Mozilla Thunderbird is a popular email client that many users prefer for managing their emails in a good way. If you have a new computer, you might want to transfer your Thunderbird profile regarding emails, contacts, account settings, and preferences. This helps make the transition smoother without losing data. Through this guide, we will cover manual ways to export a Thunderbird profile to another computer.
In case you’re also wishing to migrate your email data from MBOX format into Outlook, the SysTools Best MBOX to PST Converter, available on the Microsoft App Store, is a great choice to make the whole process smooth and easy.
Why Export a Thunderbird Profile?
Exporting your Thunderbird profile is necessary under these situations:
- A new machine is being bought.
- A backup is created just in case.
- To migrate emails, settings, and preferences without reconfiguring.
- To move from one system to another without losing important data.
Manual Methods to Export Thunderbird Profile to Another Computer
In this section, we will discuss four solutions to export your Thunderbird profile data.
Method 1. Using Thunderbird Profile Manager
1. Locating Thunderbird Profile In Old Computer
- Launch Thunderbird and select Help > More Troubleshooting Information from the application menu.
- In the Application Basics section, click on Profile Folder and then Open Folder.
- Copy the entire profile folder to an external drive or to a cloud storage service.
2. Transfer the Profiles to the New Computer
- Install Thunderbird on the new computer.
- Open the Profile Manager by pressing Windows + R and typing in:
thunderbird.exe -p
Then click OK.
- Click Create Profile and assign a name to it, specifying the location of the copied profile folder.
- Click on Finish to open your Thunderbird account.
Method 2. Manually Copying and Replacing the Profile Folder
1. Locate the Thunderbird Profile from Old Computer
- Press Windows + R, type:
%APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles
and hit Enter.
- Copy the .default-release folder entirely to an external device.
2. Paste the Profile Folder on a New Computer
- Install Thunderbird and find the new profile directory with the same command above.
- Replace the existing profile folder with the one copied.
- When you start Thunderbird, you will have all the emails, settings, and accounts restored.
Method 3. Using Thunderbird Import/Export Tools Add-on
- Install the ImportExportTools NG add-on in Thunderbird.
- Open the Thunderbird application.
- Click on Tools > ImportExportTools NG.
- Select Export Profile and save the data onto an external drive.
- On the new computer, install the same add-on and then select Import Profile to restore the data.
Export Multiple Thunderbird Profile to Another Computer – Automated Solution
Transferring multiple Thunderbird profiles to a new computer can be an extremely difficult thing to do when a large amount of email data is at stake. However, manual migration may incur the fallout of missing emails, broken folder structures, and incompatibility issues. To ease this process, the use of SysTools Free MBOX Converter Tool to automatically migrate Thunderbird emails becomes the best option, ensuring seamless and error-free migration of Thunderbird emails to another system.
Wind Up
For email, contacts, and settings protection, Thunderbird profiles must be transferred to another computer. You may do this by manually copying the profile folder, by using the Profile Manager, or for an easier transfer, by having the add-on: ImportExportTools NG. The steps in this tutorial will allow you to migrate smoothly without loss of data.
Also check out MBOX to PST Converter Software to convert your MBOX file into PST to make the process easy.