Migrate Thunderbird from Windows to Linux

It’s easy to migrate your Thunderbird E-mail from Windows Vista to your Fedora 16 Linux system.

I have recently upgraded from Fedora 15 to Fedora 16 on my desktop system. My KDE system has now  become rock stable and I have decided to switch from my unstable Vista system to my Linux workstation definitely.

Here’s how:

On your Windows system:

Double click “My Computer” on your desktop, so the file manager will open. Double click your C-drive.
(note: you need to be Administrator and you must have proper access rights to the folder “Application data”)

Navigate to:

Documents and Settings > Henk > Application Data > Thunderbird

NB: the folder “Henk” is my homefolder. You should replace it with yours.

Now copy your entire folder “Thunderbird” to a USB drive, or some other movable media that has enough space left to contain your entire mail folder.

On your Linux sytem:

Attach your movable media to your Linux system. Dolphin will startup and show the contents of your USB – drive.

Startup Dolphin and backup the current contents of your folder: /home/henk/.thunderbird

notes:
“henk” is my user folder, you should replace this with your own user folder
make sure  you have administrator rights
make sure you can view hidden files with Dolphin (View > Show hidden files)

Then remove following files from the  /home/henk/.thunderbird folder:
– your profile folder (in my case it was: epyhsmik.default)
– the file profiles.ini

Then copy following to your  /home/henk/.thunderbird folder from your USB drive:
– the folder “Profiles”
– the file profiles.ini

Now fire up Thunderbird