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how to safely upgrade from 52.5 to 68.8 whilst changing hardware

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by fgould

ianworthington1
ianworthington1
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I have an TB 52.5 installation on the disks from my old pc, which I wish to move to my new machine.

I've read I can just copy the thunderbird folder from appdata\roaming to the new location on my new machine, but I'm concerned that the format of some of the files I'm moving over from v52.5 won't be compatible with the the new 68.8 files and I shouldn't just be overwritting/deleting the files from 68.8 without some care.

Are there, in fact, any issues here I need to care more care about, or does it just magically work?

Or should I reinstall a 52.5 version, change the profile location folder, and then perform an upgrade to 68.8?

Ian

I have an TB 52.5 installation on the disks from my old pc, which I wish to move to my new machine. I've read I can just copy the thunderbird folder from appdata\roaming to the new location on my new machine, but I'm concerned that the format of some of the files I'm moving over from v52.5 won't be compatible with the the new 68.8 files and I shouldn't just be overwritting/deleting the files from 68.8 without some care. Are there, in fact, any issues here I need to care more care about, or does it just magically work? Or should I reinstall a 52.5 version, change the profile location folder, and then perform an upgrade to 68.8? Ian

Chosen solution

I am quite sure, that it will work just fine, but I'd advise you to keep a backup of your profile folder just to be sure. Your plan B is reasonable.

However a new Thunderbird install might not automatically take up your old profile, in this case, you might need to start Thunderbird with its profile manager (by starting it with the P flag, i.e. thunderbird.exe -P) and tell Thunderbird to use it anyway.

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Balázs Meskó
Balázs Meskó
  • Top 25 Contributor
  • Moderator
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Chosen Solution

I am quite sure, that it will work just fine, but I'd advise you to keep a backup of your profile folder just to be sure. Your plan B is reasonable.

However a new Thunderbird install might not automatically take up your old profile, in this case, you might need to start Thunderbird with its profile manager (by starting it with the P flag, i.e. thunderbird.exe -P) and tell Thunderbird to use it anyway.

fgould
fgould
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I am trying to migrate Thunderbird email from Arch Linux arm to iRaspbian using the same Thunderbird version installed but I keep getting the 'Create New Profile' after I select 'Use the selected profile without asking at startup' and my default email profile. After Thunderbird starts, it displays 'Create New Profile' or 'Quit' buttons. If I setup a new profile, I can't find where my Arch profile and/or mail are to be loaded. I used 'thunderbird -P' to set this up as instructed. Why can't TB 68.8 read another 68.8 file?

fgould
fgould
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I was able to find a solution to this problem although I cannot confirm it will completely operate the same as before. Right now my files are being assimilated in some manner after executing the following terminal command: 'thunderbird -allow-downgrade'. Currently, thunderbird is running 100% in a core processor as I'm assuming it is using for assimilating my Arch Linux files. This solution came from the following website: https://thunderbirdtweaks.blogspot.com/2019/09/i-lost-my-profilemail-on-update-to.html

Modified by fgould