flightless bird

July 6, 2009 8:04 AM

I'm having difficulty restoring my thunderbird profile.

I copied my thunderbird profile onto a portable harddrive, reinstalled windows xp, and reinstalled thunderbird. I tried copying the new profile into C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\ and am trying to follow the instructions here but it can't get it work.

I changed the "Path=Profiles/svkxbom0.default" so that it matches the name of the profile I want to use.

The profile file has the following info:
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/svkxbom0.default

Do I need to change something else? Each time I open thunderbird it opens the address wizard and then ends up overwriting xxxx.default in the profile file.

Thanks for suggestions

posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth to Technology (5 answers total)

Wow. You're really over doing it.

Profile restoration is the same for Thunderbird or Firefox:

1.) Copy your backed up profile to your \app data\Thunderbird\Profiles folder.
2.) Start -> Run -> thunderbird.exe -profilemanager
3.) Create a new profile and select the folder your copied.
4.) Delete any newly created default profile (not the one you just created, but the one that was automatically created.)
5.) Enjoy!
posted by wfrgms at 8:36 AM on July 6, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks wfrgms, I tried this, and failed to reach step 5....

Using profile manager, I chose my copied profile to be where the new profile is located, but when I run thunderbird it shows me the 'Wizard' to set up an account, and does not have my previous email settings or folder structure.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 8:54 AM on July 6, 2009

Run the wizard if you have to. In the past I've just clicked cancel then closed Thunderbird.

Then copy your profile folder into the profile directory.

Run the profile manager, setup a new profile, specify use existing folder, set the newly created profile as default. Start the program.

You can delete the profile which was created by default when you started thunderbird.

If you're still having problems, I recommend you take a few minutes to uninstall and re-install. You may have screwed something up when you were mucking around with paths and the like. You should never have to do that.
posted by wfrgms at 9:26 AM on July 6, 2009

Response by poster: Still no joy. I tried reinstalling it, and importing the folder. I have a similar problem that I have to create an email account through the wizard, which creates a new 'account' in my old profile. Then, if I change the folder where it is stored to my old profile, it imports the folder structure, but it won't get the previous information (such as server names, passwords, etc).

Is there a way to get password information out of an old profile?
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 1:42 PM on July 6, 2009

which creates a new 'account' in my old profile.

What you're describing doesn't make sense. Are you sure you're using the latest version? Are you sure you're working from a fresh install? Are you sure you have your profile folder backed up?

It's a literally a drag-and-drop type process with the only twist being that you use the "thunderbird.exe -profilemanager" command to create a new profile and point it to your old folder.

In other words, it's a dirt simple process for anyone familiar with copying folders.

There is a step-by-step walkthrough with pictures here. If for some reason your setup differs, then I once again suggest you start over.
posted by wfrgms at 9:19 PM on July 6, 2009