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

How to read external local folder

I've recently changed my PC and need to access messages on a local folder of my old PC. The only slight problem is that I don't have the old PC anymore! I do however have the hard drive from my old PC set up as an external drive on my new PC. I can navigate to the local folder on the external drive but I can't read the messages in English. Is there any way to do this? TIA.

I've recently changed my PC and need to access messages on a local folder of my old PC. The only slight problem is that I don't have the old PC anymore! I do however have the hard drive from my old PC set up as an external drive on my new PC. I can navigate to the local folder on the external drive but I can't read the messages in English. Is there any way to do this? TIA.

Chosen solution

Are these messages in the Mail/Local Folders location of the old profile folder, in .../AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default, where xx.. is a random string? If they are, copy the mbox files, the large files with no extension, named after folders, to Mail/Local Folders in the active profile, then restart TB and look under Local folders in the Folder Pane.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (2)

Chosen Solution

Are these messages in the Mail/Local Folders location of the old profile folder, in .../AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default, where xx.. is a random string? If they are, copy the mbox files, the large files with no extension, named after folders, to Mail/Local Folders in the active profile, then restart TB and look under Local folders in the Folder Pane.

Thanks sfhowes, that's worked perfectly!