Thunderbird: How can I change the storage location for multiple email accounts?
Okay, just installed Thunderbird so forgive me if this is a rookie Q:
I have five different email accounts which I want to set up in Thunderbird. Default location seems to be: C:\Users\[name]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\\Profiles\u3a4epdd.default\ImapMail\[email]
Problem is, my C: drive is almost full and I'd like to store my emails on my larger D: drive. At least one of my emails will have approx 9GB data once imported (at least, that's what the ost currently is in Outlook - I assume the same in Thunderbird, but correct me if I'm wrong).
I understand that I need to go to Account settings > Server settings > Local directory to change email storage location. This worked great for the first email I set up. However when I try to set up subsequent emails in this folder, or sub-directories of that folder, I get the message "The directory specified in the Local Directory setting is already used by the "[email]" account. Please pick a different directory."
I guess I could have all 5 emails in five different folders directly under D: drive, but I'd like to keep things neat, preferably storing them in sub folders under something like D:\Thunderbird\ Is this possible, and if so, how can I do it?
Thanks for your help in advance.
Chosen solution
I would suggest setting up the accounts from a new profile in D:\Thunderbird.
Use the Profile Manager, not individual settings in Server Settings. Create a new profile in D:/ Thunderbird, then setup all email accounts from scratch there. You can also define the new profile to be the one to be used by default.
See:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data
I' d recommend using a tool like WinDirStat to analyze your disk space use in C:, locate your big files and move them/store them elsewhere.
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Chosen Solution
I would suggest setting up the accounts from a new profile in D:\Thunderbird.
Use the Profile Manager, not individual settings in Server Settings. Create a new profile in D:/ Thunderbird, then setup all email accounts from scratch there. You can also define the new profile to be the one to be used by default.
See:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data
I' d recommend using a tool like WinDirStat to analyze your disk space use in C:, locate your big files and move them/store them elsewhere.
Modified by Fabián Rodríguez
That link was exactly what I needed. Thank you so much!
Glad to hear it helped! Don't hesitate to come back with other Thunderbird questions in the future.
In SeaMonkey and apparently Thunderbird, you can configure each mail account to store its data on any logical drive (local or network) that is available to the host platform.
This assumes that you don't use the "store all mail in local folders" option.
Set up a main sub-folder on your desired drive - for example MAIL - then create sub-folders under this for each account, using any folder name that you wish and can recognize within the naming standards fo your OS.
Then set up each mail account one at a time, and go to the settings windows and set the mail folder that you wish for each account. Both TB and SM will require to restart when youy redefine the mail folder (by default they set it as a local folder udner Users/USER/Appdata/ so the restart is necessary for the application to generate new metadata files so it knows where the mails are.
I have found this approach to work well for over 20 years on SeaMonkey, with up to 25 mail accounts stored on a network drive and accessible from SM from up to 15 workstations (though don't try to access the same mail folder from two machines at the same time, which can give hiccups).
But I have found that Thunderbird will not handle as much maildata (mail accounts with lots of mails in many subfolders) on network storage as SeaMonkey will. I'm still trying to colve this one on Thunderbird.
I hope some of the above may help someone.
Adrian