163748 - Mozilla DOES NOT move my profile information over from Netscape - It keeps it in the Netscape directory.

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(MailNews Core :: Profile Migration, defect)

Description

[summers.law]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.1b) Gecko/20020721
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.1b) Gecko/20020721

When I deleted Netscape it DESTROYED all of the mail and profile information I
created under Mozilla when I migrated over to Mozilla.  THIS IS A CRITICAL
FAULT.  One of the MAJOR reasons I had in migrating to Mozilla was to have a
smaller, faster Browser and not be tied (chained) to IE. After installing
Mozilla and migrated / copied all the mail and profile information, I
uninstalled Netscape 4.78.  Well, the uninstall did not succeed.  Therefore I
had to manually delete the Netscape directory to get rid of the 118 Megs of disk
space used by Netscape.  When I deleted the directory (and subsequently removed
it from the recycle bin) Mozilla no longer recognized my profile and all of my
E-mail (my passwords, personal correspondence, and much more) was lost forever.
Needless to say, this has caused me MUCH grief.  Is there any solution? 


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Install Netscape 4.x; set up email; Download Email
2.Migrate to Mozilla; migrate all email and profile info from Netscape 4.x
3. Remove Netscape 4.x
4. POOF! All migrated Mozilla profile information GONE and Email GONE!

Actual Results:  
MY EMAIL AND PROFILE WERE UTTERLY DESTROYED!

Expected Results:  
It should have moved all the migrated E-mail and profile information into a
Mozilla directory so that if someone removes Netscape, it will not destroy their
Mozilla E-mail/Profile.

Comment 1

[Kevin Chen]

Did you start Mozilla and manually start EACH AND EVERY profile to convert them
before deleting Netscape?  If not, they were simply LISTED in the profile
manager menu (with a green arrow), and not yet converted.

Do any folders exist within C:\Windows\Application Data\Mozilla?

Comment 2

[Guido Leutz]

Hi,

I had the same problem in W2k and found a solution.

When You copy your whole $name directory in the Mozilla/Users directory, it
probably contains a file where all paths of mail/news etc. are stored. If You
now start your Mozilla profile, it looks in Mozilla/Users and finds a file
saying mail, news is stored in Netscape/Users and tries to find them there. (It
doesn't really care, if mail or news folders exist in your Mozillla/Users dir.)

I tried a manual solution:

1. copy $name directory in the Mozilla/Users directory.
2. add new profile, using $name directory in the Mozilla/Users directory.
3. Open Mozilla-Messanger and go to edit=>Mail-News Account setting
4. go to server settings of each account and change the paths (mail has one,
news two each to change)
5. close all Mozilla windows
6. restart Mozilla (should work now)

There might be an easier way to edit the config-file with a text editor.
Or just delete this config file in the profile...

hth

Guido

Comment 3

[u63580]

No activity for over a year.  Can I suggest this gets closed?

Comment 4

[timeless]

we don't close bugs just because no one is working on them

Comment 5

[u63580]

is this bug still relevant.  I note comment #4, but 4.78 is many years old now,
and there is unlikely to be much chance to test the bug.  Could we close it?

Comment 6

[William Bumgarner [:zsinj]]

Assuming WFM based upon lack of follow-up to last several comments. Please reopen this bug if you are still experiencing this problem.