Moving to a new computer shouldn’t mean losing your email history or reconfiguring all your IMAP/POP3 settings. Mozilla Thunderbird stores all your data—emails, passwords, and address books—in a specific folder called a “Profile.” By simply copying this folder, you can migrate everything to a new machine in minutes.
In this guide, we will show you the most reliable way to transfer your Thunderbird profile manually.
Step-by-Step Migration Guide
Step 1: Locate the Source Profile
On your old computer:
- Open Thunderbird.
- Go to Help > Troubleshooting Information.
- Under the “Application Basics” section, find Profile Folder and click Open Folder.
- Close Thunderbird completely.
- Go up three levels in your file explorer (usually to
AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird). You will see a folder named Profiles and a file called profiles.ini. - Copy the entire Thunderbird folder (which contains the Profiles folder and the .ini file) to an external drive.
Step 2: Restore on the New Computer
- Install Mozilla Thunderbird on your new PC but do not open it yet.
- Navigate to
%AppData%on the new machine (Paste this into the Windows Search bar). - Find the Roaming folder and look for a “Thunderbird” folder. If it’s not there, create one.
- Paste the Thunderbird folder you copied from your external drive, overwriting any existing files.
- Launch Thunderbird. All your emails, folders, and accounts should appear exactly as they were.
Recommended Tools for Data Migration
To ensure a safe and fast transfer of your data, we recommend using these reliable storage solutions:
- High-Speed Transfer: Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD – Perfect for moving large email databases (10GB+) quickly and securely.
- Portable Solution: SanDisk Extreme PRO USB 3.2 Flash Drive – A fast and reliable thumb drive for migrating office profiles.
- Cloud Backup: Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office – Automate your Thunderbird backups to the cloud so you never lose your emails again.
- External Storage: WD My Passport External Hard Drive – Ideal for keeping long-term offline backups of your entire “Roaming” folder.
Expert Tip: The “Profiles.ini” Secret
If your profile doesn’t load after copying, it’s likely because the profiles.ini file is pointing to a folder name that has changed. Furthermore, always make sure that Thunderbird is completely closed on both machines during the copy/paste process to avoid database corruption. If you have a massive archive, using a fast SSD (like the Samsung T7) will save you hours of transfer time compared to older USB 2.0 drives.
Need more tech help? Check our guides on Recovering SQL MDF files after Ransomware or Fixing Printer Error 0x0000011b.
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