It may help if you define what content you want to export. Thanks.

In my case, I just want to export all account information; that is, login, password, config, etc.

I have huge mailboxes, and no need to have that as a part of the cache exported.

If your accounts are IMAP they will not be exported, they will be redownloaded on the first connect of the new device.

Ok, thank you for clarifying.

Is there some other way I can export only that account data from Thunderbird? Maybe through Ruby or Python or something.

For example, I have a few accounts on one Mac that I'd like to import onto another -- without having to manually do all of this. I'm surprised there isn't a means for it in Thunderbird, for portability, etc.

Thanks....

I suggest you try the Tools>Export feature. That exports items by categories, such as an account.

That's the issue I'm commenting about. The Export feature is wholesale, it doesn't allow me to select what I want, it just offers to dump everything into a *.zip file, which isn't what I need.

Exporting account components may not allow you to reconstruct an account. Can you provide a specific example? I don't know what you mean by 'account data.'

I'm talking about only login/password data, possibly the server info.

It seem to me that it would be useful to have a feature that exported this into a format that another Thunderbird instance could import. For example, say you have a lot of IMAP accounts and you want to use Thunderbird with these on another system. You could port your entire Profile over, and hope it doesn't get buggy -- or, you could just import that account info and you're done. Seems like a useful feature, especially under the new "Export" feature which is just a dump of everything.

And if not that, at least the login/password combo.

What you want is a significant design change. Login/password is part of an account and accounts are centrally administered. You can always make the request at bugzilla dot mozilla dot org.