I would have to ask what is the point. This is the official support site. What is the point of creating another one? Mozillazine has basically died on the vine, despite some very determined efforts to revive it and here you are starting a mailing list to support users. I would suggest you apply your efforts to making this a better place rather than starting a non supported mailing list with questionable skilled advice providers. The greatest issues I see in Support are those that do not know posting solutions that are plainly wrong and often damaging.

Like your post thread here https://groups.io/g/thunderbird/topic/importexporttools_ng/78911425?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,0,78911425

Why not drop an "issue" to the addon author? He is a nice guy and is very involved, your support issue on github would also provide details others could find with a google search. Whatever you get on the mailing list will be from someone that probably knows less than you do.

When I looked at that list, most of those questions are actually answered in the Thunderbird knowledge base. This site is supposed to be screen reader friendly, so really they have no excuse.

Hi Matt, Thanks for your reply. Actually I did contact the ImportExportTools NG add-on author via github. He did help a lot on some of the questions but was not able to provide any detail on the incremental backup question. He is not the original developer for the add-on and has not used the incremental backup to restore the profile. He suggested I look for some users that have used that option to get their feedback on how to do the restore and any other related feedback. I searched github and here on the official site but can not find any related posts or comments.

The next step was to look for some additional places for input. The new groups.io forum is that place. Several members there are also interested in the add-on and plan to experiment with it. So that is a start. Are you by chance familiar with this add-on and incremental backup feature.

Thanks, Al

Hi Matt, Thanks for your reply. Actually I did contact the ImportExportTools NG add-on author via github. He did help a lot on some of the questions but was not able to provide any detail on the incremental backup question. He is not the original developer for the add-on and has not used the incremental backup to restore the profile. He suggested I look for some users that have used that option to get their feedback on how to do the restore and any other related feedback. I searched github and here on the official site but can not find any related posts or comments.

The next step was to look for some additional places for input. The new groups.io forum is that place. Several members there are also interested in the add-on and plan to experiment with it. So that is a start. Are you by chance familiar with this add-on and incremental backup feature.

Thanks, Al

The next step is to look for some additional places for input. The new groups.io forum is where I'm currently getting some input. Several members there are also interested in the add-on and plan to experiment with it. So that is a start.

https://groups.io/g/ThunderbirdEmail

There are a lot of users for ImportExportTools NG add-on but apparently not many use the automated backup feature.

Looked at website. Tried to create account, did not like the feel and seriously wondered where you create a Username and hide email address, but I did not have time to spare or ponder on this for long. Read some comments and decided people were lacking in knowledge and I cannot think of any good reason to use it when this forum exists.

This forum is the direct Help link from Thunderbird program. It is where the Help and Support Articles are located. It is also the official Free Help Support Forum where you are more likely to get solutions or helpful information.

Toad-Hall wrote: I cannot think of any good reason to use it (the new Groups.io forum) when this forum exists. This forum is the direct Help link from Thunderbird program. It is where the Help and Support Articles are located. It is also the official Free Help Support Forum where you are more likely to get solutions or helpful information.

Reply

Thanks for your input. Here is why we created the new groups.io forum. See attached pic. There are a lot of ImportExportTools add-on users, over 150,000. But I haven't been able to find anyone here, or on the github site including the author with experience using the incremental backup feature. The current author took over the support the the original author and doesn't use the feature. I've posted some additional questions on github but think Christopher may be on holiday and hasn't replied yet.

Since ImportExportTools is an add-on, it doesn't appear this Thunderbird support forum is the best place to get help with the add-on either. There have been no replies to the posts here from anyone using it. The new groups.io forum is still small but several others there are also interested in the feature and may experiment with it if we can get some answers on how to use the restore. Some of the members have many years of experience on TB and are pretty knowledgeable. The goal is to find a few of the 150,000 users that have some experience with the incremental backup for advice.

Thanks...Al

Toad-Hall wrote: I cannot think of any good reason to use it (the new Groups.io forum) when this forum exists. This forum is the direct Help link from Thunderbird program. It is where the Help and Support Articles are located. It is also the official Free Help Support Forum where you are more likely to get solutions or helpful information. Reply

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Thanks for your input. Here is why we created the new groups.io forum. See attached pic. There are a lot of ImportExportTools add-on users, over 150,000. But I haven't been able to find anyone here, or on the github site including the author with experience using the incremental backup feature.

And that is probably not going to change. However if you think getting results is about the blind leading the blind your going the right way about it. If you want to know how it works, use it. Experiment with it. You might even read the source code. YOu do not have to be a programmer to follow the logic.

The current author took over the support the the original author and doesn't use the feature.

Then perhaps you might approach the original author, but I understand he is rather short with folk that waste his time. Perhaps your expecting a bit much for something you do not pay for. Mostly in the opensource world you read the source if the information you have available in not sufficient. ttps://github.com/thundernest/import-export-tools-ng/blob/master/src/chrome/content/mboximport/autobackup.js

I've posted some additional questions on github but think Christopher may be on holiday and hasn't replied yet.

Or just busy. that addon does not pay his bills obviously.

Since ImportExportTools is an add-on, it doesn't appear this Thunderbird support forum is the best place to get help with the add-on either.

No it is not.

There have been no replies to the posts here from anyone using it.

That is because this is forum with a few dedicated volunteers trying to help Thunderbird users. The really don't bother with the addon much because they use their data on a fixed device and really are not all that interested in exporting it into formats that simply do not allow re import. This topic is almost impossible to locate in the jumble of topics that is Mozilla support and given the forum probably only has 6-10 regulars other than those seeking support for fishing in an exceedingly small dish.

The new groups.io forum is still small but several others there are also interested in the feature and may experiment with it if we can get some answers on how to use the restore.

My observation of the forum weas the startling lack of knowledge displayed by just about everyone.

Some of the members have many years of experience on TB and are pretty knowledgeable.

That is not what I though when I read the messages posted.

The goal is to find a few of the 150,000 users that have some experience with the incremental backup for advice.

Personally I would just not use incremental backup. Thunderbird stores mail in one large file per folder. So you get four emails, you delete one, one is spam,you place one into a storage folder and you reply to one. So your inbox, sent, trash, junk and storagefolder will all need to be backed up in their entirety. I update almost all of my folders on a daily basis with one email or delete one or move or copy one. So incremental backup would be a waste of time as it would be almost as complete as a complete backup. It is one of the reasons that folks placing their profile folders in synchronized cloud folders tend to die a horrible death. Huge files need to be synchronized often.

But when I want a backup, I just type %appdata% into windows file explorer and copy the Thunderbird folder to a backup device and save the overheads of the javascript to make a copy.

This thread is a duplicate of https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1317998 so I am closing this so the discussion can occur in a single location.