Thunderbird migration

[dfklink]

I’m a newby to Linux, but have used HP-UX before retiring 13 years ago. However, I was NOT an IT guy. As I get older and being alone at home, Windows has become an unbearable burden. So after a long investigation I’ve decided to try Mint - MATE. Using two great online web tutorials, I have successfully installed Mint 15 as a dual boot with Windows 7. I plan to ditch Windows 7 once I have migrated everything I need from Window’s. To wit: I think I remember seeing that as part of the installation process Mint 15 would ask me if I wanted to migrate my Firefox and Thunderbird setup/data from Windows to Mint. However, that opportunity was never presented to me during my installation, so my question is, how do I invoke that operation? I’m mainly concerned with Thunderbird; that’s the one I would really like to have migrated as easily as possible. I’ve searched the forum and Googled looking for the answer, but can find nothing regarding this Mint 15 installation option. Did I just misinterpret something - I read a lot of stuff before diving in. By the way, one of the really cool things about Linux is it being able to “see” the Windows files. That made moving most other wanted Windows data really easy! Thanks. -Dave

[ej64]

Though I can't tell anything about an automatic migration whilst the mint installation I can point you to the necessary steps.

It's not difficult but you should mind a few points -- here's a howto and it's still the same:
[url=http://fosswire.com/post/2008/03/migrate-your-thunderbird-emails-from-windows-to-linux/]http://fosswire.com/post/2008/03/migrate-your-thunderbird-emails-from-windows-to-linux[/url]/

Enjoy!

[Reorx]

The short explaination is >>> migrate the Thrunderbird profile from the old machine to the new machine and voila - you are done... There is more than one way to do this... my way goes something like this >>>

1) Locate the source Thunderbird profile.
2) Determine its size because you will need a flash drive or external USB HD large enough to copy the profile onto.
3) Copy the source profile to an appropriate USB flash drive.
4) Locate the Thunderbird profile on the new machine... it is located in a hidden folder named .thunderbird (in your home folder). The name of the profile folder is "8characters".default
* if there is no Thunderbird profile on the new machine, it is because Thunderbird has never been started for this user as the profile is created the first time Thunderbird is opened. In order to create a profile, open Thunderbird and then close it.
5) Next, copy the Thunder profile (folder) from the USB flash drive to the folder where the "new" Thunderbird profile is stored.
6) Next, rename the NEW profile from "8characters".default to "8characters"-old.default.
7) Next, rename the profile that you copied from the USB to the profile folder... the new name will be the exact name of the profile you just renamed (before your renamed it) >>> "8characters'.default.
8- Start Thunderbird. You should see an exact copy of the Thunderbird that you have on your other machine... every e-mail account... ever e-mail in every folder... every attachment... every field of every address book entry... all there and ready to keep on working...

Enjoy!

- R -

P.S.: Firefox also stores everything in a "profile" folder as well... you can migrate your Firefox as I have described above for Thunderbird. The only difference is that the profiles are located in ~/mozilla/firefox/"8characters".default (on your linux machine). If you migrate a Firefox profile, everything comes over with the migration... history, cookies, passwords, addons, bookmarks, etc... it's pretty cool... but double edged... Caveat Mover!...

[usbtux]

Backup and import your profile to a new install, in Firefox or Thunderbird; Windows or Linux.

How do I find my profile?

Windows/Linux

Backup
At the top of the Firefox/Thunderbird window, click on the Help menu and select Troubleshooting Information. The Troubleshooting Information tab will open.
Under the Application Basics section, click on Open Directory. A window with your profile files will open.

You should now be inside your profile folder, go up, to the directory containing the profile.
Using your file manager, copy the profile folder somewhere safe.

Import
So you've copied the profile folder from the windows machine.
Place this folder somewhere in your home folder.
Then from a terminal type thunderbird -profilemanager

Thunderbird profile manager will start.

Click - Create Profile
Click - Next
Click - Choose Folder. - Then browse to your profile in your home.
Click - Open
Change the name from Default User to whatever you want.
Click - Finish.

Delete the Default User profile, Highlight the Default User profile then click Delete Profile, then click start Thunderbird
OR
Double Click on the new imported profile.

Then click Start Thunderbird - it will start with all your settings, addons, accounts and emails exactly the same as you took it from the XP Thunderbird.



Here's a quick video for firefox profile manager = its exactly the same https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/386753/ffprof.webm

Exactly the same process for firefox (firefox -profilemanager).

[dfklink]

Thanks guys. Your suggestions worked great. One hint I discovered: you do not need to use a USB stick (or any intermediate storage) if you are on a dual boot system - just mount the Windows partition and copy the files directly across. Thanks again.
-Dave

[Ranthe]

The short explaination is >>> migrate the Thrunderbird profile from the old machine to the new machine and voila - you are done... There is more than one way to do this... my way goes something like this >>>

1) Locate the source Thunderbird profile.
2) Determine its size because you will need a flash drive or external USB HD large enough to copy the profile onto.
3) Copy the source profile to an appropriate USB flash drive.
4) Locate the Thunderbird profile on the new machine... it is located in a hidden folder named .thunderbird (in your home folder). The name of the profile folder is "8characters".default
* if there is no Thunderbird profile on the new machine, it is because Thunderbird has never been started for this user as the profile is created the first time Thunderbird is opened. In order to create a profile, open Thunderbird and then close it.
5) Next, copy the Thunder profile (folder) from the USB flash drive to the folder where the "new" Thunderbird profile is stored.
6) Next, rename the NEW profile from "8characters".default to "8characters"-old.default.
7) Next, rename the profile that you copied from the USB to the profile folder... the new name will be the exact name of the profile you just renamed (before your renamed it) >>> "8characters'.default.
8- Start Thunderbird. You should see an exact copy of the Thunderbird that you have on your other machine... every e-mail account... ever e-mail in every folder... every attachment... every field of every address book entry... all there and ready to keep on working...

I've followed these instructions with great success - all my Thunderbird mail has been sucessfully migrated over from Windows to Linux.

The one oddity I have noticed (and it's pretty minor) is that my Linux Thunderbird now seems to think it's the Windows version:

Code: Select all

  Application Basics

    Name: Thunderbird
    Version: 31.1.2
    User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.23) Gecko/20090812 Lightning/0.9 Thunderbird/2.0.0.23 Mnenhy/0.7.5.0
    Profile Directory: Open Directory

              (Unknown location)
    Application Build ID: 20140924103150
    Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
    Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
    Memory Use: about:memory

I suspect this is a consequence of the profile copy process. While it doesn't really impact anything functional (it just looks odd in my Linux-sent mail headers), does anyone know where this info is located so I can possibly correct it?

[RickyRaccoon]

Moved over to Mint 17.1 Xfce from Windows 10. I've had no luck with any of this. Everytime I start Thunderbird, it seems to overwrite everything and wipe it and make it a 'clean' new thunderbird user folder. I've tried renaming it to the default folder name, I've kept the old profile name and pointed to it in the .ini file, I've gone into the terminal and used the profile manager. Nothing works. Every time it wipes the old data upon start up and treats it like a new user.

I'm beginning to wonder if I backed up the right profile before wiping out Windows. I saved it on my usb HDD from local_machine, IIRC. Maybe I should have looked under roaming or something. I know the stuff is in there because I can file explore and see headers, image files saved, etc.

I'm not very computer saavy (I used to be a computer technician, but the 386 processor and Windows 3.1 were the big things, so it's been a while since I did more than point-and-click at stuff...?) but I usually can follow instructions with success. Not this time. It's just all lost every time I copy it over and/or point to it and/or rename the profile folder. WIpes it all clean the moment I fire Tbird up.

There's something in my WIndows profile Tbird don't like.

It's not that I mind setting my email accounts back up, that's no bid deal, but for years, I used POP and downloaded email directly to the machine. Everytime I moved from one Windows machine to another, I've used Mozbackup (which is sort-or running under WINE, but isn't doing anything properly) to move everything over.

I have my old Vista machine I can probably use Mozbackup to move the emails to, and nearly everything the past year or so has been managed on servers anyway. Life will go on, but I'm finding it personally inconvenient.

[Reorx]

Your migrating profile is in a folder. Look in that folder - you should see something that looks like this >>>

tb-profile.png

Is this what you see???

[Cosmo.]

Mozbackup is a tool, which every again produces crap. Forget it.

You should find in the application data of Windows a folder named Thunderbird. Copy it into the home of your Mint. Then rename the foldername Thunderbird to .thunderbird (note the leading dot and the not capitalized t). If a folder with this name does already exist, you have to delete before (to my understanding there cannot be any personal data or mails inside).

[RickyRaccoon]

Appreciate the help... I don't know what I did wrong, but I pretty much gave up on it. It's not like I lost anything that's not current in my emails, since changing everything to IMAP. But I appreciate the advice....

[slartyblartfast]

Very* recent experience moving from Win7 to Mint19 suggests the most successful approach with Mint19 and Tbird60.x.x is the one found in this Mozilla KB article: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_p ... hunderbird "Create a new profile and copy the old one over it."

A few years back, I could merely copy the profile folder into Linux (Opensuse, as I recall), point Tbird to it, and go. In fact, at one point I used the M$Windows profile from within Linux to avoid syncing issues. I conclude something has changed in Tbird to make the earlier methods no longer work.

*Today