Thunderbird PC to Mac migration solution

Since moving from Eudora to Thunderbird on the PC, I've become a huge fan of the Mozilla e-mail client, so I definitely wanted to continue using it as I moved to the Mac. This proved more difficult than I expected but there's a reasonably simple solution for Thunderbird v1.x (it's untested with v2.x). Simply moving the Thunderbird profile from the PC to the Mac doesn't fly (or at least it didn't for me); Thunderbird just hangs up when it tries to access these files. Instead, the process is somewhat more granular. Here's an overview, and if anyone wants more details, feel free to contact me.

1. Install Thunderbird on your Mac.
2. Open Thunderbird, and create your main mail account. Don't download any mail yet; just create the account.
3. Copy your Thunderbird profile directory from your PC to your Mac. (In Windows 2000 and XP, the default profile locations are under "Application Data", which is a hidden folder. In Explorer (i.e. double-click My Computer) click: Tools → Folder Options → View (tab) → Show Hidden files and folders.)
4. In this folder (on your Mac) and all its subfolders, you must move any file with a ".msf" extension to the Trash. I created a little Automator workflow to do this (called "Move .msf to Trash", contained in this zip file), which you can download (Ctrl-click, Save As...). To use it, open the folder in Finder, select all the files (Command-A) and then run the Automator script. You must do this for every folder in which .msf files appear.
5. Now copy "Local Folders" to your Thunderbird Mail folder on your Mac.
6. Open Thunderbird -- you should be done!

If you have more than one mail account, create all of them in step 2 (but don't download any mail). Then you can copy your old mail files into the directory structures that Thunderbird creates upon account creation.

You can also copy over these files to preserve your settings from your PC:

• Filters -- msgFilterRules.dat (goes into your Local Folder)
• Address Book - abook,mab (goes into your profile directory)
• Junk Training - training.dat (goes into your profile directory)

Note that this procedure doesn't save all of your settings and whatnot, which necessitates a little monkeying around, but it gets the bulk of the job done. If anyone knows a more complete procedure, please let me know!

[Updated 4/20/2007 22:23 EDT: Fixed the link to the "Move .msf to Trash" workflow. Made clear that this fix applies to Thunderbird 1.x.]

Comments

[Dave]

Glad it worked for you, Karina!

[CM]

Dave, thanks for this, a perfect solution.

In case you use Lightning, how do you handle that? Importing calendar entries from Outlook and exchanging them between Mac and WIndows is still very difficult, especially when it comes to special characters like german Umlauts. Thunderbird and Lightning don't like those and Lightning refuses imports from Outlook then.

[Dave]

I use iCal, not Lightning, so I'm by no means an expert on that subject. Sorry. But I'm glad the migration solution worked for you!

One thought: Have you considered using Plaxo to synchronize your calendars across multiple machines, or using Google Calendar as a central synchronization point?

[CM]

Google Calendar ist not bad, but the "Provider" has a lot of problems. I don't know Plaxo but will follow your lead.

[cesar]

I have done the install and .msf removal, but when opening TB it says "A copy of Thunderbird is already open. Only one copy of Thunderbird can be open at a time". Any ideas?

[Dave]

Check if there's a copy of Thunderbird running somewhere. Use Activity Monitor to Force Quit any Thunderbird.exe that is running. If that doesn't work, restart your machine and try again. If that doesn't work, delete ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/[whateveryourprofilehashis]/.parentlock [as recommended in the comments to this Digg posting: http://digg.com/software/Mozilla_Thunderbird_2_Beta_1].

It may also be a good idea to run Disk Utility, select the drive on which Thunderbird is installed, and click on the Repair Permissions button. (It's generally a good idea to do this every so often anyway.) Hope this helps!

[cesar]

woohoo i got the mail to work. Thanks for the suggestions. Actually you install tutorial is perfect.. it was my user error. now on to address book and calender...

[Dave]

Glad it panned out for you, Cesar! Importing stuff into Address Book and iCal is very simple compared to mail-to-Thunderbird.

[Chris]

I think I might cry! This seems so simple but it's not worked for me. I've been trying to solve my Thunderbird PC to Mac transfer all day (actually on and off for about 3 months), and found your straightforward instructions, and thought, great - this'll finally solve it! But no joy...

The only thing I can see where I may have tripped up is on the copying of "Local Folders" into the mac folder. Should I have only transferred the contents of the pc one into the mac one (alongside the existing files inside that folder), rather than replacing the contents?

Please help!

[Chris]

I think I might cry! This seems so simple but it's not worked for me. I've been trying to solve my Thunderbird PC to Mac transfer all day (actually on and off for about 3 months), and found your straightforward instructions, and thought, great - this'll finally solve it! But no joy...

The only thing I can see where I may have tripped up is on the copying of "Local Folders" into the mac folder. Should I have only transferred the contents of the pc one into the mac one (alongside the existing files inside that folder), rather than replacing the contents?

Please help!

[Chris]

Huge apologies - please ignore my last comment (x 2!) and general ineptitude, it has worked after all. I must come clean: I only single-clicked on the 'Local Folders' icon to expand it, when it needed a double click. Once I got over that hurdle, all my folders were there waiting for me, with my entire email log. This marks the end of a momentous journey to banish Hotmail and Outlook Express from my workplace, and bring in a new way of working.

Hurray! and huge thanks you clever clogs. I do excel in most other walks of life - honest! Now I'm off to swot up on using Thunderbird...

[Dave]

Glad you got there in the end, Chris. Though we'll have to take your word for it on the "excelling" comment... ;-)

[Geoffrey]

I am new to mac, facing this problem, and look forward to making this migration work - Thanks to all those who have contributed so usefully to this thread.

In the meantime, I can't seem find a way to start TB 2 profile manager on the mac (Leopard) - options key + thunderbird (as instructed on a mozilla help page) does not do it for me...

Geoffrey, you should follow the instructions here. This notes that you should shut down Thunderbird and open up a Terminal window, then type the following:

/Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/MacOS/thunderbird -profilemanager

If that doesn't work, add "-bin" as follows:

/Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/MacOS/thunderbird-bin -profilemanager

I just tried this and it works for me. Hope that helps!

[debster]

thank you so much for the help!!!! i'm so glad to bump into this site!!

[Dave]

Glad to have had you bump into me! ;-)

[kay]

you dont need to copy the entire profile. you just need some specific files, which will hold the mails. in order to process create a folder X inside thunderbird (with whatever emails you want in it), then quite and look for this file. The file which has just been created is the one you need to move on your mac (or either from a mac to your pc), thunder will also create a X.msf, dont copy this one, but copy the X (unix file) in the profile of your new computer, at the exact same place (could be a different profile name, it doesnt matter).
then you are good.
you got it with an X, if so you can do it with whatever you want.

good luck

[Dave]

Thanks, Kay, though I'm not entirely sure I understand the sequence as you've described it. I *think* you're saying that transferring the .msf files isn't needed. I agree; this procedure eliminates the .msf files without needing to start/quit Thunderbird over and over to see which files have changed.

But I could be misunderstanding your proposed sequence, so please do clarify if possible. Thanks!

[saschad]

Im bummed. Doesn't work for me. After copying the profile folder and tells me "thunderbird is already running" even tho its not...

:(

[Dave]

Your profile is locked for some reason (probably a bad shutdown). Look at the instructions here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use. That should solve your problem!

Dave

[Martha]

You are a LIFESAVER! I just moved from PC and MAC. After days of agony (I was able to get my emails over to mac mail and entourage but unorganized in over 500 folders), you're method worked beautifully and kept all my folders intact. My address book (with over 250 contacts), which I could not import successfully to either Entourage or Mac Mail also is now a beautiful thing. Somehow this page should show up in the #1 slot. I don't really even remember I stumbled upon it. You saved me more days of tortuously doing everything by hand and the tip from Liamwen was also invaluable as I too am new to MAC. I couldn't figure out your zip file program (sure it was me), so I just did a search for all .msf files in that folder and put them in the trash. Worked like a charm. Thanks more than I can say.

[Dave]

I'm delighted this worked for you, Martha!

[Zach]

I just gave this a shot last night - I was able to transfer one email account without a hitch, but my other email was a no-go.

Deleted all the .msf files and carried everything over, and my messages won't show up.

I did have custom folders within my inbox to organize my mail, would that have any effect?

[Dave]

If there are .msf files within the folders, that may have an impact. Otherwise I'm not sure what might be happening, Zach. Sorry I can't be more help on that one.

[Al]

I am utterly and completely frustrated with migrating Thunderbird files from my PC to my new MacBookPro. I can migrate the files. They show up fine under my Mac T-bird profile. But I keep getting that annoying "Only one copy of Thunderbird can be open at a time" error message -- and I cannot for the life of me find any way to shut any version of T-bird that is supposed to be running. It does not exist. I also cannot find answers through anything else posted on this site.

Can you help? I am about to freaking scream.