How do I make a static backup of thunderbird accounts that I can still access locally only (as another profile) on Linux
I have a couple of IMAP accounts with my ISP. (I do not want to use POP.) One of them is running out of space, so I have to clean out the old stuff. Thunderbird is set to keep a copy of all emails locally on my notebook.
What I want to do is to copy my existing profile and all the accounts/data to another location on my notebook drive, BUT I still want to be able to access it offline using Thunderbird so I can look up old information as necessary.
What am I doing wrong?
Here's what I have tried so far:
I know there's some way to do this using profiles, but I haven't been able to figure out how to get Thunderbird to let me change the account name in one profile without changing it in the other one too - or maybe it's not even accessing the other one at all.
I'm using Kubuntu 14.04 Linux with KDE 4.14.0.
I tried copying my profile and accessing it with
thunderbird -P $HOME/.thunderbird/backup/profiles.ini
and accessing the original with
thunderbird -P $HOME/.thunderbird/profiles.ini
but it seems like it's only looking at one profile because when I try to change the account name in the backup one (so it can't access my current IMAP account), I see the same changes in the regular one.
bigbird@ramdass:~$ cat $HOME/.thunderbird/profiles.ini [General] StartWithLastProfile=1
[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=oll1pj1u.default Default=1
bigbird@ramdass:~$ cat $HOME/.thunderbird/backup/profiles.ini [General] StartWithLastProfile=1
[Profile0] Name=local backup IsRelative=0 Path=/home/bigbird/.thunderbird/backup/oll1pj1u.backup
bigbird@ramdass:~$
Chosen solution
I don't think a new profile will help you at all.
Copy anything you want to keep from the server to Thunderbird's Local Folders. That will free up space on the server.
Provided you arrange things so there are no huge folders ( > 4 GB) I don't think having all your old messages in Local Folders will cause any great trouble.
You can use Thunderbird's profile manager to switch between profiles, but I suspect you'll find it very inconvenient as you'll have to close down and re-open Thunderbird, or use an add-on, to switch between profiles. Or you can jump through hoops and run two instances of Thunderbird, each with its own profile.
However many profiles you have, you need to move things into Local Folders in order to avoid them being stored on the server.
You can export messages to .eml, .txt or .html files, but I suspect that locating old messages would be painful, since the chaining and threading will be lost.
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To clarify, I only run one instance of Thunderbird at a time - either the original or the backup one.
Chosen Solution
I don't think a new profile will help you at all.
Copy anything you want to keep from the server to Thunderbird's Local Folders. That will free up space on the server.
Provided you arrange things so there are no huge folders ( > 4 GB) I don't think having all your old messages in Local Folders will cause any great trouble.
You can use Thunderbird's profile manager to switch between profiles, but I suspect you'll find it very inconvenient as you'll have to close down and re-open Thunderbird, or use an add-on, to switch between profiles. Or you can jump through hoops and run two instances of Thunderbird, each with its own profile.
However many profiles you have, you need to move things into Local Folders in order to avoid them being stored on the server.
You can export messages to .eml, .txt or .html files, but I suspect that locating old messages would be painful, since the chaining and threading will be lost.
I'm sure I could get my hoop jumping in order sooner or later, but just putting things in the local folders is way simpler. Thanks!