Backup Thunderbird Emails for Beginners
Hi there. First, thanks for your time. Next, I'm a newbie with Thunderbird (and a bit of an IT weakling). Have gradually been setting it up to work for me. I have multiple email addresses, folders and subfolders. About half my emails have attachments. I've managed to backup the Profile info by exporting a copy of the folder onto an external HDD. Now I want to backup all my emails including folders, subfolders and attachments. I have managed to download ImportExportToolsNG as an add-on. 1. I've read somewhere that ImportExport doesn't export attachments? 2. Which is the best ImportExport option for me to use? I don't understand the difference between the different options in the menu (eg, Export All Folders, vs Export All Folders with Structure, vs Backup). I've read somewhere that some of these options don't link attachments to their emails or don't copy the full email message - as you can see I don't really understand what I'm reading. I would like to be able to double check what I have in the exported copied folders. And I want to be able to restore all emails, their attachments and settings if my Thunderbird crashes. 3. I do use Acronis True Image 2016 to backup my PC onto external HDD but I don't know how to check and see if my emails are on there. If they are, will I be able to restore my Thunderbird emails and settings if for some reason they crash? TIA.
الحل المُختار
I am not sure what you are wanting to do. If you backed up the profile, that includes the email accounts, messages, and attachments that have been downloaded. If your total profile size is under 2 gig, you should be safe with the Tools>Export feature that creates a zip file. For more security, peace of mind, you may prefer to make a backup copy with Windows. The folder is c:\users\<yourID>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird. Doing that backup should ONLY be done when Thunderbird is not running. You should also be safe if using the Acronis backup, BUT if the Acronis backup was created when Thunderbird was running, you may have difficulty, as some files are not properly backed up because Thunderbird has control of them.
If Thunderbird crashes, you should be in good shape. Install thunderbird and then copy the ....\appdata\roaming\thunderbird backup back to the same place and Thunderbird will start with all accounts. Or, with the zip approach, start thunderbird and click Tools>Import.
Read this answer in context 👍 2All Replies (5)
الحل المُختار
I am not sure what you are wanting to do. If you backed up the profile, that includes the email accounts, messages, and attachments that have been downloaded. If your total profile size is under 2 gig, you should be safe with the Tools>Export feature that creates a zip file. For more security, peace of mind, you may prefer to make a backup copy with Windows. The folder is c:\users\<yourID>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird. Doing that backup should ONLY be done when Thunderbird is not running. You should also be safe if using the Acronis backup, BUT if the Acronis backup was created when Thunderbird was running, you may have difficulty, as some files are not properly backed up because Thunderbird has control of them.
If Thunderbird crashes, you should be in good shape. Install thunderbird and then copy the ....\appdata\roaming\thunderbird backup back to the same place and Thunderbird will start with all accounts. Or, with the zip approach, start thunderbird and click Tools>Import.
Hi. You don't need the add-on. The less add-ons you have the less add-on related glitches you will have with Thunderbird. The inbuilt Export/Import facility is all you need to backup all messages+attachments and settings. Read all about it here Export your Thunderbird Profile
While exploring the add-on's options, check out its inbuilt help page by selecting the Help option.
Since all your messages+attachments and settings are stored in your profile folder, all you really need to back them all up, is a copy of the profile folder. It really is that simple. Recovery using that backup copy is also relatively simple, even on a new/different computer when the need arises. Since you have Acronis, you can use it to automate/schedule the backing up of your Thunderbird profile folder. To verify the backup, just explore the contents of the backup and compare them with the source. You can even configure your backup software to run a command before running the backup task, and running another command after the backup task is completed, for example, you can have it run a command that kills Thunderbird processes before the backup, then relaunch Thunderbird when the backup is finished, to prevent problems due to files being locked while in use by Thunderbird. Normally, this isn't a problem for good backup programs that use volume shadow copies to backup even files that are in use and locked by a process.
Thanks to you both. Both answers have been helpful.
Hi Guys
I'm currently running Outlook 2003 and have been told by my ISP (in their support files) that this is no longer supported and to upgrade to something such as Thunderbird.
I came here because my only two concerns are:
1) The ability to backup and restore emails and the calendar. 2) migrating from Outlook to Thunderbird (and back again if I decide I want to change to another program)
Currently I just run a Robocopy command to copy the Outlook.pst file from "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook" to my backup device.
I just want to confirm that I'm reading the above and that backups can be done in the same manner by copying the file at "c:\users\<yourID>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird"
Thanking you
Max
That is correct. Everything is in the profile. Copying what you described includes everything. Two reminders: - do the copy when Thunderbird is not running. - in restoring, install thunderbird first and exit prior to copying in the backup. It will overwrite the initial empty profile specification.