Thunderbird on multiple devices

[hedleygb]

I love Thunderbird, but it's on my PC. I want the same Thunderbird on my laptop and my tablet, so I can check my emails wherever I am.

[hedleygb]

My idea (Thunderbird on multiple devices) has nothing to do with Apple devices. All mine use Windows 10, and I want to share Thunderbird to all of them. 

[Jon]

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

[Jon]

Thanks for the heads up, @hedleygb

🙌

[jevangelho]

Hi @hedleygb and welcome to Mozilla Connect!

Out of curiosity, does your tablet use an ARM CPU? Thunderbird doesn't currently have an ARM build, which would be a blocker to having it on that device. However, if all your devices are using Windows 10 with a standard Intel or AMD CPU, there's no reason you can't install Thunderbird on all of them.

(And when we add Firefox Sync later this year, you'll be able to keep all your profiles and preferences in sync)

Thanks for the comment!

Jason Evangelho | Marketing Manager

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[smeesps]

Hi,

I was looking for this subject. I want to synchronize a Windows comp. as a basic (!) and (yes)  with a Mac to have the same information. The emails are the same, not sure about deleting on one and so on the other, but the calendars  (appointments, tasks etc.). They need to be the same. I imported "profile" from windows to the Mac, but that's not enough! Is the a protocol to work this out?? 🤔

[Neuronesingle]

Exellent idea. Specially if I can have the same spam filter on my mobile....

[TU12]

I would like this functionality too — however, if Thunderbird is run on multiple devices using the same POP mail account, and mail is deleted from the server after retrieval (due to storage limits), new incoming messages will only appear on the device which retrieved them.  To address this problem you would need to run a Thunderbird proxy on your local router or file server which retrieves incoming mail on demand by the client device and stores it in a central location on your LAN, so all of your devices with the same mail user profile would be in sync.  We would love to have a feature like that, but do not want to store user profiles in the cloud.

note: this issue may be considered a duplicate of Firefox Sync (for Thunderbird)

[MongoTuslan]

I have been using Thunderbird Portable for multiple devices by keeping it on removable media, but there are issues with this. First, all the devices must use the same operating system.  Second, the removable media should be very fast, otherwise TB gets annoyingly slow.  Third, I have had problems with index errors.  The main time I see errors is when I am using the Portable TB version on a different computer.  So far, the Properties -> Repair function has enabled me to recover almost all of the time.  I have gotten in the habit of making frequent backups, and I have had to use a backup to recover from corrupted files when moving to a different PC.  My process now is to take extra steps when moving my portable TB to a different PC:  First, use the Windows Properties Check tool on the media; next Compact Folders (I like that the Files Menu has a "Compact Folders" item that lets me select a main folder and all subfolders get compacted); next perform Properties -> Repair at least on folders and subfolders that have been recently active.  I do this when moving from PC 1 to PC 2, and then again when returning from PC 2 back to PC 1, and this has been reliable.   I would like to have a "Repair Folders" item as this would be a big time saver.   

[wsmwk]

@hedleygb,

What specific devices you have?

[AGS]

Hello @hedleygb. Great question!

I too wondered if this was possible and finally decided to come check out the official Mozilla forms. Thanks for asking.

I noticed a hopeful reply from @jevangelho . It sounds like there may be a way to connect one account on several devices if those devices are Windows based. Did I read that correctly or am I just being ambitious?

If there is a way to open one account on multiple devices, anyone that's willing to help I'd appreciate it. I too enjoy the ease of access.

Thank you.

[MongoTuslan]

I use the portable version of Thunderbird, and I have experienced database corruption when trying to use it on a different computer. Here are my tips on reducing the likelihood of corruption and how to recover from corruption.
1. Do not run from removable media. I copy my Thunderbird folder to my user folder and run it from there.
2. Run Scandisk/Checkdisk on removable media before and after copying from the source PC, and on the destination PC before copying to the destination PC.
3. Run repair folder on each and every folder and subfolder (at least those that have had recent activity) before and after copying, and regularly as well.
4. Run compact folder on each and every folder and subfolder that has had recent activity, and before and after copying, and regularly as well.
5. I make backups whenever I decide to copy to removable media for use on a different computer, and also periodically, since I delete messages from the server when I download. 

I would like to request features in Thunderbird to make this less tedious and time consuming.
For example, accessing the repair folder button takes several clicks; it would be nice if there were a shortcut to this.
It would be nice if repair folder could be set to automatically run on all subfolders.
It would be nice if the compact folder function had a shortcut and also automatically ran on all subfolders. Even better would be a super repair function that would go through all folders and subfolders to repair and compact them all.

Bug report: Sometimes, repair folder does not indicate when it is "done".