Where Is Your Thunderbird Profile Located?
Thunderbird profile folder on Windows, macOS and Linux, where mail, address books and settings actually live.
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Thunderbird stores mail, account settings, address books, filters and calendars inside a profile folder. Each profile name includes a random prefix plus .default-release, like Firefox.
The reliable opener is inside Thunderbird: Help menu, then Troubleshooting Information, then Show Folder. The paths below are the parent folders if you prefer to browse there directly.
Where Thunderbird stores this, by platform
%APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles
Each profile is a subfolder here, mapped in profiles.ini one level up. Mail itself sits in Mail and ImapMail subfolders inside the profile.
~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles
Note this is Library/Thunderbird, not the usual Library/Application Support spot. Cache lives separately under ~/Library/Caches/Thunderbird/Profiles.
~/.thunderbird
Profiles sit directly inside, mapped in profiles.ini. Debian and Ubuntu third party builds historically used ~/.mozilla-thunderbird instead.
Frequently asked questions
How do I move Thunderbird to a new computer?
Copy the whole profile folder to the same Profiles location on the new machine and point profiles.ini at it. Moving the full folder preserves mail, filters and address books together.
Where is my actual mail inside the profile?
POP mail under Mail/Local Folders, IMAP cache under ImapMail. Account settings live in prefs.js at the profile root.
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