Thunderbird migration

[Chazmanium]

A long time ago, Thunderbird could export all your Message Filters along with all your e-mails.  It was great because you could copy all your information to another computer as quickly as a few seconds (minutes if you had many e-mails accounts and/or thousands of messages).  Then, Mozilla came up with a migration scheme that would allow you to access your profile on another machine and import everything from the profile on your previous machine to a new install of Thunderbird on a new machine.  In a very short time, you could have a complete clone of your Thunderbird profile on a new machine.

These things need to come back.  Exporting e-mails and folders, then importing into a new install, then having to re-create dozens or even hundreds of Message Filters is unnecessarily tedious, given how flexible Thunderbird used to be.

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[Jon]

Similar idea here: Migrate and cleanup Thunderbird profile 

[MattAuSupport]

Filter export was an addon.  https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/thunderbird-message-filter-imp/?src=search

This filter tool essentially continued to work up to V68.

It will be largely unnecessary when sync is released in a few months with Thunderbird 115.

[SenileAtheist]

I would love to see a 1-click Migration tool in the menus.

Select Migrate and Thunderbird should generate 1 self extracting, executable file that can be copied to a new machine, using all the existing components and settings, preserving all mail (POP & IMAP). This should also preserve non standard configurations, such as mail and/or profiles being on different drives. It should also give options for the intermediate step of where to put the migration file(s). Eg a usb stick, external drive, optical drive, etc. It should show the completed migration file size before starting.

A bonus would be the inclusion of some switches (tick boxes or select from file explorer) some options, including migrating to a different structure on the same machine, or to a different platform (Win, Apple or Linux). I use a non standard configuration where Thunderbird programs reside on C drive and mail and the profile on D drive

After using Thunderbird and its predecessor, Mozilla for more than 20 years, my biggest gripe is the convoluted and cryptic process of upgrading the computer, having to copy profiles, mail folders and passwords in separate, disparate steps, hoping to not lose important stuff.

[Jon]

(Note: a similar idea has been merged into this thread)

[Chazmanium]

@MattAuSupportActually, that Import/Export addon was not the original way to move e-mails and message filters from one computer to another.  Thunderbird originally had those import/export functions built in and I used it as such for quite some time before they were inexplicably moved to an addon.  Granted, I had to export my message filters separately, but it was just a couple clicks to export them, then import them in to a new TB install on a new computer.  When the import/export native functions were broken out to an addon, all that stopped.  Additionally, just a couple years ago, I got a new (to me) MacPro and was able to wirelessly connect to my old PowerMac, find my TB profile and import everything, every e-mail account, every setting, every folder, every e-mail and every message filter into my new Mac.  The longest amount of time was just transferring nine gigs of info from one computer to another, but it was so easy and didn't require any addons.  At the time, it was listed as an experimental function, but it worked perfectly.  Just a year ago or so, I had to replace my laptop and was terribly disappointed to see that TB had discontinued this wonderfully easy "experimental" function and that I had to rebuild my whole profile manually on the new laptop.

[MattAuSupport]

@Chazmanium   I really do wonder what your definition of original looks like. Thunderbird has never had a profile Import / Export or a message filter move either.

I think you might be dreaming of the mozbackup tool from jasnapaka that went out of support by them in 2012.  Beyond that I really think you need to be much more specific as the guy wrote mozbackup in the first place because Mozilla products had nothing built in.  Be that Mozilla Suite, Firefox or Thunderbird.

There was also for a time a message filter moving addon,  but nothing build in the Thunderbird ever for that either.   Version 1 of that addon was released in 2006. See https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/thunderbird-message-filter-imp/versions/.  Only 2 years after the initial release of Thunderbird.

24 years ago there was a request for a profile import and export option. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22689  this was closed as a duplicate of another bug some seven years ago https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=271863  this bug saw a profile import/export export implemented in V91.