Thunderbird Backup

[csaone1]

Mozilla Thunderbird backup... There has to be a way, please?!

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[ICN2U]

Yes, plz.   need a way to back up my Thunderbird .   I keep ALL emails from the past and consider this historical record so important, that I'm ready to devote as many gigabytes as necessary to maintain this.

Does MOZBACKUP still work??

[MattAuSupport]

1. Upgrade to Thunderbird 102 and use Export of the tools menu.
2. Use the Scheduled Backup in the import export tools addon. ImportExportTools NG :: Add-ons for Thunderbird It is slow,  but only kicks in when you shut down Thunderbird.
3. Or just use a third party backup solution to back up your files when Thunderbird is closed, along with your documents and pictures.  I used the one in Windows 7 for years.  Microsoft saw fit to remove it from Windows 10.  But there are many competent backup programs available.  Some free others not.

When backing up Thunderbird profiles,  if all the default locations for storage are left alone.  All data needed to be backed up to restored "as is" will be found in the windows directory %appdata%\Thunderbird or subdirectories of that.  So simply copying that folder and it's sub folders to another drive will create a backup.  %appdata% is a windows placeholder that the file explorer will resolve to the users hidden appdata\roaming folder.

I do not recommend anyone use mozbackup as it has remained without any sort of update in the last decade.  Given it was written in Borland Pascale,  even though they made the source available for others to update,  it is very unlikely anyone will take them up on the offer. The language was always rather niche.

[1_15379]

It is suggested to add the Scheduled Backup feature for Thunderbird.

[Jon]

(Note: a similar idea has been merged into this thread)

[Equestrienne]

Senior here...NOT fully educated in computer use...but using one for over 25 years.  I am NOT enthused with the NEW version of Thunderbird.  If I canNOT EASILY get back the version BEFORE this horrible update...I will be using something else.  FED UP, with constant changes.  WE LIKE the OLDER  version.

Give us a CHOICE when you make updates to install or NOT.  I thought you liked the public???

Disgusted again.

[huib]

thunderbird backup for nitwits, please!

Sir, Madam,

Not everybody is an experienced user, but everybody needs to backup (and restore!!!) the whole Thunderbird circus: logins, settings, content.

Isn't there an EASY way to accomplish that? When a concise and working description of that process is possible, a tool is possible too. Please, give us, simple users, a tool to accomplish a save and relaiable  backup tool.

Thank you!!!

[Raft8670]

What I do is I use Syncthing to keep TB's data folder synced to another computer or multiple devices in real time. This maintains a backup in real time as long as the computers involved are on. I even use this method to copy TB's folder from one system to the TB's folder on another system. I know, the proper way would be to have the different TB setups download email from the server, but this way I get tags and archives (ie data that are not available on the server) synced between my systems. It works flawlessly and there are no sync conflicts as long as I have only one instance of TB running at a time.

[天王寺屋]

This topic is complete with @MattAuSupport's comments.
The method is reliable and easy.
Try it and you will understand how easy it is.
If you have the ability to post here, it would be a breeze.

[fometeo]

Nevertheless a button making the @MattAuSupport actions would be a GUI better approach. Most features at Thunderbird have a menu option or a button, and since it is so simple to do it by command line, why not also a button for that? there are people uncomfortable with explorer and hidden folders. Ah!, also a restore button, then 🙂

[fometeo]

The method at with @MattAuSupport's comments since is so reliable and easy, why not then using a GUI button to backup? most functions have menu and buttons so this seems a reasonable wish from users who are not comfortable using explorer with hidden folders. Then a restore button would be also a need, so after a fresh installation, it also would have a GUI approach to get it.

[MattAuSupport]

@fometeoThe add-on automates it from a button.  It does what you want. Have you actually tried it.

[Alec_C]

Manually backing up or restoring should be made more simple, it's easy enough to simplify just add backup/restore in the tools section without restrictions and remove import/export tool. Thunderbird is a good email client so why not make it better with these simple tweaks 🤔.

[Jmai]

Hello, I have problems with my backup. I saved my mails, as descriped in a help forum (Extras > Export). Now the datapackage seems to be to big to reimport it (bigger than 3GB). I can not unpack or reimport it. Now I have read in another forum, that´s because the file is to big to unfold it, and that there should be a warning from Thunderbird. 

Is there a way to recover to all my mails? Does anyone has a tip? I would be super grateful, as all my mails are lost...Thanks!