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Can I have a local folder that is not in my profile?

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 9 views
  • Last reply by mhy08

mhy08
mhy08
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I've looked at the various Archive options, but cannot find a solution to this scenario- I use Windows file history to back up changes to my files, and have included my Thunderbird profile so that my emails get backed up, however what this ensues is that each day even if I have only received one new email then the whole profile of several MBs is saved. What I would like to do is have a folder (Archive), not within my Thunderbird profile, to which once per year I can move all my old emails, and let File History back it up just once since it won't change again until I archive next year, but have that folder still accessible to Thunderbird for normal access e.g. search.

The 'usual' archive offerings appear to have the Archive folder as a local folder within the profile, and a separate profile just for the Archived emails would not give same time access.

Any ideas, or am I asking too much? Thanks guys.

I've looked at the various Archive options, but cannot find a solution to this scenario- I use Windows file history to back up changes to my files, and have included my Thunderbird profile so that my emails get backed up, however what this ensues is that each day even if I have only received one new email then the whole profile of several MBs is saved. What I would like to do is have a folder (Archive), not within my Thunderbird profile, to which once per year I can move all my old emails, and let File History back it up just once since it won't change again until I archive next year, but have that folder still accessible to Thunderbird for normal access e.g. search. The 'usual' archive offerings appear to have the Archive folder as a local folder within the profile, and a separate profile just for the Archived emails would not give same time access. Any ideas, or am I asking too much? Thanks guys.

All Replies (4)

gild
gild
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Its not quite what you ask for, but consider using Thunderbird to archive your messages based on your preferences. Then you can use the following add-on to periodically export your older archived mail to other folders outside of Thunderbird.

ImportExportTools 3.2.4.1 by Paolo "Kaosmos" https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

You can save your messages in mbox format, or as plain text, html, eml or CSV files.
Unfortunately, once you move messages from folders in Thunderbird, you cannot use Thunderbird to search for them. But, ImportExport Tools can create an index, in html or csv format, to allow you to search through the messages it has removed from TB. if necessary, you can even re-import some or all your messages back into Thunderbird.

You should be able to select folders and files to backup daily. Have you considered backing up just the 'Mail' and 'ImapMail' files within your profile, on a daily basis, rather than the entire profile?
You should backup the entire profile at regular intervals. You may never need it , but keep the last two profile backups, as a 'just in case'.

TB-38.3 Win10-PC

mhy08
mhy08 Question owner
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Gild, thanks for your advice. You have given me some options that I will have to try out.

mhy08
mhy08 Question owner
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Hi Gild, Saving the Mail folder within my profile won't work for me I think because Mail includes Local Folders which includes the Archive folder. However I think this would work: Local Folders .Current Folder 

  ..Current Sub-folder1
   ..Current Sub-Folder2

.Archives 

  ..Archive Sub-Folder1
   .. etc

I then save the 'Current Folder' daily, and the Archive Folder just once/ year after each archive.

In the Windows file structure, within my Thunderbird Profile I can see the above structure represented, but am not sure why I see e.g. 

Current Folder.sbsd            as a file folder
Current                                  as a file
Current.msf                          as a MSF File

I can set the file folder for automatic daily backup, but not the latter 2, do I need them?

Thanks.

mhy08
mhy08 Question owner
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OK, I've found out that the .sbd file is the sub-directory index, likewise the .msf is the message index, and the file with no extension contains the messages that need to be backed up - so that is a no go using Windows File History (can only include Folders, not specific files)!