Thunderbird....need help

[Catty1]

Hard to concentrate on this as my partner disappeared two days ago after we argued...no sign of or word from him yet.

But anyway, I have a client to help, so here goes(will use Google too):

Backed up client's files before I reinstalled XP. I have the Mozilla Thunderbird files too. Trying to get them back in to the new Thunderbird install is baffling me.

There are some instructions on the TB site, but I need a tad more detail there. Not quite sure what the writer means.

Thanks.

[king2005]

where is the site with the instructions?

[Catty1]

Actually I just found a good article and printed it out. The URL? arg...just copied and pasted to a Word doc.

Here it is - I wish the notes on the Mozilla Thunderbird site itself had been this helpful!

http://email.about.com/od/mozillathu...store_prof.htm

That's the good one - now compare to this:
http://www.mozilla.org/support/thunderbird/profile#move

Move an existing profile or restore a backed up profile

It's possible to move the location of a profile folder. This could be useful if you have a backed up profile folder somewhere on your hard drive and want to tell Thunderbird to use that as your profile. This section explains how to do this.

1. Shut down Thunderbird completely (File > Exit).
2. Move the profile folder to the desired location. For example, on Windows XP, move the profile from C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default to D:\Stuff\MyMailProfile. If you are reading these instructions because you want to restore a previously backed up profile, this step isn't necessary. Just note the current location of the profile you want to restore.
3. Open up profiles.ini in a text editor. The file is located in the application data folder for Thunderbird:
* On Windows Vista/XP/2000, the path is %AppData%\Thunderbird\
* On Windows 95/98/Me, the path is usually C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Thunderbird\
* On Linux, the path is ~/.thunderbird/
* On Mac OS X, the path is ~/Library/Thunderbird/
4. In profiles.ini, locate the entry for the profile you've just moved. Change the Path= line to the new location. IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you switch from a relative path to a non-relative one, the direction of the slashes may need to change (e.g. in Windows, non-relative paths use backslashes, whereas relative ones use forward slashes).
5. Change IsRelative=1 to IsRelative=0.
6. Save profiles.ini and restart Thunderbird.

[king2005]

wow, that first one is nuts! I didn't even get what on earth he was going on about :S

That 2nd one you found seems simple to follow. Do you understand how to do it now?

[Catty1]

The first one I understood.

[Catty1]

When restoring the backup files, I fixed everything but Thunderbird...spent almost two hours on it.

I backed up what I thought I was supposed to - I researched it before I did anything.

I feel like a complete failure.