import thunderbird email from windows computer saved on thumb drive

Asked by T Heislen

I have Thunderbird email files saved from an old Windows compter on a thumb drive. Is there a way to import them to Thunderbird on my new computer (running Hardy)?

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Answered
For:
Ubuntu thunderbird Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Pablo Rubianes (pablorubianes-uy) said :
#1

Yes you can.
you have to copy into your thumb drive the C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Thunderbird files and copy that in /home/username/.mozilla-thunderbird

Revision history for this message
T Heislen (theislen) said :
#2

Sorry to be slow in getting back to this--busy weekend. I've copied the file as instructed, but can't get anything to happen.

Revision history for this message
Pablo Rubianes (pablorubianes-uy) said :
#3

Well there is another solution, you can copy you windows thunderbird profile into your linux thunderbird and in this way you have all your preferences set up.
You have to do this:
First set up a new profile in thunderbird, this will get stored under /home/username/.mozilla-thunderbird/xxxxxxxxxx.default (where xxxxxx is some value)
then you have to copy all the files from your windows profile into the linux one. the windows profile is in C:/Documents and Settings/Application Data/Thunderbird/xxxxxx.default in xp or C:\Users\Pablo\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default in vista.
This may or may not include your mail folders, which by default are stored under the profile, but may be customized. In my case, the mail folders were on another drive accessible to both Windows and Linux, so I just let them stay there.

In the profile data is a file called prefs.js. This include the setup of email and newsfeed accounts. In this file are paths to the mail folders. In the Windows profile, these point to something like C:\…\…\. These obviously do not work under Linux, so edit all occurrences to the new path, e.g. something like /home//.thunderbird/xxxxxxx.default/mail/...

Hope this help you. in my computer the first answer work but in my brother computer the second work.

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask T Heislen for more information if necessary.

To post a message you must log in.