Enigmail Support

How to Create a New Profile and retain your Mail and Settings

This document aims to provide information on how to create a new profile in SeaMonkey/Thunderbird and transfer all your mail and settings across. It is intended for people who are new to SeaMonkey/Thunderbird or those who have never had to do this before. It is based upon Thunderbird 2.0 and SeaMonkey 1.1.

We have put together instructions that cover POP3 Mail (what you would normally use with an ISP), IMAP Mail (possibly in a Corporate environment), Newsgroups, and RSS news. You may be using some or all of these, and should the use the sections relevant to your installation.

  1. Before you start...
  2. Backup your existing profile
  3. Create a new profile
  4. Restore settings
  5. Restore POP3 Mail
  6. Restore Local IMAP Mail
  7. Restore Non-Local IMAP Settings
  8. Restore Newsgroup Archive
  9. Restore RSS Settings
  10. Test
  11. Tidy up


Before you start...

There are some things that you can't just copy across from one profile to another without doing some editing of configuration files, (which is not a task to be taken on lightly), so you will need to know them or have them noted down.

  • The Account Name, Usernames, Email addresses and Passwords for ALL the users in your profile.
  • The name or IP address of your POP3 Mail Server and SMTP Mail Server or your IMAP Mail Server.
  • The name of any Newsgroup Servers and the Account Names. Also, any Usernames and Passwords if required.
  • The name of any RSS feeds and the URL's.

You can retrieve almost all of this information, other than the passwords, from the Account Settings Manager (on SeaMonkey, select: Edit > Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings..., on Thunderbird, select: Tools > Account Settings...).

Here is a short checklist that you can copy and paste into a text editor and fill in the blanks:
Email Account Name:
Email Username:
Email Address:
Email Password:
POP3/IMAP Server name/address:
SMTP Server name/address:
(The Email Account Name and Email Username can be anything you would like them to be, so you don't have to use the same values as you currently use.)

If you have multiple accounts, ensure that you note down the order that the accounts appear in the list as well.

If you use Newsgroups you will need to get the following information:
Newsgroup Account Name:
Newsgroup Server:
Newsgroup Username:
Newsgroup Password:
A list of the newsgroups you have subscribed to.
(These can be found by high-lighting the newsgroup server in the folder tree and selecting Manage newsgroup subscriptions in the right hand pane.)

If you use RSS you will need to get the following information:
RSS Account Name:
A list of the RSS feeds you have subscribed to.
(These can be found by high-lighting the RSS Account in the folder tree, selecting View settings for this account, and then clicking on Manage Subscriptions.)


Backup Your Existing Profile

  1. Shut down SeaMonkey/Thunderbird before proceeding.
  2. Locate your profile folder.
    The profile folder name is usually xxxxxxxx.(slt|default), where the xxxxxxxx is a random string of 8 characters.
    Substitute Mozilla (for SeaMonkey) or Thunderbird for Application in the paths below.
    • On Windows 2000/XP: The path is usually: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Application\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)
      (where user is the username of the logged in user.)
    • On Windows 9x/Me: The path is usually: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Application\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)
    • On Linux: The path is usually: ~/.application/default/xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)
    • On MacOS X: The path is usually: ~/Library/Application/Profiles/default/xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)
  3. Backup your profile folder.
    1. Create a temporary folder somewhere on your system called Profile Backup
      This should not be under the same Application folder where xxxxxxxx.(slt|default) is located.
    2. Copy the xxxxxxxx.(slt|default) folder and paste it into the Profile Backup folder.
    3. Check and make sure that the copy of xxxxxxxx.(slt|default) you have pasted into the Profile Backup folder is a good copy.
      Check the folder size of xxxxxxxx.(slt|default) against the copy in the Profile Backup folder to make sure that they are the same.
  4. Remove your old profile folder.
    1. Navigate to the Application directory in the path of your profile folder. i.e.:
      • On Windows 2000/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Application
        (where user is the username of the logged in user.)
      • On Windows 9x/Me: The path is usually: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Application
      • On Linux: The path is usually: ~/.application
      • On MacOS X: The path is usually: ~/Library/Application
    2. Delete ALL the folders and files in this directory.

Create a new profile

  1. Start up SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups/Thunderbird, and follow the New Account Setup wizard to create your default account.
    Do not allow collection of any mail at the end of account creation.
  2. If you have additional Mail or Newsgroup accounts, go to the Account Settings manager (On SeaMonkey, select Edit > Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings..., on Thunderbird, select Tools > Account Settings...) and create your other accounts.
    Be sure to create them in the same order as previously noted. Do not allow collection of any mail at the end of account creation.
  3. Shut down SeaMonkey/Thunderbird.

Restore your settings

  1. Copy Settings from Backup
    Navigate to Profile Backup\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default) and copy the following files:
    • abook.mab
    • persdict.dat
    • user.js (If you created one)
    • cookies.txt (SeaMonkey Only)
    • bookmarks.html (SeaMonkey Only)
    • cert8.db
    • key3.db
    • pgprules.xml
    You may also have some other files depending on other extensions that you use:
    • AutoCorrect.txt (Compose AutoCorrect)
    • subscriptions.txt (Forumzilla)
  2. Restore Settings
    Navigate to your new profile folder:
    • On Windows 2000/XP: The path is usually: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Application\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.slt
    • On Windows 9x/Me: The path is usually: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Application\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.slt
    • On Linux: The path is usually: ~/.application/default/xxxxxxxx.slt
    • On MacOS X: The path is usually: ~/Library/Application/Profiles/default/xxxxxxxx.slt
Paste the files into the xxxxxxxx.(slt|default) folder, overwriting any existing files.

Restore POP3 Mail

  1. Copy POP3 Mail from Backup
    Navigate to Profile Backup\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)\Mail and copy all the folders and files.
  2. Restore POP3 Mail
    Navigate to the Mail folder in your new profile folder:
    • On Windows 2000/XP: The path is usually: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Application\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)\Mail
    • On Windows 9x/Me: The path is usually: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Application\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)\Mail
    • On Linux: The path is usually: ~/.application/default/xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)/Mail
    • On MacOS X: The path is usually: ~/Library/Application/Profiles/default/xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)/Mail
Delete all the files and folders within this Mail folder before you paste in the folders and files from your backup.

Restore Local IMAP Mail

  1. Copy Local IMAP Mail from Backup
    You only need to copy in all your mail if you use IMAP in offline mode, otherwise it will synchronize with the server again. If you need all your mail as you work off line, navigate to Profile Backup\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)\ImapMail and copy all the folders and files.
  2. Restore Local IMAP Mail
    Navigate to the ImapMail folder in your new profile folder:
    • On Windows 2000/XP: The path is usually: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Application\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)\ImapMail
    • On Windows 9x/Me: The path is usually: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Application\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)\ImapMail
    • On Linux: The path is usually: ~/.application/default/xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)/ImapMail
    • On MacOS X: The path is usually: ~/Library/Application/Profiles/default/xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)/ImapMail
Delete all the files and folders within this ImapMail folder before you paste in the folders and files from your backup.

Restore Non-Local IMAP Mail Settings

  1. Copy Non-Local IMAP Mail Settings from Backup
    If you store your IMAP mail on the mail server, the only file you might need to copy across is msgFilterRules.dat which stores your message filters.
    Navigate to Profile Backup\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)\ImapMailAccount (where Account is the name of your IMAP server account) and copy msgFilterRules.dat.
  2. Restore Non-Local IMAP Mail Settings
    Navigate to the ImapMail\Account folder in your new profile folder:
    • On Windows 2000/XP: The path is usually: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Application\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)\ImapMail\Account
    • On Windows 9x/Me: The path is usually: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Application\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)\ImapMail\Account
    • On Linux: The path is usually: ~/.application/default/xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)/ImapMail/Account
    • On MacOS X: The path is usually: ~/Library/Application/Profiles/default/xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)/ImapMail/Account
Paste msgFilterRules.dat into the Account folder.

Restore Newsgroup Archive

  1. Copy Newsgroup Archive from Backup
    Navigate to Profile Backup\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)\News and copy all the folders and files.
  2. Restore Newsgroup Archive
    Navigate to the News folder in your new profile folder:
    • On Windows 2000/XP: The path is usually: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Application\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)\News
    • On Windows 9x/Me: The path is usually: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Application\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)\News
    • On Linux: The path is usually: ~/.application/default/xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)/News
    • On MacOS X: The path is usually: ~/Library/Application/Profiles/default/xxxxxxxx.(slt|default)/News
Delete all the files and folders within this News folder before you paste in the folders and files from your backup.

Restore RSS Settings

  1. Restore RSS Settings
    You must enter the RSS feed settings and re-map the delivery locations.
    High-light the RSS Account in the folder tree, selectView settings for this account, in the right hand pane and then click on Manage Subscriptions.
  2. Enter Feed Settings
    Add each feed as noted down previously and map each feed to it's matching folder.

Test

  • Start up SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups/Thunderbird, and check that your mail folders are shown and that all your email is available.
  • Configure your application preferences. (On SeaMonkey, select Edit > Preferences, on Thunderbird, select Tools > Options)
  • Configure your account settings. (On SeaMonkey, select Edit > Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings..., on Thunderbird, select Tools > Account Settings...)
  • Send a test email and fill in the password for your account. You may need to do this for each account in your profile.
  • Collect email and fill in the password for your account. You may need to do this for each account in your profile.
  • Check that your newsgroups connect and retrieve headers.
  • Check that your RSS feeds update correctly.

Tidy up

If you are happy that everything is working as it should and that you have all your mail you can now delete the Profile Backup folder and all it's contents.