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Restoring a profile from OS X 10.9 time machine is not working. Some mbox and msf files are missing from the latest backup.

SueDAgostino
SueDAgostino
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I am using the latest time machine back to restore a user's Thunderbird profile. When I initially did the restore the user noticed some local folders were missing. I started to look at the user's backups in time machine and notice for many days only some msf files and mbox files are backed up. It is not a full copy so anytime I attempt to restore from any of the backups we do not get all the local folders. The user's local folder file structure is somewhat complex (nested folders up to 3 levels) but I should not think that would make a difference. The email messages are "searchable" meaning I can search on a subject and see an email but when I go to click on the detail , the message is blank. If I go to the backup on the date the user lasted updated a folder, I find the mbox and msf files but this is painstakingly slow. Why is the time machine backup not complete or unable to restore the user's profile in the state it was in when it was last backed up. Could it be the file structure.

I am using the latest time machine back to restore a user's Thunderbird profile. When I initially did the restore the user noticed some local folders were missing. I started to look at the user's backups in time machine and notice for many days only some msf files and mbox files are backed up. It is not a full copy so anytime I attempt to restore from any of the backups we do not get all the local folders. The user's local folder file structure is somewhat complex (nested folders up to 3 levels) but I should not think that would make a difference. The email messages are "searchable" meaning I can search on a subject and see an email but when I go to click on the detail , the message is blank. If I go to the backup on the date the user lasted updated a folder, I find the mbox and msf files but this is painstakingly slow. Why is the time machine backup not complete or unable to restore the user's profile in the state it was in when it was last backed up. Could it be the file structure.

All Replies (4)

christ1
christ1
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Why is the time machine backup not complete or unable to restore the user's profile in the state it was in when it was last backed up.

I guess that would be a question for Apple.

You can simply create a copy of the profile folder and restore that in case it's needed. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-tb#w_backing-up-a-profile

SueDAgostino
SueDAgostino Question owner
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Thanks for your reply. In this instance the user's hard drive was inaccessible so I was forced to use his Time machine backup. That is when I discovered the issue. So there is nothing you know of about Thunderbird that would cause a partial backup ?

christ1
christ1
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I'm not a Mac user, and I have no idea about time machine. In any case, you'd need to create a backup prior to something ugly happens. There are other ways creating a backup of the Thunderbird profile than using time machine - see the link posted above. If time machine has issues properly backing up the Thunderbird profile, this would be a question to be asked in an Apple forum.

SueDAgostino
SueDAgostino Question owner
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I have also posted on the apple forum. I was hoping that a Mac thunderbird user may have run into a similar problem and have some insight.