Import an eMule profile

If you used eMule, njMule can take your profile over: the servers, Kad contacts, known and shared files, preferences, friends, searches and categories, and, if you ask, your identity with its credits and copies of your unfinished downloads. njMule only reads eMule's folder: nothing there is ever changed, moved or deleted.

You can import from the first-start wizard, the desktop app or the web interface or the command line. Each of them can check the profile first and show what would happen, before anything is taken.

Before you start

• Close eMule. njMule refuses to take eMule's identity while eMule runs, and copies only the downloads that are paused in it.
• Find eMule's configuration folder, the one that holds preferences.ini. njMule looks for it in %LOCALAPPDATA%\eMule\config and %APPDATA%\eMule\config; if your eMule keeps its files elsewhere, for example in its program folder, choose that config folder yourself.
• Keep njMule's configuration out of eMule's folder. If njMule's own configuration is inside the eMule folder you choose, it takes nothing.
• Make room for the downloads, if you copy them: the copies take as much space as eMule's part files, in njMule's temporary folder.

From the first-start wizard

When njMule finds an eMule profile at its first start, the wizard's last page offers Open the import from eMule when I finish. Leave it ticked and choose Finish: the Import from eMule window opens. Go on as below. See First start.

From the desktop app or the web interface

1. Choose ⋯ → Import from eMule... in the top bar (or press Ctrl+K and type Import).
2. Check the eMule configuration folder, filled in when njMule found one, or choose it with Browse.... In a browser, or in a window on another computer's njMule, Browse... is disabled: type the path of the folder as it is on the computer where njMule runs, which may not be the one you browse from.
3. If you want them, tick one or both of:
   • Also take eMule's identity (user hash, key and credits) from the next start (see Your identity);
   • Also copy the downloads in progress (paused ones while eMule runs) (see Your downloads).
4. Choose Check. njMule reads every file and lists, under What will happen, each file with its detail and its outcome; the line below says how many files were checked and that nothing was changed yet.
5. Read the list, then choose Import. If you change a box, choose Check again first.

The list then shows what was taken. If eMule started when you logged in, the detail of preferences.ini says start at login, and the desktop app on njMule's computer now starts when you log in too and tells you so (or why your system refused); turn that off in eMule so that only one of them starts. In a browser, or in a window on another computer's njMule, turn on Start njMule when I log in yourself in Options → General of the desktop app on njMule's computer.

The searches and the server list addresses typed in eMule's boxes are offered again in njMule's, as long as these have none of their own: see What is imported.

From the command line

Stop njMule first (njmule --exit): only one njMule runs on a configuration at a time. Then:

njmule --import-emule "C:\Users\you\AppData\Local\eMule\config" --dry-run

--dry-run only reports what would happen. Without it, njMule imports, prints the outcome of each file and exits. Two options add the parts that are not imported by default:

Option	What it adds
--adopt-emule-identity	eMule's user hash, key, credits and Kad identity, from the next start
--import-downloads	copies of eMule's unfinished downloads (only the paused ones while eMule runs)

Each line of the report gives the outcome, the file and the detail, for example:

What would be imported from C:\Users\you\AppData\Local\eMule\config
  would import  preferences.ini      nick, limits, networks, obfuscation; ports and folders stay njMule's
  would import  server.met           212 servers
  skipped       preferences.dat      njMule keeps its own identity unless asked to adopt eMule's

To import into another profile of njMule, add --config-dir <dir>. See Command line.

What is imported

eMule file	What njMule takes	Applies
preferences.ini	the preferences listed below; never the ports nor the folders	at once
server.met	the servers, added to njMule's list	at once
nodes.dat	the Kad contacts (or bootstrap nodes)	at once
known.met, known2_64.met	the hashes and AICH trees of the files eMule knew, so that shared files are not hashed again	at once
shareddir.dat and eMule's incoming folder	the shared folders, each without its subfolders, as eMule shares them	at once
Category.ini	the categories, with their numbers, names, folders, comments, colours and file name patterns, when njMule has none of its own	at once
addresses.dat	the server list addresses used to update the server list at start	at once
AC_ServerMetURLs.dat, AC_SearchStrings.dat	the server list addresses and the searches typed in eMule's boxes, offered under njMule's server list address box and search box while those have no history of their own	at once
ipfilter.dat	the IP filter, when njMule has none of its own	next start
emfriends.met	your friends	next start
cancelled.met	the files you cancelled, shown as such in search results	next start
StoredSearches.met	the searches left open, which come back as tabs	next start
SearchSpam.met	the search results marked as spam, and what the spam filter learnt	next start
fileinfo.ini	your file comments and ratings	next start
staticservers.dat	the static servers	next start

A file of which njMule already has its own copy is left out ("we have our own"), so a second import does not overwrite what you changed since. That is why the best time to import is right after installing njMule, before it keeps lists of its own. eMule's statistics (statistics.ini), the history of its IP filter and bootstrap boxes (AC_IPFilterUpdateURLs.dat, AC_BootstrapIPs.dat) are not taken: njMule counts its own statistics.

These are never taken:

• sharedfiles.dat, the single files eMule shares outside its shared folders: the report counts them as "not shared yet". Share their folders, or the files' folders, in Shared files.
• key_index.dat, src_index.dat and load_index.dat: what other Kad nodes published to eMule, which is short-lived.
• The identity and the downloads, unless you ask for them (see below).

Files larger than 256 MiB are refused as not being eMule's.

Preferences

From preferences.ini, njMule takes the values it has an option for:

• your nick, the upload and download limits and the capacity of your line;
• the minimum free disk space, when eMule's check of it is on;
• the maximum of connections, of new connections in five seconds, of sources per file and the size of the upload queue;
• eD2K and Kad on or off, obfuscation, secure identification, the credit system, the proxy and the address eMule was bound to;
• the server options: connect at start, reconnect, dead server retries, adding servers from servers and clients, static servers only, high priority for servers added by hand, updating the server list at start;
• remembering downloaded and cancelled files, keeping searches, the search spam filter, adding downloads paused and starting the next one;
• the LAN address filter and the IP filter level;
• the message filters: friends only, filtered words, the anti-spam filter, and the comment filter;
• tidying file names: the words removed and whether new downloads are tidied;
• preview first and last parts, the video player and its arguments, the notification sound;
• who may see your shared files.

The ports and the folders stay njMule's own.

Check and its report

Check (or --dry-run) reads every file of the profile and changes nothing. Each file gets an outcome:

The report of Check: nothing is changed until you choose Import

Outcome	Command line	Meaning
Would be taken	would import	the check read it; Import will take it
Taken	imported	the import took it
Left out	skipped	not taken, for the reason in the detail: njMule has its own, you did not ask for it, eMule runs…
Not there	missing	the profile has no such file
Unreadable	failed	the file is damaged or refused; the detail says why

The detail counts what is in each file (servers, contacts, known files, friends…) and, after an import, how many were new.

Your identity

Your identity on the network is your user hash, with the key that proves it (secure identification). Other clients keep your credits under it: what you uploaded to them, which moves you up in their upload queues. Taking eMule's identity keeps those credits.

With Also take eMule's identity (or --adopt-emule-identity), njMule takes:

• the user hash (preferences.dat) and the key (cryptkey.dat), only together: one without the other would fail every identification;
• the credits of the clients you met (clients.met);
• the Kad identity (preferencesKad.dat and the Kad UDP key of preferences.ini).

The identity is set aside and applied at the next start of njMule, replacing njMule's own. It is never taken while eMule runs: the import refuses it then, and a start of njMule while eMule runs keeps it aside for a later start. The configuration backups keep the identity njMule had before (see Backups).

Never run both with one identity

Two clients online at the same time with the same user hash spoil each other's credits. Once njMule uses eMule's identity, do not run eMule and njMule at the same time.

Without the box, njMule keeps its own identity and the report says so.

Your downloads

With Also copy the downloads in progress (or --import-downloads), njMule copies each of eMule's unfinished downloads, the .part.met and the .part file, from eMule's temporary folders into its own, and goes on downloading them. The complete parts are checked again. Downloads keep their category when it came with the same import.

• They are copies: eMule's files stay as they are, and eMule still lists them.
• While eMule runs, only the downloads paused in it are copied; the others are left out with "pause it in eMule first". Close eMule, or pause them, and import again.
• A download whose data file is missing is reported as unreadable.

The import manifest

Each import (not a check) writes a manifest in the import folder of njMule's configuration, named after its date and time, such as config/import/20261026-101500.txt. It lists every file read from eMule, with its size, its SHA-256 and what became of it, so that you can check later what was imported from where:

# njMule import from C:\Users\you\AppData\Local\eMule\config at 2026-10-26T09:15:00Z
# outcome	bytes	SHA-256	file	detail
IMPORTED	…	…	server.met	212 servers; 180 new

See Data locations for where the configuration is.

Keeping eMule

eMule's folder is only read, so you can go on using eMule after the import. If you do:

• never run both at the same time with one identity (see above);
• give them different ports if they may run at the same time;
• remember that imported downloads exist twice, once in each program.

On macOS and Linux

njMule looks for an eMule profile by itself only on Windows. On macOS and Linux you can still import a profile copied from a Windows computer, or one of an eMule running under Wine: choose its config folder. Folders that the profile names as Windows paths, or that do not exist on this computer, are left out: the shared folders and eMule's temporary folders among them (njMule then looks for downloads in the Temp folder beside config). njMule may not notice an eMule running under Wine, so close it yourself before importing.