Thunderbird / Firefox Profile Migration From One Computer To Another

One of the best things about Mozilla projects is that they ensure smooth, hassle free migration of all your data from one computer to another. Its as simple as copying over the entire profile directory to the new computer's profile directory. You have to do it once for XP and Twice for Vista.

XP Instructions

1. Go to the /Document & Settings/User Id/Application Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles
2. There will be a weird looking folder under profile. Copy all the contents and paste them in the new weird looking folder in the new machine (same path) and restart FIREFOX.
3. Similarly for Thunderbird, make sure your local file storage and the folder structure for your mail accounts match in both the old and the new machine. Copy over all the mbox and msf files to the same folder structure on the new machine.
4. Now go to /Document & Settings/User Id/Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles
5. There will be a weird looking folder under profile. Copy all the contents and paste them in the new weird looking folder in the new machine (same path) and restart Thunderbird.
6. Sometimes Thunderbird may or may not pickup the Mbox and MSF files. Just make sure tha you go to your account settings and check the "Local Directory" under the "Server Settings" and make sure it points to the correct folder.

VISTA Instructions

1. Exactly the same way as above, except for the fact that you have to copy the contents to two different places for both FireFox and Thunderbird.
2. FireFox folder paths are /Users/User Id/AppData/Local/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles and /Users/User Id/AppData/Roaming/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles
3. Thunderbird folder paths are /Users/User Id/AppData/Thunderbird/Firefox/Profiles and /Users/User Id/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles.

And there you have it, everything from saved passwords, cookies, bookmarks, mail settings everything is all setup on the new machine. No hassles of doing import export process...