Backing up Thundrbird emails etc

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Forums › Microsoft Windows › Backing up Thundrbird emails etc

beenz

642 posts

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#153985 14-Oct-2014 16:49

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Hello

I am currently running win 8.1 with Thunderbird 31.1.2 email client.

I am getting a new PC and want to back up all of my emails, contacts etc to an external HD so I can put them on my new PC.

What is the simplest way to do this please ?

Thanks in advance.

timmmay

20574 posts

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#1153824 14-Oct-2014 17:56

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I typed "thunderbird backup email" into google and found this article. Did you try Google? Any problems understanding that page?

Also check this MailStore Home, it's an indexing system and backup. Free for home use.

JWR

821 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1153829 14-Oct-2014 18:17

To backup Thuderbird, you only need to save your profiles.ini and the fully directory tree where your mail is stored.

Profiles.ini is stored in c:\users\[yourName]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird - where [yourName] is the your username.

If you open profiles.ini, you will see where the mail data is stored.

It should look something like this -

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=yourName
IsRelative=0
Path=G:\Userdata\yourName\Thunderbird\Profiles\a9z73v1k.default
Default=1

There are only two things that really matter. The Path setting and the IsRelative setting.

If IsRelative = 0 then the Path is the absolute location where the mail files are kept i.e. G:\Userdata\yourName\Thunderbird\Profiles\a9z73v1k.default

If IsRleative = 1 then the Path is relative to where profiles.ini is kept.. e.g. if IsRelative= 1 and Path=Profiles\a9z73v1k.default then the real location of your mail is
c:\users\[yourName]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\a9z73v1k.default

You see can by playing around with these values, you can move your mail storage to wherever you want.

I think the default setting of IsRelative = 1. So just make a back of the Thunderbird directory (and subdirectories) and you will save everything. i.e.

c:\users\[yourName]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

To restore Thunderbird, just do a fresh install and then restore your saved profiles.ini and profiles directory over top of your new installation.

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