I should add that trying to open this copied profile from the 2nd internal F drive on several occassions, I deleted the profile from profile manager. I tried deleting the files too, but the laptop said "not responding" It could be because that old Dell had well over a hundred thousand emails in the inbox, sent and imported folders from before. Could this be part of the reason now that the newly created profile is not picking up all of them and only new ones since I created Thunderbird on the 1st C drive earlier this month?

What exactly do you want to achieve? Do you want to restore the Acronis-backed profile to replace the current (new) profile, or do you want to keep both profiles and access them side by side? Also, which version of Thunderbird is involved for either profile, that is, which version was last used with the Acronis-backed profile and which version is currently in use?

You don't need an add-on to manage Tbird profiles and I definitely wouldn't recommend it. Simply go to the Help menu, select Troubleshooting Information and click the about:profiles link to access the inbuilt profile manager.

Hi Stan, Thank you for replying. Yes, I want to restore the Acronis and keep this profile from the old Dell Desktop as a side by side profile on the 1st internal C drive on my HP Envy.

I recovered the former Acronis backup to my new 2nd internal F drive on the HP Envy notebook.

I just checked the old Dell desktop and as soon as I opened Thunderbird, it applied an update to version 80.0b5 (32 bit). I'm doing an incremental Acronis backup now to backup this latest version. I'll wait for further replies before I even attempt to recover this latest Acronis incremental backup to the HP Envy F drive.

On the HP Laptop it says version 68.11.0 (32 bit).

re :I just checked the old Dell desktop and as soon as I opened Thunderbird, it applied an update to version 80.0b5 (32 bit).

Currently Thunderbird has stopped versions of 68 (latest one is 68.11.0) from auto updating to version 78*.

So this means you previously downloaded a 78 beta version and were using beta versions not normal release. That means the profile on Desktop was updated to be used by versions that are more recent than on the Laptop. The address books would also have been converted from mab to sqlite format.

Suggest you do not bother using Acronis (backup software). On Desktop In thunderbird

• Help Troubleshooting Information
• click on 'Open folder'

A new window opens showing contents of the profile name folder.

• Exit Thunderbird now.
• Go up the directory to the 'Profiles' folder

It will show the profile name folder eg: xxxxxxxx.default or xxxxxxxx.default-release where the x's are letters and numbers.

• Copy the profile name folder to a usb or external harddrive etc

On laptop: In thunderbird

• Help Troublshooting Information
• click on 'Open folder'

A new window opens showing contents of the profile name folder.

• Exit Thunderbird now.
• Go up the directory to the 'Profiles' folder
• Paste in the copied 'profile name' folder

• Start Thunderbird
• Help > Troubleshooting Information

Bottom of Application Basics section

• Click on 'About : Profiles'
• If new profile is not listed, click on 'Create a new Profile'
• Click on 'Next'
• Enter new name- you could use the 'Default User'
• click on 'Choose folder'
• Select the profile name folder you just copy pasted.
• click on 'Select Folder'

that profile should now get added as eg: 'Default User'. You could now select that profile to see what it contains.

Hello,

Thank you for your reply Toad-Hall.

I followed your exact instructions. It added the profile and when I launched it said that the profile was created with an older version and needed to create a new one. This is exactly what happened previously. I followed the prompts to put in one of my email addresses and existing passwords. There are at least 6 email addresses with data from the Old Dell Desktop that I am trying to recover. So I imagine, I will have to do this step for each by manually entering the existing email address and password and allow Thunderbird to check for it to create the new profile.

So I entered one of the existing email addresses and passwords and it loaded only emails dating back from August 11 to today. It's not pulling the entire email history and imported email folders which date back to 2002 or so. The Profile folder I copied directly from the Old Dell Desktop to my external hard drive (didn't use Acronis per your suggestion) had over 121,000 files that were over 25GB.

Somehow, when I first tried to recover this pasted Profile the other day, this was exactly what was occuring. I attempted to delete the profile (cliking on without deleting files as I mentioned in a previous post it said "not responding") When I first tried this the other day, I copied and pasted from the 2nd internal hard drive on the HP Envy hard drive to the 1st internal hard drive which has the Profile that Thunderbird created a few weeks ago when I downloaded Thunderbird on the HP. Any chance this is somewhere in the registry preventing the "new profile created today from the TroubleShooting step to create profile is being interfered with? I am probably not explaining this correctly so I apologize in advance.

I hope I am not confusing you on this.

My understanding Toad-Hall is that my desktop was using a Beta version and not the version that was installed a few weeks ago on my HP Envy laptop. That would make sense when I get the message when I created the New Profile that I was using an older version (Beta) and needed to create a new Profile. I guess compatibility?

What should we do now?

This link offers a good explanation of what is occurring. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/dedicated-profile-thunderbird-installation

Basically you are trying to use an older version of Thunderbird on a profile that used a more recent version. So you need to use the backward compatitibility option. At link scroll down to What happens to my profile if I downgrade to a previous version of Thunderbird?

Note: Downgrade protection can be overridden by launching Thunderbird through the command line with the --allow-downgrade parameter.

Exit Thunderbird. In Windows search type: Run select the 'Run' app Type: thunderbird.exe --allow-downgrade click on OK

I must be missing something Toad-Hall. I do not see where use the backward compatibility option is. I entered in the Run command thunderbird.exe (is there a space between the double hyphen?) --allow-downgrade I then went back to about profiles and cliked on OldDellemails (which was the renamed new default on this profile I copied and pasted from the external hard drive from the Old Dell Desktop into Profiles in the Thunderbird folder on the 1st internal C hard drive on the HP Envy laptop. I still got the error message of an older version was used and to create a new profile name which it did as default1. It brought me to the same screen of entering the email and password as before with the same end result. So I must be doing something incorrectly. Thank you. This is very frustrating!

re :I entered in the Run command thunderbird.exe (is there a space between the double hyphen?) --allow-downgrade

thunderbird.exe --allow-downgrade

There is a space after the .exe then there are no spaces --allow-downgrade is all one

Thunderbird should not be running. The above is a means of starting Thunderbird.

I then went back to about profiles What do you mean go back to about:profiles ? Do you mean Thunderbird was still running - in which case the 'run' command is not going to work. or you started up Thunderbird but not via the 'Run' command ?

In 'about: profiles' have you set the OldDellemail profile as default? If no then set as default' Exit Thunderbird.

Then only start Thunderbird via the 'Run' command using thunderbird.exe --allow-downgrade OR type: thunderbird.exe -p --allow-downgrade to open the Profile Manager allowing you to choose profile. (there is a space after .exe then -p followed by a space then the remainder no spaces )

Thank you Toad-Hall!

Followed your excellent reply and it works! Finally!!

BTW when I said "about profiles", I was referring to the hyperlink at the bottom of Application Basics in Troubleshooting that shows the profiles stored in Thunderbird folder.

I had installed directly the add-on Profile Manager so now I see at the bottom task bar the existing opened profile and it allows me to switch to the profile that was created on this HP Envy notebook.

I think I answered a question I had:

Since entering that Run command of Thunderbird.exe --allow-downgrade I was wondering if I would always have to launch Thunderbird by running this command. But I found out that I can just normally launch it by cliking on the icon in my Taskbar.

Thank you again for all of your help!!

Fred