9

How can I move my config from Thunderbird APT to Thunderbird SNAP?

It seems the update crashed in the middle, and I am left with an empty Thunderbird profile once I install Thunderbird snap.

Natim
  • 1,217
  • I tried both answers and in the end just uninstalled both the Snap Thunderbird and Debian Thunderbird (maybe having both was my issue). Then reinstalling just the snap Thunderbird and opening it picked up my ~/.thunderbird/MYPROFILE and all my settings, including filter rules and custom email headers. Not quite the same as OP so leaving as comment. – rob Oct 23 '24 at 12:57

4 Answers4

14

It seems that the new thunderbird profile folder moved to ~/snap/thunderbird/common/.thunderbird.

Steps to fix the issue:

  • Open Thunderbird

  • Go in the Help > Troubleshooting menu

  • Click Open Profile Folder (~/snap/thunderbird/common/*.default)

  • Close Thunderbird

  • Remove all files from the opened Profile folder

  • Copy ~/.thunderbird/*.default-release other profile into the previous folder.

  • Restart Thunderbird

It should be fixed.

Natim
  • 1,217
  • 4
    That works (as expected). What bothers me is that the TB-update-script does not do this automatically, or at least offers the option. – Christopher Will May 23 '24 at 19:36
  • @ChristopherWill seems to be a bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1907184 go in help > troubleshooting informaton causes my thunderbird install to open a tab and just hang. going into import seems to copy into the snap folder? which will cause a duplcate – Andres Sep 18 '24 at 14:58
3

(Dec 2024, using Ubuntu 24.04 + KDE)

What I did

  • Close any running Thunderbird
  • Backup ~/.thunderbird and/or ~/snap/thunderbird, just in case
  • Unpin any TB icon from the KDE Task Manager bar (or Gnome...). This kept some settings from the current profile/TB version.
  • Update distro
  • sudo snap remove thunderbird --purge (note the purge :-)
  • sudo snap install thunderbird
  • Start TB from the app launcher (not the terminal)

If there are still some trouble after that, have a look at your ~/.thunderbird dir

  • Close TB
  • cd ~/.thunderbird
  • ls -l check if any extra profile was created by snap before
  • Rename (backup) that/these profile(s) so that snap cannot see them mv abc1234.default BAD-abc1234.default
  • Check also for xxx.default-esr profiles that the troubleshooter created... Unless you want that, I'd rename them.
  • Restart TB (or restart the whole procedure from the top of this answer)

You may now pin the new working TB started from the app launcher.

Déjà vu
  • 1,119
2

Caution! this did not work for me.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird#Modify_profiles.ini_to_point_to_the_new_location

offers a manual way: find the ini file in /home//.thunderbird find your previous folder something like "asdhg.default-release"

go to /home//snap/thunderbird/common/.thunderbird

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=0
Path=Path=/home/<user>/.thunderbird/asdhg.default-release
Default=1


[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
Version=2
Andres
  • 582
1

TLDR: Actually, here the change required was minimal. Edit ~/.thunderbird/profiles.ini, make sure your actual profile (here: Profile0) features the Default=1 entry.

[Profile0]
Name=default-release
IsRelative=1
Path=foobar.default-release
Default=1

The transition from deb to snap package correctly linked to the old thunderbird profile directory

ls ~/snap/thunderbird/common/
.thunderbird -> /home/foobar/.thunderbird/

but then another profile (Profile1) got set to default wrecking the transition.

Solution: just set the correct profile to Default=1.

Gen.Stack
  • 133