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Resolved Importing Thunderbird address book in Win10

Discussion in 'Firefox, Thunderbird & SeaMonkey' started by Barry, 2016/12/27.

  1. 2016/12/27
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    I'm replacing a computer and want to import the address book from the old IDE hard drive to the new SATA one. How do I go about doing this? I have saved the Thunderbird file onto the new computer, and I can access the old drive using a USB interface.
     
  2. 2016/12/27
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Look for the files "abook.mab" and "history.mab". The former contains your addressbook and the latter collects contacts not in your addressbook but from whom you have received an email. Just copy them to the profile on the new installation.

    To transfer emails, copy the "mail" folder to the new installation.

    If you want to, you can copy the complete profile from the old to the new which will enable you to continue where you left, so to speak.
     

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  4. 2016/12/27
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    I did copy the old profile from the WinXP computer, highlighted the new Win10 profile and then paste, but nothing changed.

    The inbox is held at the server, but no sent mail came across.
     
  5. 2016/12/27
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Did you copy it to the location where TB actually expects to find it? I have my profile in a different location than the default which means that I can't tell you where to look.

    What you can do is to copy the old profile to a location of your choice. Next, go to the command window, type in "thunderbird.exe -P" (without the double quotes) > enter, create a new profile and direct it to use the files you copied.
     
  6. 2016/12/27
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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  7. 2016/12/27
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    I'll give that a shot. Thank you. I'll be back with the results.
     
  8. 2016/12/27
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    I tried both thunderbird.exe -P and thunderbird.exe-P, but neither are seen as a recognizable internal or external command, operable program or batch file. I'll look at the next link now.
     
  9. 2016/12/27
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    OK, I replaced abook.mab and history.mab and the address book has returned. Is there a way to return the sent messages?
     
  10. 2016/12/27
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Sorry, my mistake, it should not be a commmand window but "run" which you find in the dropdown menu under Windows System.
     
  11. 2016/12/27
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Yes, copy the folder named "mail" to the profile on the new computer.
     
  12. 2016/12/27
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    When I input that into Run, it opens up Thunderbird to the sent files, but nothing shows there. The old files show "sent" with a large file, while the new file seems to have replaced that with sent items.msf. I tried renaming the old sent file to sent items.msf and tried just copying and pasting it, but both disappear and there are no sent messages.
    Also, every time Thunderbird opens, a pop-up appears for system integration. How can I get that to stop popping up?
     
  13. 2016/12/27
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    The old computer file shows "Mail", while the new file shows "Mail" and "ImapMail" No combination of copying and pasting seems to move the sent messages.
     
  14. 2016/12/27
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Strange, it should open a small window to manage different profiles. See Profile Manager

    I use POP which means that the incoming emails are downloaded to the computer. IMAP stores the incoming emails on the server but Thunderbird keeps track of which emails have been displayed as new, probably through the contents of the ImapMail folder. I can't help you there.

    The simplest way should be to create (using profile manager) a new profile, directing it to the folder copied to the new system from the old system. That should transfer all settings from the previous installation. But it doesn't seem to work on your system ... o_O ... !
     
  15. 2016/12/27
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    According to Mozilla, it is impossible to import into imap files, but I was able to put it into the local files, and the sent files appear.

    I still have a question as to how to eliminate this system integration popup whenever Thunderbird opens.
     

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