thunderbird transfer with no/limited internet
The context: I have a somewhat unique situation, and have scoured the web and various forums and haven't been able to find much. I use TB as primary email client for several imap and pop accounts. I frequently need to transfer TB to a new machine, switching between linux and windows platforms. I have several GB of mail all told, some local only, everything else synced for offline use. When I transfer the profile, TB resyncs and re-downloads ALL my synced folders (it does seem to transfer the local copies, even though I transfer the entire profile). The catch is that I have very very slow and limited (think sporadic, unreliable end-of-the-line dailup) internet, and cannot spend the time(hours to days)/bandwidth to re-download several GB of data.
So here is the question: Is there a way to transfer TB (with all mail already downloaded for offline use) to a new machine completely offline, and still be able to access/read/write all of the mail on the new machine without re-downloading/re-syncing mail?
Thanks in advance....
All Replies (3)
Is there a way to transfer TB (with all mail already downloaded for offline use) to a new machine completely offline, and still be able to access/read/write all of the mail on the new machine without re-downloading/re-syncing mail?
That should be the case when transferring the entire profile. See if this article helps. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Move_to_a_new_PC#Moving_from_Windows_to_OSX_or_Linux
Yes, that is the (one of the) articles that I followed. I have direct copy-pasted the profile directory as instructed, windows-to-windows, windows-to-linux, and linux-to-windows. I attempted to use the profile manager for one of the transfers, however, the profile manage seemed to be broken. At the time I did not have time and (again) no internet availability to figure out why, so I reverted to the copy-paste. Each time, all of the headers are there, but none (or very few) of the emails themselves.....which is less than helpful. Every time I try to open a message, it says "this message has not been downloaded for offline use" until I connect and sync, and it re-downloads everything.
It has been two months since my last transfer, so I could do another to replicate and get more specific details of what happens.
Am I understanding that it *should* have all of my emails if the profile is transfered? TB doesn't automatically re-download after a profile transfer?
Thanks again.
Please confirm that you have got the imap accounts set up to synchronize all folders and also synchronise regardless of age.
'Tools' > 'Account Settings' > 'Synchronise and Storage' for gmail imap mail account select; 'Keep messages for this account on this computer' click on 'Advanced' button and check that all the folders are selected.
Under 'Disc Space section. select: 'synchronise all messages locally regardless of age'