Recently, a friend asked me if there were a way to move emails from one installation to another.  Specifically, he asked if there were a way to move them from Windows XP to Ubuntu.  Thanks to Thunderbird’s design, there IS a way, and it isn’t terribly difficult, though it’s not intuitively apparent.  I’ll try to explain in a generic way that will apply to both moving from another OS to Linux, and moving from one distribution release of Linux to another.

Thunderbird places all its profile information in one directory (folder), that is further sub-divided into directories (folders).  In Linux, that folder is in a user’s home directory with the name .mozilla-thunderbird. (Note the dot BEFORE the name mozilla-thunderbird.  This is a hidden file)  Inside the .mozilla-thunderbird directory (folder) is another directory (folder) that has a series of apparently random letters/numbers followed by the user name.  Remember this location. This makes the transferrence of information fairly straightforward for a Linux to Linux transfer, and only slightly more complicated in moving from any other OS.  For any other OS, you will need to locate the directory (folder), preferrably in advance, so that transferrence can proceed smoothly.

With that in mind, we now go to the Linux platform or new installation.  Ubuntu does not install Thunderbird by default.  It is entirely likely that no distribution does, but I could be wrong.  If the distribution you use DOES install Thunderbird by default, and you have not opened it yet, then the following procedure will work.  If it is NOT installed by default, then this is the first thing you must do, but do not open the program.  Now the fun begins.

1.  Create a directory in your home directory called .mozilla-thunderbird.

2.  Copy the directory (folder) that has your user name as part of it’s name to that newly created .mozilla-thunderbird directory.

Now, when you open Thunderbird, all the emails from your previous installation/OS will be there, along with all the rest of the information that makes up your profile.  In fact, you should be connected to your ISP at this point.  There is one thing to note about this procedure.  If you are changing releases of Thunderbird you may discover that some extensions no longer work, or pop up warnings.  This is easily solved by deleting or uninstalling the affected extension, and installing the more up to date version that corresponds to your Thunderbird release.  There may be other, minor, glitches along the way, but they should also be easily dealt with.

I don’t maintain that this is a difinitive tutorial of how to do this.  I do know that it’s worked for me through various changes – both fresh installations of new releases of Ubuntu and moving a profile from Windows XP to Ubuntu.  If anyone wants to add further information or tips, the information would be welcome.  Just add it as a comment.  Thanks