Moving Thunderbird Profile - Still Same Procedure ?

[Michael]

Hello,

I am on Windows 10 version 1909 and in a few months will be forced to
update to a newer version.

I have asked in this newsgroup several times before regarding
transferring a profile to new installation , backup Thunderbird folder
that contains profile and replace the new installation for Thunderbird
with the old Thunderbird folder.

I just wanted to make sure this was still the case and that the
developers of Thunderbird hadn't put a stop to this being possible.

If the situation has indeed been changed in recent months I will
hopefully be OK as I have done several backups in the past year.

The thought of having to manually enter all my email account details
makes me feel as sick as doing the Windows upgrade.

Michael

[Nobody]

On Mon, 4 Jan 2021 18:34:20 +0000, Michael <no...@here.com> wrote:

>Hello,
>
>I am on Windows 10 version 1909 and in a few months will be forced to
>update to a newer version.

If you're going to be allowing Windoze to carry out its own update,
all your installed software/data/files will stay where they are, as
they are, without disturbance.

As always, having personal stuff backed up is a good idea, just in
case.

I went through the 20H2 update a couple of months ago without any
issues, although as mentioned in another thread, Windows Defender and
its Antimalware Service Executable process ties up memory for a few
minutes at boot up, slowing opening of both TB and Firefox to a crawl,
if I'm impatient.

[WaltS48]

I think in a few months Windows will be past the 20H2 update.

Are you getting a new computer, or just updating?

No need to do anything if just updating.

Whatever worked before should work with a new computer.

--
OS: Ubuntu Linux 18.04LTS - Gnome Desktop
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/get-involved/
https://give.thunderbird.net/en-US/

[MikeS]

As already said, feature upgrading Windows does not require a new
installation of TB. However, the best option anyway with TB is to keep
one or more profile folders completely independent of the TB installation.

Before you do a fresh install of TB move (not copy) your profile folder
to another location, preferably not on the system drive.The new TB
installation will create a default, unused profile in the usual location
but you can just ignore that. Instead run the new TB version using only
a shortcut which points it to your profile folder.

You can have as many profile folders as you like, just create a separate
shortcut for each one. Add-ons are kept in the profile folder so this is
also an easy way to have a backup profile and test new add-ons w/o risk
to your regular profile.

The shortcut format is (eg):
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -profile "<path
to profile folder>\Data\profile"

[Big Al]

Yes.

If you update to a new version of windows, AND you keep your programs & data, you have nothing to do.
If you update and wipe your drive, then yes, Backup the Thunderbird folder and replace it in the new OS.
And by replace, I mean erase or rename the Thunderbird in the new OS and then put the backup of Thunderbird folder in place. Do Not
overwrite the Thunderbird folder, you don't want to keep garbage in there.

Al

--
Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.0 64bit, Dell Inspiron 5570, Quad Core i7-8550U, 16G Memory