Tech Help Needed: Netscape Mail in Win2k/XP

[seawasp]

At work I have been using Netscape 7.2 for my mail needs for a long time. Now I have to switch to a new machine.

Alas, unlike Macs I can't just copy all the files over and have it run.

I want to be able to use all my old mail files, access all the folders, etc.

How can I do this? I'm moving from Win 2k to WinXP.

I'm not wedded to Netscape as the NEW program -- I just want to have all my old mail, etc., available, and I DON'T want to use Lookout...er, Outlook.

Comments

[dsrtao]

Actually, you probably can copy over the files.

C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\
C:\Windows\Profiles\User Name\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\
C:\Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\

From one of those, depending.

Then start Thunderbird on your new machine.

[brooksmoses]

Indeed; I would also expect that to work fine. (If that doesn't work due to the profile-directory random-naming stuff, you may need to create a basic new profile on the new machine, and then copy the contents of your old profile directory into the new one.)

Note that "User Name" should be replaced by your username, and "Application Data" is a hidden directory so it doesn't show up in file-browser views unless you set the "show hidden files" option. You can get there by typing in the name in the appropriate place, though.

[dsrtao]

This portability note brought to you by the ubiquitous UNIX mailbox format.

(Me, I use the even more sensible Maildir format whenever possible.)

[seawasp]

Do I need to copy the stuff from my old machine to an identical directory (including location in the tree) on the new, or will it be to a DIFFERENT location on the new machine?

(also, my old machine shows a LOT of candidate profiles on it. Hard to tell which one is the right one...)

[dsrtao]

Run Thunderbird on your new machine; put the files whereever Thunderbird creates its own files.

The locations above are where you might find the right files on your old machine. Load one into a text editor to figure them out -- Mailbox files are plain text.

[wizwom.livejournal.com]

I successfully moved from Netscape Email to the mozilla Thunderbird email client.

These are the steps:

1) locate the old netscape email directory
2) install thunderbird and set it up
3) locate the thunderbird directory
4) copy all your email from the netscape directory to the thunderbird directory - remember to get the .js files, which hold your parsswords

tadaa!