Hi, I use Thunderbird and in Windows I can copy the AppData/Local/Mozilla and the AppData/Roaming/Mozilla folders and completely tranfer the whole application profile incluising all email accounts.
I’d like to copy these files to my Linux installation of Thunderbird to import my email accounts.Does anyone know where to put the files?
Thanks
Astralogic
i don’t think that is possible. i have tried that awhile back.
fortunately for my, i only had two email accounts and two RSS feeds. but once you setup thunderbird in linux, it is very easy to copy the ~/.thunderbird folder from one install to another.
On 2014-02-10 12:16, Astralogic wrote:
> I’d like to copy these files to my Linux installation of Thunderbird to
> import my email accounts.Does anyone know where to put the files?
On “~/.thunderbird”. The structure is, more or less:
..thunderbird/
|-- appreg
|-- Crash Reports
|
|-- profiles.ini
`-- RANDOMNAME.default
|-- abook.mab
|-- addons.sqlite
|-- addons.sqlite-journal
|-- blist.sqlite
|-- blocklist.xml
|-- _CACHE_CLEAN_
|-- cert8.db
|-- cert_override.txt
|-- chromeappsstore.sqlite
|-- compatibility.ini
|-- compreg.dat
|-- content-prefs.sqlite
|-- cookies.sqlite
|-- cookies.sqlite-shm
|-- cookies.sqlite-wal
|-- directoryTree.json
|-- downloads.sqlite
|-- extensions/
|-- extensions.ini
|-- extensions.rdf
|-- extensions.sqlite
|-- extensions.sqlite-journal
|-- folderTree.json
|-- formhistory.sqlite
|-- global-messages-db.sqlite
|-- history.mab
|-- ImapMail/
|-- install.log
|-- junklog.html
|-- key3.db
|-- localstore.rdf
|-- localstore-safe.rdf
|-- lock -> 192.168....
|-- Mail/
|-- mailViews.dat
|-- mimeTypes.rdf
|-- minidumps/
|-- News/
|-- panacea.dat
|-- permissions.sqlite
|-- persdict.dat
|-- pgprules.xml
|-- places.sqlite
|-- places.sqlite-shm
|-- places.sqlite-wal
|-- pluginreg.dat
|-- prefs.js
|-- search.json
|-- search-metadata.json
|-- search.sqlite
|-- secmod.db
|-- session.json
|-- signons3.txt
|-- signons.sqlite
|-- signons.txt
|-- TestPilotErrorLog.log
|-- TestPilotExperimentFiles/
|-- training.dat
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_from_Windows_to_Linux
Copy the the contents of the Firefox profile over the profile in the “.mozilla/firefox” subdirectory in your home directory. Copy the contents of the Thunderbird profile over the profile in the “.thunderbird” subdirectory in your home directory. They are hidden subdirectories, you need to find an option in your file browser to display them. In both Gnome and KDE you can use “Show -> hidden files” to show directories that begin with a period. If you’re dual-booting, many distributions provide read-only access to your NTFS partition in the file manager, you don’t have to copy the profile to some type of removable media.
I ran my laptop in #3 above until I realized that a Windows VM was all I really needed, I then had no need to run Thunderbird from Windows. It has been a while for me, so their might be a few glitches in the following guidelines.
In particular, Thunderbird now changes versions frequently. There might be some issues if the Windows version and Linux version are different.
Since you can not do #1, I am guessing what you really need is #2, move all your email messages and address books from one to the other OS; that is the important stuff.
(I am using the structure template posted above by Carlos.ER in the description that follows)
First first - make backups of your email and address book folders just in case.
Then First, a suggestion: Load the Thunderbird Add-on “ViewAbout 2.0.1”. This adds a sub menu to the bottom of the View Menu item in Thunderbird, and allows you to easily look thru the .js file which stores the specific setup information for your profile.
As an alternative, you can browse the file ~/.thunderbird/RandomName.default/prefs.js with kwrite or vim or your favorite.
Be careful here, you can mess up your Thunderbird by making incorrect changes in prefs.js
Second, important files and directories to know about
So to move all your emails and address books from Windows Thunderbird installation and a Linux installation:
Good luck with it.
On 2014-02-10 14:46, cmcgrath5035 wrote:
> - You CAN set up a dual boot machine (Windows and Linux) to share a
> single copy of the email message content and address books. In theory
> a Linux host and a Windows VM could also run Thunderbird in both, but
> likely not at the same time. In this setup, the email message content
> and address books must be on the Windows partition since Windows can
> not read/write Linux file systems.
I was doing what you describe more than a decade ago 
It was the Netscape suite, the predecessor of Mozilla, but the procedure
was basically the same. Same basic technology.
IIRC, I created a Netscape profile in Linux, then pointed some
directories with symlinks to the equivalent on the Windows partition. I
had that working till I finally moved over to Linux.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))
I followed a Mozillazine item when I set mine up.
In my case, I had an NTFS partition that contained(among other shared items)
Mail content sharing worked fine.
I never could figure out how to have just one copy of the address books.
Tbird seemed to have their location hardwired to be in the profile directory at the time.
Worked well, but I much prefer running Windows in a VM. A lot less maintenance and setup.
I would be interested to know whether you are successful because I wasted a lot of time on Saturday trying to move mails from Windows to Linux in the manner described above without success. In the end I turned to Kontact as described in http://www.bradlug.co.uk/life-after-xp-notes/
John, are you trying to directly move old Windows Outlook mail to Linux Thunderbird?
That is certainly not what we are talking about here, rather this thread is about Windows Thunderbird to Linux Thunderbird.
I recall in the very fuzzy past trying WinOutlook to Thunderbird and ultimately giving up.
IFthere is an import for Windows Thunderbird from Windows Outlook, I would expect that you could then transfer the Windows Thunderbird to Linux Thunderbird following this thread.
I gave up on Outlook 10 years ago, so am not at all current as to what import/export capabilities might have have evolved.
And, by the way, I have had very little luck with conversion of contact lists and address books from anything to anything else. Seems everyone is intentionally ‘closed’. or should I say no standard way to do it.
On 2014-02-11 01:26, cmcgrath5035 wrote:
> IFthere is an import for Windows Thunderbird from Windows Outlook, I
> would expect that you could then transfer the Windows Thunderbird to
> Linux Thunderbird following this thread.
I did this in the past, using Netscape 4. I don’t remember the details,
I think it was perhaps the commercial version. It could use the Windows
DLLs in the system to read outlook folders directly (unless encrypted).
> I gave up on Outlook 10 years ago, so am not at all current as to what
> import/export capabilities might have have evolved.
There is a generalized method that works for mail migration across
almost any mail client and operating system. There are two requirements,
though: the source client must be in working order, and must be able to
access standard imap servers.
You need an imap mail server, and it should be on the local network. It
is remote, then you also need a good enough pipe.
Then on the source client agent (say, outlook), you add an account on
that imap server, and copy all your mails and folders to it. Once done,
on the destination agent (say, Linux Thunderbird) you add that same
account, and bring in all those same folders and mails.
> And, by the way, I have had very little luck with conversion of contact
> lists and address books from anything to anything else. Seems everyone
> is intentionally ‘closed’. or should I say no standard way to do it.
True… They say you can setup an LDAP server, and use that one on all
clients. Theoretically, all can adapt and use it.
I failed to get this working.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))
I have the Thunderbird profile in a common partition (NTFS partition, in my case) and have set the profiles.ini both in Windows and in openSUSE to point to that profile.
I have been running Thunderbird that way for a couple of years without any problems, both Windows and Linux share the same settings and same mailboxes.
In openSUSE, your profile is in your user home directory in the .thunderbird directory (if you are using Dolphin, you will need to go to View & check Show Hidden Files to see it).
You can place that profile folder anywhere you have permissions.
If you set the profile path in Windows and in Linux to point to the same place (obviously, Windows will have a different name for the drive and thus a slightly different path to get to the same place), you can use the common profile folder in both Windows and Linux on a dual-boot system. Except, since Linux reads FAT and NTFS easily, while Windows doesn’t read Linux filesystems without a struggle, you would want that common place to be on a FAT or NTFS partition.
Your profile.ini file (you can edit it in KWrite) should read like the following:
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=0
Path=/var/run/media/***yourusername***/path/to/your/profiles/profile_directory_name
If you want more than one profile, you can add directories and add additional profiles in this file. If you do that, you will be presented with a dialogue to choose which profile to load when you start Thunderbird.
I followed this and it worked perfectly, not one single thing went wrong This is the way to use Thunderbird in Windows and Linuzx with the exact same profile, and it’s easy too. Thanks!
Excellent!
My methodology also originated from Mozillazine, back when Thunderbird was << ver 10.0
It would appear that time, used need and 16 versions later life is much simpler.
I’d like to do this, I will attempt it, if I run into problems I’ll post back
Edit: OMG I can’t remember where the profiles.ini file is 
On Linux system, you’ll find it at ~/.thunderbird/profiles.ini
It is in your Users directory on the System drive in Windows.
Also, the Mozilla support pages will tell you precisely where it is in your particular Windows version.
And, you can do the same thing with Firefox.
I mean I’m trying to find profile.ini in Suse so I can write in the path to my Windows/NTFS mounted profile.
On 2014-02-13 11:36, Astralogic wrote:
> I mean I’m trying to find profile.ini in Suse so I can write in the path
> to my Windows/NTFS mounted profile.
~/.thunderbird/profiles.ini
There is an ‘s’.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))
I gave you the Windows one, because I had already given you the Linux location in my first post, so I thought you already had it.
I imagine by now you have found it.
From my first post here:
In openSUSE, your profile is in your user home directory in the .thunderbird directory (if you are using Dolphin, you will need to go to View & check Show Hidden Files to see it).
And cmcgrath responded:
On Linux system, you’ll find it at ~/.thunderbird/profiles.ini
And, now, I see Robin Listas has joined in our chorus:
> I mean I’m trying to find profile.ini in Suse so I can write in the path
> to my Windows/NTFS mounted profile.
~/.thunderbird/profiles.iniThere is an ‘s’.
So, now, when you report where you found it, we should have 4-part harmony, right? (Tee-hee-hee!).
facepalm
Found it, modified it, sorted it. All works fine