Moving Your Mozilla Thunderbird Profile

by Heinz Tschabitscher - Updated on February 09, 2020
Moving your Mozilla Thunderbird information to a different location on your computer or another device altogether requires just a few steps.
NOTE: The instructions and screenshots here were performed in Thunderbird version 68.12.1 running in Windows 7, but they *should* similar in other operating systems and versions.
Thunderbird stores your messages, settings, filters, address book, spam filter data, and more in your profile folder; the folder is in a different location than the program files. This way, should you uninstall Thunderbird, your messages and settings will still remain available if you change your mind and want to reinstall. This is also useful should a program update go awry.
To find the name and location of your Thunderbird profile folder:
  • Launch Mozilla Thunderbird.
  • Select Help > Troubleshooting Information in the menu bar:


  • Go to Profile Folder > Open Folder.

    • This will display your profile folder in Explorer.

    To change the location of your Mozilla Thunderbird profile:
  • Close Mozilla Thunderbird! It must not be running when you move the profile folder
  • Copy the profile folder to new location
    • Copy the profile folder and transfer it to a different computer, or paste it into the desired location. To move it to a new device, use whatever method fits your situation: Copy the folder to removable media (e.g., a thumbdrive), email it to yourself, save it to the cloud, etc. and then open it on the other device.

    Update the Profile Folder Location in Thunderbird

    If you've stored the folder in a different location, you must tell Thunderbird where to find it.

    NOTE: it appears that it is NOT necessary to edit the profiles.ini file at all... instead, when pointing to the active profile directory at the destination directory, point to the appropriate directory _under_ Profiles. See the comments below for details on Profile directory names.

    Updating the Thunderbird profile
  • Open profiles.ini in a text editor.
    • You'll find it at /Users/[your username]/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/.
    Here is an example of profiles.ini: 
    [Install8216C80C92C4E828]
Default=Profiles/05rfnggk.default

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/05rfnggk.default
Default=1

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
Version=2
  • Update the paths to new location
    • Change the Path= for current profile to the profile folder's new location. Here is an example of the modified profiles.ini: 
    [Install8216C80C92C4E828]
Default=Profiles/05rfnggk.default

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=C:\notes\Thunderbird
Default=1

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
Version=2
  • Save profiles.ini

    • Load the new profile into Thunderbird

    For Windows version of Thunderbird, changing the profiles.ini file, alone, is not sufficient to get Thunderbird to use it.
  • Start Thunderbird with Profile Manager
    • Press Windows-R to open the Run dialog, then enter thunderbird -p, and hit Enter.
    This will open the Thunderbird Profile Manager dialog:


  • Click on Create Profile button, to open the Profile Wizard
  • Click on Next button on next dialog; this will display the Completing the Create Profile Wizard dialog.
  • Click on Choose Folder button, then navigate to your new Thunderbird folder, and click Select Folder button.
    NOTE: be sure to point to the active profile directory under Profiles directory.
    If there are multiple directories under Profiles, you may need to look at the profiles.ini file in the default path for this data; it will look something like this:
    Profiles\05rfnggk.default
  • If you wish, enter a new profile name in the appropriate field
    •  With modern versions of Thunderbird (2022 and later), all you need to do is point at the Thunderbird folder... the profiles don't even exist any more!!
  • Finally, Click Finish button, then on the previous dialog click Start Thunderbird button to open Thunderbird.