exporting thunderbird

[jes]

I am in the proccess of copying Mozila Thunderbird from one of my Windows accounts to another, a limited access account. I have copied the bookmarks from Firefox and the contact list from Tbird without problem.

Now I would like to do the same to the trash and sent folders. I found the files that contain those but when I go to my limited account I am not able to access the folders that I need. Does anyone know a way to do this?

[jes]

I have tried moving said files from documents and settings in my admin account but the trash and sent files are blank when i log in to my limited account

[jlreich]

Try changing the limited account to admin long enough to get the files transfered.

Also you can use Mozbackup (http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/) to backup both your FF and TB accounts including email folders. Then restore them using the same program in the limited account.

[Paul Komski]

Have you tried backing-up the whole profiles sub-folder and its associated profiles.ini file from the <user path>\Application Data\Thunderbird folder - but come to think of it that must be what Mozbackup does for you.

[Sylvander]

Is it possible to use the same profile folder for both installations of TB?

i.e Direct each installation of TB to look at the same profile folder.

Or might that cause problems if the TB versions were different?

[deddard]

Thunderbird is really easy to shift things around in. The easiest thing, as Paul Komski has pointed out, is to move the entire profiles folder.
Open your new Windoze account (the one you want to IMPORT to), and start Thunderbird. When it asks you do you want to create anything, just say no and close the whole thing down.

Now use Win Explorer and go to documents and settings>application data>thunderbird, and look in the profiles folder. There will be a folder with a randomly assigned alphanumeric number, e.g. 1au2umaz.default. You need to replace this one with the one you wish to 'import'

Navigate to the old account in documents and settings, then go to application data>thunderbird>profiles, and cut the profile you find there. (make sure you back it up first)
Now go back to the account where you wish to 'import' to, and in the documents and settings>application data>thunderbird section, paste the profile folder. If it asks you if you want to replace the current one, just say yes.

Now you need to edit the profiles.ini file.
In the Thunderbird folder (in application data) you will find a file called profiles.ini. Open it, and simply change the name of the profile to match that of the profile you have just moved by editing the Path=Profiles line.

for example, before you did any editing, the file may have read

*****************
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/1au2umaz.default

The name of the profile you wish to import is 2ba1ubca.default, so you change the Path=Profiles line to read:

Path=Profiles/2ba1ubca.default



so the whole file now reads:

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/2ba1ubca.default

*************************

This now tells Thunderbird to use the 'imported' file.

I hope this is clear enough - Thunderbird does make things easy when backing up and moving stuff around, as long as you know how!

[Paul Komski]

Thunderbird does make things easy when backing up and moving stuff around, as long as you know how!I agree and there are only a couple of things to note to maybe clarify/simplify things.

Unless (and possibly even if one is) using multiple profiles it is simplest IMHO to rename the existing profiles folder and .ini file with an .old filename suffix. Then just paste in the backup profiles folder and its profiles.ini file. The only proviso is if your profile (the folder with the funny letters) is somewhere else and not inside the profiles folder, in which case you may need to edit profiles.ini so that IsRelative=0 (is not relative) and put in the full path to the folder anywhere in MyComputer. StartWithLastProfile=1 (is true) should be self explanatory.

I don't think the version makes any difference but there's one easy way to find out. With regard to "Is it possible to use the same profile folder for both installations of TB?" my answer is that it has worked for me - and easiest if you use the IsRelative=0 when accessing from the secondary installation.

[classicsoftware]

Thunderbird is really easy to shift things around in. The easiest thing, as Paul Komski has pointed out, is to move the entire profiles folder.
Open your new Windoze account (the one you want to IMPORT to), and start Thunderbird. When it asks you do you want to create anything, just say no and close the whole thing down.

Now use Win Explorer and go to documents and settings>application data>thunderbird, and look in the profiles folder. There will be a folder with a randomly assigned alphanumeric number, e.g. 1au2umaz.default. You need to replace this one with the one you wish to 'import'

Navigate to the old account in documents and settings, then go to application data>thunderbird>profiles, and cut the profile you find there. (make sure you back it up first)
Now go back to the account where you wish to 'import' to, and in the documents and settings>application data>thunderbird section, paste the profile folder. If it asks you if you want to replace the current one, just say yes.

Now you need to edit the profiles.ini file.
In the Thunderbird folder (in application data) you will find a file called profiles.ini. Open it, and simply change the name of the profile to match that of the profile you have just moved by editing the Path=Profiles line.

for example, before you did any editing, the file may have read

*****************
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/1au2umaz.default

The name of the profile you wish to import is 2ba1ubca.default, so you change the Path=Profiles line to read:

Path=Profiles/2ba1ubca.default



so the whole file now reads:

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/2ba1ubca.default

*************************

This now tells Thunderbird to use the 'imported' file.

I hope this is clear enough - Thunderbird does make things easy when backing up and moving stuff around, as long as you know how!

Or you can use Mozbackup and do this in around 5 easy steps....

[Paul Komski]

Mozbackup is a fine utility but it is always worth knowing the manual methods and there can also sometimes be advantages in saving things in their original form (particularly when it comes to file recovery situations) since the single .pcv backup file is not straightforward to decipher.

One of the things I particularly like about TBird is that the mail folders (POP or IMAP) contain all the emails as a stream of sequential source code - making it easy to dig out the contents with any text editor if required.

[jes]

Thanks for all the advice but it seems in moving files around I accidentally lost my trash and sent files. I don't know how that happened. Anyway, it is no big deal, my contacts list is safely transported to my Mandriva instalation. That is more important.
I will keep all of this in mind for the future though. I like getting in the guts of the OS and moving the files around.

[Sylvander]

"I like getting in the guts of the OS and moving the files around"
Just one of the many reasons why you [why anyone] should "take out some insurance" by saving backups of some kind.

Here's what I do:

1. Move all data files off C:

2.
D: = Holds personal data files [like the TB profile] on this small [500 MB used of 1 GB] dedicated partition.
E: F: = Hold other data on these.
G: = Internal image backups on this.
H: = Synchronise D: to this USB2 "Flash Drive" partition.
N: O: P: = External data and image backups and synchronisations on these external USB2 HDD partitions.

3.
a. Image backups are a snapshot of the way a partitions' contents were at one particular point in time past.
Can be used to restore "the way things were", particularly of a working Operating System environment [programs and configurations too].

b. A Synchronisation [or backup] by something like [the FREE version of] "SyncBack" makes a VERY RECENT copy [hours or a day old] of the files in a chosen location [could be a whole partition, or chosen folders/files].
And after the 1st is made they only take minutes to include the "differences" [write changes in "source" contents to the "destination"].
The paid version of SyncBack can synchronise the system partition, but only works within Windows.

4. So 3a & 3b above give you the choice of older copies of things [3a], or the very latest way things were [3b] just hours ago.