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

In a cloned version of my hard drive, where would I find emails that were stored under "Local folders"? Are they lost now that the original hard drive died?

  • 5 iimpendulo
  • 1 inayo le ngxaki
  • 3 views
  • Impendulo yokugqibela ngu Gnospen

more options

I have a cloned version of my old hard drive from an old computer, which does not boot properly. I now have a new computer and would like to access the emails that had been stored in "local folder" in Thunderbird. I have searched the clone, but so far haven't come up with anything. Is there a particular file extension I should search for? Or is it possible that the clone doesn't have those files? Both the old and new computers are MacBooks.

I have a cloned version of my old hard drive from an old computer, which does not boot properly. I now have a new computer and would like to access the emails that had been stored in "local folder" in Thunderbird. I have searched the clone, but so far haven't come up with anything. Is there a particular file extension I should search for? Or is it possible that the clone doesn't have those files? Both the old and new computers are MacBooks.

All Replies (5)

more options

You need to look for your profile.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-tb

I'm not familiar with Macs, but on Windows and Linux the folder is hidden.

more options

Thank you for the link. The profile must be really well hidden. I found the Library folder, and there's a Mozilla folder in there, but there isn't a Thunderbird folder, unless it's within another folder. Any other hints? I tried searching for any of the keywords and file extensions I could think of (and are mentioned in the link you gave me) including .default, but I don't know what the random 8 digits would be.)

more options

profiles.ini might be a productive filename to seek. You could look for folders named Mail and ImapMail, and files named Inbox (note: no extension!)

The lack of anything responding to a search for *.default is worrying. I'm starting to think that your clone process missed the Thunderbird profile. :-(

more options

I think so too--I would have spotted something related by now if it was there. Thank you for the great suggestions. Maybe I can get a second look at the old hard drive if I take it back to the Apple dealer that created the clone.

more options

I would Not look for TBird under roaming/mozilla/ but under roaming/

Or open under help fail-search information and a bit down you have a button open profil-folder

(It could be similar names thou, mine are in swedish)