How to Back Up or Copy Your Mozilla Thunderbird Profile (Email, Settings,...)

All your emails, contacts, filters, settings and what not in one place — Mozilla Thunderbird — are great, but in two places they are even better. This is true in particular if that other place is a shiny new computer emitting the certain new laptop smell. Fortunately, copying all your Mozilla Thunderbird data is easy.

You may have noticed that I did not mention backups yet. This is because you need a backup when you have lost your data — and you won't lose your data. But, of course, you can (and should) create backup copies of your Mozilla Thunderbird profile by copying it.

Back Up or Copy Your Mozilla Thunderbird Profile (Email, Settings,...)

To copy your Mozilla Thunderbird profile:

• Make sure Mozilla Thunderbird is not running.
• Open your Mozilla Thunderbird profile directory.
• Highlight all files and folders in it.
• Copy the files to the desired backup location.
  • You can compress the files and folders to a zip file and move the zip file instead.

Now you can restore the profile on another computer, or when problems arise.