Join the Mozilla’s Test Days event from Dec 2–8 to test the new Firefox address bar on Firefox Beta 134 and get a chance to win Mozilla swag vouchers! 🎁

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Where do I have to copy the default file from windows 7 to Mac

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by komo1873

more options

I went from windows 7 to Mac. Copied TB default file from Windows7 to USB. Installed TB on Mac. Copied and removed original Mac TB default file. Now TB is not starting anymore. Profile is missing. I'm looking for the place on the Mac where i can restore the original default TB file. I understand that i first have to put back the original *.default file in the Mac, but where should it be.....

I went from windows 7 to Mac. Copied TB default file from Windows7 to USB. Installed TB on Mac. Copied and removed original Mac TB default file. Now TB is not starting anymore. Profile is missing. I'm looking for the place on the Mac where i can restore the original default TB file. I understand that i first have to put back the original *.default file in the Mac, but where should it be.....

Chosen solution

By reading "*.default" above, I assume that by "file" you meant "folder", correct? Did you also read the Move Thunderbird data to a new computer and Profiles - Where Thunderbird stores your messages and other user data KB articles?

Most likely, your profile folder cannot be found because of an incorrect or unfound entry in the profiles.ini file. That file is only aware of the new profile created during Thunderbird install on Mac (probably also ending with .default) that you moved.

  • The path for your profile folders on Mac OS is ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/<Profile name>/
  • The profiles.ini files should be in ~/Library/Application Support/Thunderbird/

All you need to do is make sure profiles.ini contains the proper folder name you just copied, so edit it if needed. Please read the Moving a profile section of the Profiles - Where Thunderbird stores your messages and other user data article for more info.

If you want, you can also add the Windows 7 Thunderbird profile rather than delete the new default one and replace it, even if it was for testing purposes if you ever run into trouble. That means you could set up the newly created profile as well (or not yet) and choose which one to use when starting Thunderbird. To do so, you would need to create another profile with the Profile Manager, exit it, and edit profiles.ini (now containing 2 profile (folder) entries) to match the copied Windows 7 TB profile folder name. More on adding and using multiple profiles and the Profile Manager can be found in the Use multiple profiles in Thunderbird article.

See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profiles.ini_file

Please let us know if this helped and if anything is unclear.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (2)

more options

Chosen Solution

By reading "*.default" above, I assume that by "file" you meant "folder", correct? Did you also read the Move Thunderbird data to a new computer and Profiles - Where Thunderbird stores your messages and other user data KB articles?

Most likely, your profile folder cannot be found because of an incorrect or unfound entry in the profiles.ini file. That file is only aware of the new profile created during Thunderbird install on Mac (probably also ending with .default) that you moved.

  • The path for your profile folders on Mac OS is ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/<Profile name>/
  • The profiles.ini files should be in ~/Library/Application Support/Thunderbird/

All you need to do is make sure profiles.ini contains the proper folder name you just copied, so edit it if needed. Please read the Moving a profile section of the Profiles - Where Thunderbird stores your messages and other user data article for more info.

If you want, you can also add the Windows 7 Thunderbird profile rather than delete the new default one and replace it, even if it was for testing purposes if you ever run into trouble. That means you could set up the newly created profile as well (or not yet) and choose which one to use when starting Thunderbird. To do so, you would need to create another profile with the Profile Manager, exit it, and edit profiles.ini (now containing 2 profile (folder) entries) to match the copied Windows 7 TB profile folder name. More on adding and using multiple profiles and the Profile Manager can be found in the Use multiple profiles in Thunderbird article.

See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profiles.ini_file

Please let us know if this helped and if anything is unclear.

more options

From windows to mac is not easy. Finally i found the way to display both paths. Installed the map and changed the map name in the ini file. And.... it works. Tonnes 10 points. Thanks!!