Previously we showed you how to manually backup Mozilla Thunderbird Emails and Profiles. This time we’ll look at how to restore them. This is useful if you’ve had a recent computer crash, or just want to move your data to another computer. Follow along and I’ll demonstrate how to do this using a Windows based computer.
What you’ll need to do this:
- Thunderbird installed
- A previous backup of Thunderbird Emails and Profiles.
To get started, make sure that Thunderbird is not running. Next in Windows Explorer right-click on your Thunderbird backup and extract it to your C:\Users\yourUsername\AppData\Roaming folder. This should put all of your backups right where Thunderbird wants them (assuming you followed our previous backup article).
Next, in the Start Menu type the following:
1 |
thunderbird.exe –profilemanager |
The Thunderbird user profile manager should pop up. Click Create Profile…
Click Next.
Now you can enter a name for your profile, or just leave it at the default. The profile name shouldn’t affect anything within Thunderbird itself. What is important here is the folder that you choose.
Click Choose Folder…
Click your backup folder you just unzipped and then click Select Folder.
Back on the main profile manager screen, double-click the profile you just created to launch Thunderbird.
All of your backups should have taken effect and your email will be waiting.
I was delighted to see this post and followed the directions on backing up the account. It worked with a few bumps easily figured out. However, when I went to restore it on my new computer by extracting files into Thunderbird directory, problems occurred. When asked if I files should be replaced, I chose yes. Then I could not run the Profile manager. It would not open. So I uninstalled completely and reinstalled replacing no files. Profile manager still does not open. Sigh. I am running Thunderbird 14. Maybe I need an older version? Thanks
Thanks, was missing the profile part, now all is restore.