What’s the output from:
ls ~/.thunderbird
and the contents of:
gedit ~/.thunderbird/profiles.ini
i just tried to open it ant that error came up
ron@ron-GA-78LMT-USB3 ~ $ ls ~/.thunderbird
5a5qnwpd.broken Crash Reports profiles.ini
General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=5a5qnwpd.default
Run this command:
mv ~/.thunderbird/5a5qnwpd.broken/Mail/"Local Folders"/szhyvx4z.default ~/.thunderbird/szhyvx4z.default
then post the output from:
ls ~/.thunderbird/
on@ron-GA-78LMT-USB3 ~ $ mv ~/.thunderbird/5a5qnwpd.broken/Mail/“Local Folders”/szhyvx4z.default ~/.thunderbird/szhyvx4z.default
ron@ron-GA-78LMT-USB3 ~ $ ls ~/.thunderbird/
5a5qnwpd.broken Crash Reports profiles.ini szhyvx4z.default
ron@ron-GA-78LMT-USB3 ~ $
OK, now (WITH THUNDERBIRD CLOSED) run:
gedit ~/.thunderbird/profiles.ini
and make it read:-
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=szhyvx4z.default
SAVE the file, and exit gedit.
Now what happens if you start Thunderbird ?
–
it starts it up as if i had never opened an account
but is the old mail all there ?
Yes thanks Phew
szhyvx4z has gone tho
i cannot even get it from my old windows pc
pif paf poof gone
So you just need to re-enter the account details.
You OK to do that on your own ?
and do you want help to clean up the broken files and backup ?
[EDIT]
szhyvx4z has gone tho i cannot even get it from my old windows pc pif paf poof gone
You’ll have to explain that … if you’d copied it to your Linux PC, we still have it in the backup … but I need to know what you mean, so I know where to copy it to ?
[EDIT2]
Do you mean the second account … this one:-
│ │ │ └── szhyvx4z.defau lt.sbd
│ │ │ ├── Mail
│ │ │ ├── minidumps
│ │ │ └── TestPilotExper imentFiles
?
all i want to do is put it in to Thunderbird so i can access the e mails and contact within theszhyvx4z please
See the edits above … I’m not 100% sure what you’re saying is missing ?
OK, try this … make SURE thunderbird is CLOSED.
now run:
mv ~/.thunderbird/5a5qnwpd.broken/Mail/"Local Folders"/szhyvx4z.default.sbd ~/.thunderbird/szhyvx4z.default/Mail/"Local Folders"/szhyvx4z.default.sbd
Now start thunderbird … is what you were expecting there now ?
–
no nothing has changed
they have not appeared
What are you expecting to appear ?
and what’s the output from:
ls .a ~/.thunderbird/szhyvx4z.default/Mail/"Local Folders"
?
ron@ron-GA-78LMT-USB3 ~ $ ls .a ~/.thunderbird/szhyvx4z.default/Mail/“Local Folders”
ls: cannot access .a: No such file or directory
/home/ron/.thunderbird/szhyvx4z.default/Mail/Local Folders:
Outlook Import0.sbd Outlook Import.sbd szhyvx4z.default.sbd
ron@ron-GA-78LMT-USB3 ~ $
i was hoping that all my old email folders and contact lists would appear
Sorry, typo …what’s the output from:
ls -a ~/.thunderbird/szhyvx4z.default/Mail/"Local Folders"
i was hoping that all my old email folders and contact lists would appear
Yeh … but how the heck do you expect me to know what your old folders were without you explaining it to me ?
Do you want me to put it back the way it was ?
try this -
close thunderbird and run:
mv ~/.thunderbird/5a5qnwpd.broken/Mail/mail.btinternet.com ~/.thunderbird/szhyvx4z.default/Mail/mail.btinternet.com
Now what happens if you start thunderbird ?
But be aware, unless you find a way to explain what you’re expecting the end result to look like, (ie which folders are there and which are missing), I’m having to GUESS at the moment.
I would say, just copy the whole profile again from windows, but you say you’ve now managed to somehow screw that up too ?
[EDIT]
If at any stage you want to go back to how it was before we started … just say so, and I’ll tell you how to copy back the backup.
nothing with that
no i can copy it all from windows again
how do i deletw the thunderbird account and ill start again
will i be better off using imap this time
Completely delete the thunderbird account, so its as though it was just installed … with thunderbird close, run:
rm ~/.thunderbird
When you start thunderbird it will recreate that directory as a freshy installation.
You still have the backup we made earlier though … just in case 
IMAP will not help you transfer the mail from XP, unless all the mail is still on the mailserver … which is unlikely if you were using POP3 with the default settings of most mail clients.
It may be a better option for the future … I mean if you’d been using IMAP your mail may still have been on the mailserver (unless you’d deleted it) … but really I don’t understand why anyone is still using anything other than webmail … with webmail if your system goes up in smoke, your mail will still be on the web, so accessible from another PC.
As Mark said before, leave IMAP for later.
As far as I can see you made a mistake when copied the szhyvx4z.default into the wrong folder in the new location.
Start again by deleting or moving the .thunderbird directory in your home folder.
Run Thunderbird once, then shut it down (do not create any accounts)
Then copy the szhyvx4z.defaultfrom your usb to (make it look like this)
~/.thunderbird/szhyvx4z.default
Then delete the automatically created default account.
Then edit the profile.ini as Mark instructed.
Only then fire Thunderbird up