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Trouble with Thunderbird 102.3 installation and migrating profiles to a new Mac

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  • Last reply by Fern

Fern
Fern
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I have been a happy Thunderbird user for many years. Currently I am trying to migrate my three Earthlink e-mail profiles from an iMac (late 2013) running macOS Catalina, to a Mac Studio (2022) running macOS Monterey. My Thunderbird profiles use POP for incoming mail. I have always preferred to store my e-mail on my computer, not on a server, and that's still my preference. I have a lot of history in my Thunderbird folders, and I don't want to lose all the e-mail I have stored in them. So I'm afraid to try to switch to IMAP, even if I wanted to, which I really don't.

On my old iMac, Thunderbird is on version 102.3, and it looks great! So on my new Mac Studio, after downloading Thunderbird 102.3 but not opening it, I set up Profile Manager using Terminal (in Finder/Applications/Utilities), and created my three profiles exactly as they are on the old machine. Then, on the old iMac, I went to Library (via Finder) and copied my three profiles to a flash drive. I connected the flash drive to the new Mac Studio, where I copied and pasted the contents of each old profile into their corresponding new profiles. So the new profiles have new names, but the contents have been replaced by my data from my old Thunderbird profiles. This is the standard procedure, and I was very careful to do each step correctly.

Well, everything is there all right, but sadly, it is all so unbelievably tiny that it is impossible to read or use. I experimented with Zoom and Font Sizes in the View menu in my Thunderbird profiles, but the results were still very unsatisfactory, and the changes refused to persist in individual e-mails. The whole Thunderbird installation looks like it doesn't fit properly on the Mac Studio, and I can't figure out how to make it bigger. I went to Settings in a Thunderbird profile and tried increasing the font size under General->Language & Appearance, but this had no effect at all. I have also made sure that my Display settings on the new Mac Studio match my Display settings on the old iMac, but this doesn't make any difference to Thunderbird either.

I can't understand why version 102.3 looks so perfect with my three profiles on my old iMac, where everything is large and readable and fits properly, but not on my new Mac Studio! Obviously my profiles are compatible with the latest Thunderbird version, since they work fine on the iMac.

Oh, and by the way, BEFORE doing all of the above, I had initially used Apple Migration Assistant, which worked great for all my Apple content, but NOT for Thunderbird. So I uninstalled Thunderbird and deleted its profiles on the new Mac Studio, and started over again with a new install, as described above. Sadly, the results were exactly the same in both cases, whether I used Migration Assistant or downloaded a clean install of Thunderbird and manually transferred my profiles. Either way, the appearance of Thunderbird with my three profiles on my new Mac Studio is practically microscopic.

Does anyone understand what is going on? Can anyone tell me how to fix my Thunderbird? Or can you tell me what I have done wrong? I have always loved Thunderbird, and I'm brokenhearted!

I have been a happy Thunderbird user for many years. Currently I am trying to migrate my three Earthlink e-mail profiles from an iMac (late 2013) running macOS Catalina, to a Mac Studio (2022) running macOS Monterey. My Thunderbird profiles use POP for incoming mail. I have always preferred to store my e-mail on my computer, not on a server, and that's still my preference. I have a lot of history in my Thunderbird folders, and I don't want to lose all the e-mail I have stored in them. So I'm afraid to try to switch to IMAP, even if I wanted to, which I really don't. On my old iMac, Thunderbird is on version 102.3, and it looks great! So on my new Mac Studio, after downloading Thunderbird 102.3 but not opening it, I set up Profile Manager using Terminal (in Finder/Applications/Utilities), and created my three profiles exactly as they are on the old machine. Then, on the old iMac, I went to Library (via Finder) and copied my three profiles to a flash drive. I connected the flash drive to the new Mac Studio, where I copied and pasted the contents of each old profile into their corresponding new profiles. So the new profiles have new names, but the contents have been replaced by my data from my old Thunderbird profiles. This is the standard procedure, and I was very careful to do each step correctly. Well, everything is there all right, but sadly, it is all so unbelievably tiny that it is impossible to read or use. I experimented with Zoom and Font Sizes in the View menu in my Thunderbird profiles, but the results were still very unsatisfactory, and the changes refused to persist in individual e-mails. The whole Thunderbird installation looks like it doesn't fit properly on the Mac Studio, and I can't figure out how to make it bigger. I went to Settings in a Thunderbird profile and tried increasing the font size under General->Language & Appearance, but this had no effect at all. I have also made sure that my Display settings on the new Mac Studio match my Display settings on the old iMac, but this doesn't make any difference to Thunderbird either. I can't understand why version 102.3 looks so perfect with my three profiles on my old iMac, where everything is large and readable and fits properly, but not on my new Mac Studio! Obviously my profiles are compatible with the latest Thunderbird version, since they work fine on the iMac. Oh, and by the way, BEFORE doing all of the above, I had initially used Apple Migration Assistant, which worked great for all my Apple content, but NOT for Thunderbird. So I uninstalled Thunderbird and deleted its profiles on the new Mac Studio, and started over again with a new install, as described above. Sadly, the results were exactly the same in both cases, whether I used Migration Assistant or downloaded a clean install of Thunderbird and manually transferred my profiles. Either way, the appearance of Thunderbird with my three profiles on my new Mac Studio is practically microscopic. Does anyone understand what is going on? Can anyone tell me how to fix my Thunderbird? Or can you tell me what I have done wrong? I have always loved Thunderbird, and I'm brokenhearted!

Modified by Fern

Chosen solution

A month later, here is a report on what I did to fix my problem. It was a lot of work, but it was successful, and my new Thunderbird is working beautifully on my new computer. However, to get to this point, I had to give up my old idea of Thunderbird and replace it with a new model.

So, on my old computer, I completely cleaned out all three of my e-mail accounts. I used an excellent Thunderbird add-on, ImportExportToolsNG, to save whole folders and individual e-mails that were worth saving. I created external folders for all my historical e-mail storage and access, and moved these files to my new computer. I also deleted a lot of folders and e-mails that weren't worth saving.

I had tried the interim step of cutting my old account profiles down to manageable size, but still couldn't get the Export function to work. That is, it appeared to work and gave me an export file, but I was unable to load it into Thunderbird on my new computer. I don't know why. Maybe I did something wrong, or maybe it was because I was still trying to use POP. But I gave up on that, and just went for a complete clean-out of all my accounts as described above. I was halfway there anyway, so I figured I might as well go rest of the way.

On my new computer, I started with a fresh install of Thunderbird. Then I used the new account setup features to re-create my three e-mail accounts as IMAP, which was possible because my POP accounts were empty. Because I had been using Apple Mail as an interim e-mail system while I worked on Thunderbird, IMAP was already functioning for me. In my new Thunderbird, under Account Settings--Account Actions, I used Add Mail Account to add each of my profiles. I don't need the old Profile Manager anymore, because my three accounts are all lined up nicely in my Folders column.

Everything in Thunderbird is now the right size, and looks perfect. Yay!

I am changing my approach to e-mail now, as well. No more piling up endless e-mails in endless folders until my accounts reach the size of Mount Everest. Instead, I delete whatever I don't need ASAP. If an e-mail is truly worth saving for posterity, I use ImportExportToolsNG to save it to my new system of external storage folders on my hard drive. The only folders I'm using within Thunderbird at this point are very few, just for items currently in play, for quick and easy reference, and only while I need them.

IMAP mirrors my Thunderbird view on my server view of my accounts. But in both Thunderbird and the cloud, I'm only saving my current e-mails in play. I save all of my history externally to my hard drive only, which was pretty much what I used to think I was doing with POP.

So that's it. Thunderbird works just fine on my new Mac Studio after all. All I had to do was let go of my old ways, and accept new ones. Not so easy at first, but worth it in the long run.

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Fern
Fern Question owner
more options

Chosen Solution

A month later, here is a report on what I did to fix my problem. It was a lot of work, but it was successful, and my new Thunderbird is working beautifully on my new computer. However, to get to this point, I had to give up my old idea of Thunderbird and replace it with a new model.

So, on my old computer, I completely cleaned out all three of my e-mail accounts. I used an excellent Thunderbird add-on, ImportExportToolsNG, to save whole folders and individual e-mails that were worth saving. I created external folders for all my historical e-mail storage and access, and moved these files to my new computer. I also deleted a lot of folders and e-mails that weren't worth saving.

I had tried the interim step of cutting my old account profiles down to manageable size, but still couldn't get the Export function to work. That is, it appeared to work and gave me an export file, but I was unable to load it into Thunderbird on my new computer. I don't know why. Maybe I did something wrong, or maybe it was because I was still trying to use POP. But I gave up on that, and just went for a complete clean-out of all my accounts as described above. I was halfway there anyway, so I figured I might as well go rest of the way.

On my new computer, I started with a fresh install of Thunderbird. Then I used the new account setup features to re-create my three e-mail accounts as IMAP, which was possible because my POP accounts were empty. Because I had been using Apple Mail as an interim e-mail system while I worked on Thunderbird, IMAP was already functioning for me. In my new Thunderbird, under Account Settings--Account Actions, I used Add Mail Account to add each of my profiles. I don't need the old Profile Manager anymore, because my three accounts are all lined up nicely in my Folders column.

Everything in Thunderbird is now the right size, and looks perfect. Yay!

I am changing my approach to e-mail now, as well. No more piling up endless e-mails in endless folders until my accounts reach the size of Mount Everest. Instead, I delete whatever I don't need ASAP. If an e-mail is truly worth saving for posterity, I use ImportExportToolsNG to save it to my new system of external storage folders on my hard drive. The only folders I'm using within Thunderbird at this point are very few, just for items currently in play, for quick and easy reference, and only while I need them.

IMAP mirrors my Thunderbird view on my server view of my accounts. But in both Thunderbird and the cloud, I'm only saving my current e-mails in play. I save all of my history externally to my hard drive only, which was pretty much what I used to think I was doing with POP.

So that's it. Thunderbird works just fine on my new Mac Studio after all. All I had to do was let go of my old ways, and accept new ones. Not so easy at first, but worth it in the long run.