Mozilla Thunderbird and Lightning imports

My old XP box died at work this morning so I was given a brand new Windows 8.1 Lenovo.
I hooked up the old hard drive to a PC running Vista and copied out all of my documents and pictures.
After reinstalling Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird and Lightning I now have no way to import my address book or calendar info. With only access to the old hard drive and not the old working program, is there a way to recover my addresses and calendar events?
I searched online but was unable to find out which files I need.

 

All of your Thunderbird and Firefox info is contained in a profile and there will be a way to import your old profile provided the old disk is connected. A cheap caddy would do for that but I would advise posting on the Thunderbird support forum for the details of how to proceed.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/

 

Is there another similar forum you could recommend?
I don't know my user name and it says my email is already in use. I don't see a way to contact an admin about it.

 

I could PM one of the mods there and ask him to email you your username. PM me with your email address if you want this.

 

Thanks Earthling, PM on the way.

Please note - I'm leaving for the day so I may not reply until late tonight or tomorrow.

 

Done. Hope you get a reply.

 

Thanks again Earthling. I hope they will do that too, I'm out of ideas otherwise.

 

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-tb#w_moving-a-profile

 

Just Playin has the right idea. You're going to have to do a "manual" import. It's actually very easy and I have done this a few times for myself and others.

Locate your Thunderbird directory on your NEW computer. Within that directory, there should be two items, a folder labeled xxxxxxx.default (where xxxxxxx is a random alpha-numeric character string, such as 1a2b3c4.default) and a file labeled profile.ini. Note the location and the xxxxxxx.default folder name. FWIW, this is where ALL your e-mails, calendar events, addresses, add-ons, etc... are located and stored.

Similarly, locate the same items on your OLD hard drive...a xxxxxxx.default folder and profile.ini file. Copy the entire OLD xxxxxxx.default folder (but leave the OLD profile.ini file alone) to your NEW computer and paste it in the same directory location as the xxxxxxx.default folder and profile.ini file; such that you now have TWO xxxxxxx.default folders and ONE profile.ini file.

Finally, open the profile.ini file for editing. It should look like this:

Note that the path in the last line will reflect the xxxxxxx.default from your NEW machine. With your OLD xxxxxxx.default copied into the same directory as the NEW xxxxxxx.default, simply edit the last line so that the path reflects the OLD xxxxxx.default folder name. For instance, if your NEW machine folder is 1a2b3c4.default and your OLD machine is 1x2y3z4.default, the last line on your NEW machine profile.ini should be edited to read Path=1x2y3z4.default, and the file saved.

Exit the file. Open Thunderbird and TADA.....all your information, including e-mails, calendar events, address/contact list, add-ons, and even your preferences/selected options should be exactly as they were in your OLD machine. It's a real time saver and one of the main reasons I prefer Thunderbird! Good luck!

 

Thanks HJ. I'll give that a shot when a have a chance here, though I fear it may be a little bit above my pay grade.
After I try it, I'll post back with the results.

 

You underestimate yourself Tater! If you can find a file in a directory, copy a file, paste a file, and edit one line of text, you can do this. Everything else is just extra details for clarity!

The only thing I can't help you with is locating the xxxxxxx.default folders. I use Linux and it's located in the ~/.thunderbird directory on Linux, but I'm not sure where that is on a Windows system. Probably C:\Programs\Thunderbird...but I'm just guessing. I'll bet Earthling knows, maybe he'll chime in and confirm it?!

 

I can certainly tell you where they are on my system but in Windows there are two xxxxxxx.default folders, one in Local and one in Roaming, and I'm not sure whether this is because I use TBird in IMAP mode rather than POP or for some other reason. Anyway -

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird contains my profiles.ini

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles contains one of my xxxxxxx.default folders

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles contains the other

It was because of this complication I advised trying the TBird forum but Hedon has described the process step by step so no reason not to have a go, copying whatever xxxxxxx.default folders exist on your old HDD.

 

I use TBird with both IMAP and POP protocols for 5 different e-mail accounts, and I only have the single location in the ~/.thunderbird directory, so I don't think it's related to protocols.

However, I DO have 2 xxxxxxx.default folders, but that's because the first time you execute TBird, it creates the profile.ini and corresponding xxxxxxx.default folder, as a matching pair. Initially, the xxxxxxx.default folder is a "skeleton" directory that gets fleshed out as you add e-mails, calendars, etc... I have a second xxxxxxx.default folder because I copied over my OLD folder (fully fleshed out), rather than setup from scratch. This is exactly what I'm recommending Tater do. Once the OLD xxxxxxx.default folder is copied over, the profile.ini file must be modified to find the OLD xxxxxxx.default folder location, rather than the NEW xxxxxx.default folder that was created simultaneously with the profile.ini folder. To avoid confusion (it was confusing to me when I first learned), please note that the xxxxxxx.default folder IS the "profile name", while profile.ini is just the configuration file to tell Thunderbird what "profile name" to use.

Anyone who has setup TBird from scratch will only have one xxxxxxx.default folder; anyone who has copied over a profile will have 2 (or more) xxxxxxx.default folders.

Here's a link to locate TBird profile locations on Windows.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

Note that WinXP and Win8.1 store them in DIFFERENT locations, but this should help Tater locate the xxxxxxx.default folder on his WinXP drive, and indicate where to place on his Win8 machine.

On your old WinXP drive, copy xxxxxxx.default FROM:
C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows user name>\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>
On your new Win8 machine, paste xxxxxxx.default TO:
C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>

In both cases note that: The AppData folder is folder is a hidden folder; to show hidden folders, open a Windows Explorer window and choose "Organize → Folder and Search Options → Folder Options → View (tab) → Show hidden files and folders". You should probably do this BEFORE you start looking, copying, & pasting files.

Lastly, on your Win8 machine, go back to this directory:
C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\
and modify the last line of the profile.ini file to match your newly copied over xxxxxxx.default folder, as referenced below.

The hardest part is actually locating the file paths to copy FROM and TO. With the above links, I am confident you can copy FROM the correct location, and paste TO the correct location. You can do this!

 

While that is evidently true I'm wondering how it is that I have two xxxxxxx.default folders, as I have never copied a profile from one computer to another. When I'm setting up a new computer, as on this laptop I'm using atm, I just install TBird and create my IMAP account, after which all my emails and address books become available. Seems to me that it is IMAP that must be behind this.

@Tater - was your XP TBird account POP or IMAP?

 

After posting I started to wonder if this may be a Gmail effect rather than IMAP but no. I have other email accounts with a UK ISP and TBird has sync'd all my old emails to this laptop too.

 

In the roaming folder, the .ini file is in the Thunderbird folder (Windows 8.1).

The local folder doesn't even have an .ini file, just the xxxxxx.default folder.
I will have to move my monitor to the XP computer and can only have one open at a time.
If the XP has an .ini in both the local and roaming folder, which would I copy and edit? I assume the roaming?

 

I forgot to add, last night I copied the .ics and .csv files from my Windows 7 PC. The calendar was last updated a month or two ago but it still has some of the info I need.
Upon adding either one to the new calendar, it freezes up Thunderbird/Lightning and a script error pop up keeps come up. The options are to either continue or stop the script. Either choice make Thunderbird "not responding" and I have to close the app and restart it.

 

Hey guys, I really appreciate the help but I just could not find either file on the XP machine. I looked thoroughly and followed the file path posted and they just weren't there. While in there I did copy the address book and Mozilla bookmarks so it was worth it for that. Both imported without an issue.
I still have no idea why the .ics and .csv files from my Windows 7 PC wouldn't import properly. When the "failed to import" message came up, I clicked on the details button and it gave no clue.
At this point, I think I'll try to find the .ini and and default files on my Windows 7 PC at home and try installing manually as you guys described. At least I'll have some of the content back.
Thank you so much for the help, I really wish I could have gotten this working but I only have so much time at work and my boss just doesn't understand that these things take time sometimes.

Edit to add: It was a POP account.

 

I never got a reply from them but thanks anyways.

 

Man, I can't catch a break. I brought my old XP hard drive home from work hoping to hook it up to the Win7 PC at home. I opened it up, and no IDE or extra power cable. :banghead Since it was opened up, I brought it outside to blow out the dust.
I then remembered we have an 11+ year old HP box with XP buried upstairs. I dug it out and hauled the 80+ beast downstairs only to find it completely dead. Not going to waste any time working on that though.

So now I'm back to trying to get what I can from the Win7 machine. If that fails,I guess I'll bring home my old work PC.

 

They did email me back and I just logged in. Thanks again, I'll try posting there for a solution. If anyone here can tell me where to find the xxxxx.default file on this Win7 box based on the pics, please do let me know.

 

There is a utility built into TBird that avoids the need to manually edit profiles ini. Open a command prompt and navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird. Once there type thunderbird.exe -P and in the dialog box that opens select Create Profile > Next > assign a name and click Choose Folder. A box will open which hopefully will list both your old and new profiles. Select the new one and exit. Hopefully that should work.

 

Success!!!!! I can't believe it worked! I won't go into all the detail of the issues I had last night trying to get the files of the XP hdd, but once I did, I followed post #9 in this thread and got it on the first try.
Thank you guys so much for your help and patience. I think it's almost impossible to stump everyone on this forum.



P.S. I can't believe I registered on this site in 2003. Time sure flew by.

 

Well done Tater! As this is for your job you must be a bit relieved, though if your boss is typical he/she won't understand why it took so long :-D

 

For the benefit of other users and future reference, bookmark the following:

MozBackup for Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird, etc. (works on Windows 98-7)
http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

Profile folder - Thunderbird. (already posted by Hedon James)
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

Profile folder - Firefox.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox