename them to "inbox1" and inbox1.msf" respectively and put them in the new profile folders. A new folder will show up in your inbox called "inbox1", you can then transfer all wanted messages into your inbox and delete the folder.
  

• Do you belive that is extramly EASY.
  Import mail from old pc to new pc.
  1.For old pc, Change store folder of account to be d:\email and change local folder to be d:\local so everything are here .right?
  2. Copy everythings in old pc d:\email,d:\local to new pc d:\email, d:\local consequency.
  3.Set up Thunderbird into new pc ,make it work then change store folder of account to be d:\email and local d:\local
  

• Hi Folks ! just ran into this kind of problem just now (yeah, it's 2010 and I'm still running Thunderbird 2.0.0.12). The import facility sucks .. but in a friendly way - it's *trying* to import a structure, not just an mbox file like I wanted to import. But here's my quick and dirty guide:
  
  - Create a local folder under your Thunderbird Local Folders.
  
  - Find that folder in your Application Data\Thunderbird\<random name>.default\Profiles\Mail\Local Folders
  
  - Copy your mbox file over the (should be empty)
  
  folder
  
  - Start Thunderbird. It will rebuild it's index or summary file.
  
  - Access normally.
  
  Worked fine for me just now. My home machine is running win/2k and as mentioned above Thunderbird 2.0.0.18. (The reason all my stuff is old is 'cuz I prefer less bloat).
  
  

• When i'm tried to copy old thundebird's profile directly to a new installation and then tried to start, it was saying that "another copy of Thinderbird is already running". ps -A|grep thunder get no result, system restarting does not help.
  
  In MS Outlook migration is much more easy!