How do I save my e-mails and data on a folder so that I can recover them on this or another computer
Dear all,
At present I use a desktop and my intention is to use a laptop. for this reason I would like to have an identical Thunderbird installation with identical e-mails on both computers. I plan to move and use a laptop and later move back to my desktop. How can I put my files in a specific folder which can be accessed when transferring to another computer by this computer's Thunderbird installation? Thank you.
Chosen solution
You can export your entire Thunderbird profile to a single folder then import the same profile to the Thunderbird installation on the other computer. While you can do this manually, without installing any third-party add-on, I recommend keeping things simple by using an add-on called ImportExportTools NG, that will perform this easily and fast.
In Thunderbird, go to Tools > Add-ons and type or copy-paste the name of the add-on into the search box at the top then press Enter to search. Hit the big green button to add it to Thunderbird then restart TB. Once TB has restarted, go to Tools > ImportExportTools NG > Export profile. Select the destination folder where the profile will be saved and watch the progress of the export process as displayed on TB's status bar. Once complete, you will find an oddly named folder inside the target folder that you chose. This oddly named folder contains your entire TB profile. Transfer it to the target computer by whichever means (flash disk is preferable).
To easily import it into this computer's TB installation, add the add-on just like you did on the other computer, restart TB then go to Tools > ImportExportTools NG > Import profile. A wizard will appear prompting you to point it to the folder that contains the exported profile. Do so, then provide a name by which the imported profile will be referred to and proceed. The import will begin and when finished, you will be presented with the option to start the TB profile manager. Select this option and the TB Profile Manager will open. Your newly imported profile will be listed next to the default profile. Select the imported profile and launch it. The Profile Manager is pretty straightforward, so using it should not be a problem. If everything went smoothly, TB will present you with everything you had on your other computer.
Note that, for flawless results, make sure the source and destination computers are both running the exact same and up-to-date version of Thunderbird, otherwise importing and exporting profiles between different versions of Thunderbird might have unprecedented results. To check the version of TB running on either computer, open TB then go to Help > About Thunderbird. You will see the version number (e.g 68.5.0), bitness (e.g 64-bit), release channel (e.g beta), whether TB is up-to-date or not and so on.
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Chosen Solution
You can export your entire Thunderbird profile to a single folder then import the same profile to the Thunderbird installation on the other computer. While you can do this manually, without installing any third-party add-on, I recommend keeping things simple by using an add-on called ImportExportTools NG, that will perform this easily and fast.
In Thunderbird, go to Tools > Add-ons and type or copy-paste the name of the add-on into the search box at the top then press Enter to search. Hit the big green button to add it to Thunderbird then restart TB. Once TB has restarted, go to Tools > ImportExportTools NG > Export profile. Select the destination folder where the profile will be saved and watch the progress of the export process as displayed on TB's status bar. Once complete, you will find an oddly named folder inside the target folder that you chose. This oddly named folder contains your entire TB profile. Transfer it to the target computer by whichever means (flash disk is preferable).
To easily import it into this computer's TB installation, add the add-on just like you did on the other computer, restart TB then go to Tools > ImportExportTools NG > Import profile. A wizard will appear prompting you to point it to the folder that contains the exported profile. Do so, then provide a name by which the imported profile will be referred to and proceed. The import will begin and when finished, you will be presented with the option to start the TB profile manager. Select this option and the TB Profile Manager will open. Your newly imported profile will be listed next to the default profile. Select the imported profile and launch it. The Profile Manager is pretty straightforward, so using it should not be a problem. If everything went smoothly, TB will present you with everything you had on your other computer.
Note that, for flawless results, make sure the source and destination computers are both running the exact same and up-to-date version of Thunderbird, otherwise importing and exporting profiles between different versions of Thunderbird might have unprecedented results. To check the version of TB running on either computer, open TB then go to Help > About Thunderbird. You will see the version number (e.g 68.5.0), bitness (e.g 64-bit), release channel (e.g beta), whether TB is up-to-date or not and so on.