Importing folders: Difference between revisions

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==Find your old profile==
==Find your old profile==


Your folders are stored as mbox files in a profile. These are text files with the folders name and no file extension. For example your inbox folder is the "inbox." file. You can safely read one using a text editor to verify it contains mail messages though its not user friendly because it contains the raw message source, including big blocks of characters all run together whenever you have a binary attachment.  
Your folders are stored as mbox files in a profile. These are text files with the folders name and no file extension. For example your inbox folder is the "inbox." file. You can safely read one using a text editor to verify it contains mail messages though its not user friendly because it contains the raw message source, including all of the headers and big blocks of characters all run together whenever you have a binary attachment.  


Read [[Profile | this article]] to figure out where your profile is stored. If you used the [[Profile_manager | profile manager]] to create your profile in a non-default location look in the profiles.ini file for a list of known profiles. That file is in the parent directory for the Profiles directory.
Read [[Profile | this article]] to figure out where your profile is stored. If you used the [[Profile_manager | profile manager]] to create your profile in a non-default location look in the profiles.ini file for a list of known profiles. That file is in the parent directory for the Profiles directory.

Revision as of 02:02, 20 March 2006

This article was written for Thunderbird but also applies to Mozilla Suite / SeaMonkey (though some menu sequences may differ).

This article gives step by step instructions for how to import folders from another profile for a new user who has never installed an extension. It assumes you're using Windows but you should still be able to follow the instructions using a file manager on another operating system.

Install the mboximport extension

  • Goto this web site using your browser.
  • Right click on the download link and choose "save link as" (or "save target as") from the context menu to download the file. You want to right click to avoid Firefox thinking that you're trying to install that extension in it.
  • Start Thunderbird.
  • Goto Tools -> Extensions and press the Install button.
  • Browse to where you downloaded the .xpi file, select it and press Open.
  • Exit Thunderbird.
  • Start Thunderbird again. It should now have a Tools -> Import/Export command.

Find your old profile

Your folders are stored as mbox files in a profile. These are text files with the folders name and no file extension. For example your inbox folder is the "inbox." file. You can safely read one using a text editor to verify it contains mail messages though its not user friendly because it contains the raw message source, including all of the headers and big blocks of characters all run together whenever you have a binary attachment.

Read this article to figure out where your profile is stored. If you used the profile manager to create your profile in a non-default location look in the profiles.ini file for a list of known profiles. That file is in the parent directory for the Profiles directory.

Goto your profile directory using Windows Explorer. You may need to enable viewing hidden files and folders in Tools -> Options -> View to see it. If you're not sure you found the profile look for a prefs.js file and a Mail subdirectory. Note that Thunderbird stores its profiles for Windows 2000 and XP under ...\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles , not ...\Application Data\Mozilla\Thunderbird\Profiles.

If you still can't find it press the search button in Windows Explorer, check the checkbox for advanced options, and check the checkboxs for search hidden files and folder and search subfolders. Then select your hard drive and search for prefs.js. Some of them may be for other Mozilla applications so you'll need to look at the pathname to figure out which one is Thunderbirds.

Find the folders

If the folder was in Local Folders or you used a global inbox it will be somewhere in the Mail\Local Folders directory. Otherwise look for a subdirectory named after the accounts mail server. For example, if you're using gmail your inbox would be the "inbox." file at Mail\pop.gmail.com.

Thunderbird uses *.sbd subdirectories to create a folder hierarchy. So a Local Folders\1\2\xyz child folder would be the "xyz." file at Mail\Local Folders\1.sbd\2.sbd\3.sbd . That directory would also have a empty xyz.sbd subdirectory created in preperation for you someday creating a child folder of xyz. Ignore it.

Import the folders

  • Select either the Local Folders directory or the POP account you want to import the folder into, in Thunderbird.
  • Tools -> Import/Export -> import mbox file
  • Browse to the mbox file and press the Open button.
  • Thunderbird will import that folder. It may add a suffix to make the folder name unique. For example, when I imported "inbox." into Local Folders it created a inbox679 folder.
  • Repeat as needed. Note that you can import multiple folders in one step by right clicking on them in Tools -> Import/Export -> import mbox file.

See also