How to Transfer Thunderbird Profile from Windows to Ubuntu 8.04
One of the tasks I faced in moving completely from Windows to Ubuntu was to transfer all my saved emails and my profile from Thunderbird. In Windows locate your Thunderbird profile, this will usually be in Documents and Settings>YourName>Application Data>Thunderbird>Profiles. The profile folder will be named with a random 8 character name and a .default extension (e.g. htg34gtd.default). You should be able to access your Windows partition from Ubuntu so once you’ve located the profile folder just copy it across to your Ubuntu partition.
Now go to your home folder in Ubuntu and select View>Show Hidden Files look for a folder named .mozilla-thunderbird. This may already have a .default folder in it, if it has then delete it then move the folder you copied from Windows here. Last thing you have to do is create a profiles.ini file in the .mozilla-thunderbird folder, in my case Thunderbird had already created this file so all I had to do was replace the text with below with the correct .default name;
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=oooooooo.default
Where oooooooo = the 8 character name of your folder.
Now run Thunderbird, all being well you should now see all your emails etc as they were in Windows. This was not the case for me however, Thunderbird decided to create a new profile .default folder but all I had to do was delete it and rename the one I copied across to the one Thunderbird created…voila!
Posted in ubuntu
April 8th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Thanks a bunch for this primer… I am just getting started with a Windows / Ubuntu migration and this definitely helped a lot.
August 18th, 2009 at 1:54 am
Seoras,
After messing around (an Ubuntu 9.04 novice) for hours with various recommendations obtained over Google on how to bring the Ubuntu TBird up with the same profile as one had/has in XP, I came across your extremely clear cut and overly (seemingly) simple procedure. I followed it to the “T” – - – and, “voila!”
Thanks to you, I am now in business with a new TBird in Ubuntu that’s exactly the same as the one on my other XP machines. Bravo. Job well done. You’re an excellent instructor. (I had been looking for the same profile as that I found in the Windows installation of TBird, but couldn’t find it in Ubuntu – anywhere. The trick was to change the view so all files were visible. Your “Voila!” proved most accurate.
Thanks!
ric lambart
August 30th, 2009 at 8:06 am
AWESOME! Very slick, worked like a charm.
September 11th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Hi, I’m trying to migrate to Linux Mint from XP but first need to become more familiar with it on a separate machine. Thanks to this I now copy the mail directory and profile directory on a flash drive over to the laptop running Mint and carry on work. Excellent.
October 31st, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Thank you very much for your post!
December 27th, 2009 at 3:47 am
Hi, thanks for this tutorial. It saved me a LOT of hassle!! Just started Thunderbird in Linux and it has my everything I need right there in place. Awesome.
December 30th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Great, clear instructions for a Ubuntu noob. I copied my profiles from the windows partition (10GB) and had an error “T’bird already running,..” Checked your instructions again, and I had copied the whole direcetory up one level of the tree, so when I followed what you said EXACTLY, it worked like magic. so long as the oooooo.default dir was at the same level as the .ini file.
February 17th, 2010 at 1:53 am
Ubuntu 9.10 karmic – worked perfectly first time.
May 15th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Unbuntu 10.04 worked perfectly first time thanks for help
June 6th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Trying to setup a work environment in linux ubuntu. Its not a simple copy and paste issue like you do in windows. It does require time and research. Your small piece of advice above helped save hours of trying to make it work! Greetings from the tropics.