Moving old email to Thunderbird portable

Several months ago I asked how to access old emails from an external hard drive. Several of you suggested using Thunderbird portable so I could access old emails while traveling. I downloaded Thunderbird portable and had no trouble getting new emails from it but was not able to move my old profile successfully before the trip. I didn't pursue it since I didn't need it while home. Once again I am trying to copy my profile. My desktop is Windows Vista and the laptop I will be connecting the external drive to is Windows XP.

I found what I think is the default profile in C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\letters and numbers.default

I tried copying it to G:\Thunderbird Portable\Data\profile and also to G:\Thunderbird Portable\Data\

As I said, it doesn't show the mail and folders. Any suggestions?

 

To me, if I understand correctly what you did, was copy the profile in its entirety. It may have worked, if you copy the contents of the folder. All you need are the Mail folder. If you do not want to overwrite the existing mail, you should rename, either the existing, or new mail. and, you should delete the .msf file. All the operations should be done with the programs closed. And, do you have the same versions of Thunderbird, in both drives? In other words if you try to copy:

and paste it into

you would likely have a mess, since the formats don't match.

 

Thanks for your reply. I had tried both copying the entire profile and also just the contents of it. Before I received your reply I tried again with just the contents. This time it worked for one email account; I am now able to access old emails for that one email address.

My desktop has Thunderbird 3.1.10 and contains several email addresses. The external hard drive now has Thunderbird Portable 3.1.10. My next challenge is to find out if the portable version can handle more than one email address and, if so, how to get it to recognize the others.

 

For what it's worth and providing your like me and never use the Local Folders another options to accomplish the task would be to first delete all files in the Local Folders on the Laptop and then copy and paste the mail from the Desktop into the Local Folders on the Laptop.

I say delete ALL files but, the main requirement is to get rid of the current MSF files in the Local Folders on the Laptop.

Once your messages are in the Local Folder on the Laptop the messages can be moved and merged into any of the the other mail boxes on the Laptop.

The process can be repeated for any other mail boxes on the Desktop providing the MSF files are once again deleted from the Local Folder on the Laptop and providing of course you have moved all the previous mail out.

My 2 Cents, Ray

 

Thanks, Ray. I do use local folders but I just moved everything on the external drive out of local folders so I can try your method.

The folder G:\Thunderbird Portable\Data\profile\Mail has a number of folders that contain the messages I'd like to be able to access (each folder corresponding to an email address.) I moved the *.mozmsgs from one of these folders into the Local Messages folder but they do not show up when I open the Thunderbird portable program. Any ideas?

 

I am not sure what *.mozmsgs is because I've not observed any files with that type file extension name.

I'll say this, if *.mozmsgs is a subfolder to the inbox folder on the Desktop mail box then you will have to take the the inbox with the sub folder.

I suggest rather then copy/pasting just one folder or file from the desktop you copy/paste all files except the MSF files that reside in any given mailbox folder.

The Junk - TRASH - DRAFT folders are not necessary but, I say ALL of them because I am not sure just how you have these different folders and mail boxes set up and you may have sub-folders to the sub-folders or something like that.

In other words if you have a mail box as I do named something like mail.bellsouth.net then copy everything in it except the MSF files from the desktop to the laptop's Local Folder.

Ray

 

It worked!!!! I can't thank you enough.

What I did:
Yesterday I opened my profile on my desktop, selected all, and then copied the files to an external hard drive in Thunderbird portable\data\profile. A number of subfiles were in the Mail folder; some default from Thunderbird portable. This morning I found the subfolder we'll call X from the Mail folder with the mail I was most interested in using and then deleted msf files at your suggestion. I then emptied my Local Folders and copied the files from X into the Local Folders. When I then opened Thunderbird portable, the files I wanted were in Local Folders.

What mozmsgs files are:
Suppose I had folders named red and blue on my desktop that were subfolders of the account (not of inbox - they were same level as inbox.) Then a folder in Mail in Thunderbird portable\data\profile would have red.msf, blue.msf, and folders red.mozmsgs and blue.mozmsgs as well as other things.

I hope that this helps others who want to access old emails while traveling.

 

I have three accounts in TB portable, which work well. I, use, pretty much Old Chief's technique.