Restoring Thunderbird emails and archives from Windows 10 FileHistory backup
I am trying to help my parents. They had a problem that required a re-installation of windows 10 and so we now need to restore their Thunderbird profile. I have tried the following two methods with the results stated: 1 I have set up a new default profile - then copied the full set of files from the Windows 10 FileHistory backup on an external backup drive, into the new empty profile ( Thunderbird is not open when i do this) - when I open Thunderbird after the copy has completed nothing shows up, emply Thunderbird - none of the accounts, and none of the emails etc, it simply asks for a new account. 2 I have tried using Windows 10 restore to restore the profile to the same location on the PC from the FileHistory backup on the external drive (to the default of user/appdata/roaming/Thunderbird etc - which is where the original was - no chnage in location). When i do this and open Thunderbird i get way too much data - the accounts are there but instead of say one inbox per account i get a long list of inboxes that are names with UTC times and look as if they are almost backups at a point in time - a few minutes apart, the same for trash, archives, drafts etc - so i get literally hundreds of folders. I have tried redoing both methods, deleting all profiles and starting again, no different result. i have tried importing a profile whole, but that simply crashes ( progamme stops respopnding within a few minutes of starting) I have tried the support and user formum but i believe that i have followed the correct procedure but can't get a final successful resolution. I would appreciate any help or ideas on this one. Thanks
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Have you tried this?
HI, thanks. Yes i did - of the two things I tried in my question above - number 1 was setting up a new profile and copying the files ( not the folder) from the old one into the new one. I have since tried re- restoring the old profile again, and then tried again, setting up a new profile and the copying files.... still no luck. When i go through troubleshouting the correct profile is identified ( as it is in Profiles.ini) and all the files are visibly there in the profile but absolutley nothing shows up in T/B when opened - TB does not identify any accounts whatsoever.
Create the e-mail accounts in the profile, then import/copy stuff from the backed up profile to this new one.
E-mail: If the e-mail was done using POP and/or Thunderbird Local Folders were being used, quit Thunderbird, then copy the contents of the "Mail/Local Folders" and "Mail/**pop-account**" folders from the backup to the corresponding locations in the new Profile. IMAP mail will still be on the server, so you won't have to do this for IMAP mail.
Message Filters for POP mail: They will be copied when you copy the mail above.
Message Filters for IMAP mail: Quit Thunderbird. From the Profile backup, look for the ImapMail folder, then the IMAP account under it. Copy the msgFilterRules.dat file from there to the same location in the new Profile.
Address Books: 1. Download the add-on: MoreFunctionsForAddressBook. Click on the link and save the .xpi file to your computer.
2. Follow the instructions in Installing an Add-on in Thunderbird for "A slightly less ideal case", to install the add-on.
3. Restart Thunderbird.
4. Open the Address Book.
5. Right-click "All Address Books", select "MoreFunctionsForAddressBook", then "Import addressbook from mab file".
6. Choose a name for the address book we are going to import. Do not name it "Personal Address Book" or "Collected Addresses". Those are special names.
7. Look for .MAB files in the backup of the profile. These are the address book files. You will choose them one at a time to import this way.
8. You will be prompted to restart Thunderbird to finish the import. You can wait until you have imported each of the address books before restarting Thunderbird.
9. Once you have started Thunderbird again, open the Address Book, and look at the address books you imported. They should have all your contacts. You can select them all and drag and drop them to other address books if you want, then delete the empty address books.
Calendars: 1. Copy from the profile backup the most recent .ICS files from "calendar-data/backup", to "calendar-data" in the new profile. Rename the files to something else, but keep the extension .ICS
2. In Thunderbird, go to the Calendar tab, press the ALT or F10 key to show the menu, then click on File: Open: Calendar file.
3. Navigate to the "calendar-data" folder in the new profile, and choose one of the ICS files.
4. The calendar data from that file will now show in the Thunderbird calendar. If it doesn't have all the calendar data, try doing the same thing with other ICS files from the "calendar-data/backup" folder in the Profile backup.
5. Right-click on the name of the calendar on the left side and choose, "Properties". You can now change the calendar name and color.
Thanks Bruce for your reply. Yesterday before your helpful reply arrived I gave up on trying to bring in the old profile back and accepted that I would need to start again with setting up the accounts from scratch. I then used ImportExportTools addon to -"import all messages in a directory" and then on the subsequent menu -"Select a directory where searching the mbox files to import (also in subdirectories)" on the POP mail subdirectories in the old profile importing into the new profile local folders and then spent time sorting out the backlog into subfolders by year. ( i had previously tried the "import profile" option in ImportExportTools but that crashed each time and the "Import messages" option also hadn't worked) I think your suggestion for mail was to copy part of the old profile (the POP mail folders) into the new profile - I did not think of that, because copying the full set of files into the new profile hadn't worked earlier i didn't think of using your suggested approach to get the mail back (mail was the most important think we wanted to achieve). So it took me some time but finally got the mail back by the long winded method i started . I am going to see if there is a way i can work through your suggested solution without having to ditch what i have done - I think your suggestion would have been faster than the approach i took and so i will try to report back if i can do it for anyone else who has the same problem or in case a future windows reinstall leaves me with the same problem. thanks for your help and time.