Download Thunderbird Backup
Angelo Dearring
one of the first steps when migrating to a new pc or when having to reinstall openSUSE, is to copy the /.mozilla and /.thunderbird directories over to my new home directory.
This way i get the same state when starting thunderbird and firefox on the new system as i had on the old system. But i only do this because i do not know what is needed to get for thunderbird:
Since i had a near full data loss a few months ago i started to make tar backups every few days, including both the /.thunderbird and the /.mozilla directories. The problem is, that both of those directories contain a lot of small files (but mostly a lot of files) and because of that the backup process needs a lot of time. So i was wondering if i really need the full directories or if it may be possible to exclude some of its contents?
I do two types of backups, a big one once a month by running
tar -cvzf full_date.tgz /home/user
with some excludes (i have an extensive exclude list/file that i use for that )
And a small one daily, where i only include (i use an extensive list/file here) the thunderbird and mozilla directories and some other important stuff.
When those files are created i move them over to my NAS.
How would I go about using Thunderbird to create a local backup of all my emails? Once it downloads all my messages, where are they stored? I would like to store them on an external hard drive in the very unlikely scenario where something where to happen to my email account. Also, once I obtain the files and back them up, if I needed, how would I open them/import them into a new email account added to Thunderbird?
If you have a full backup of your website hosted on cPanel, you can easily import emails to Thunderbird with the help of the ImportExportTools NG extension. To do so, follow the steps below ?
This article published by MiniTool Technology elaborates on how to back up Thunderbird email or profile manually and automatically. It also teaches you how to restore data from Thunderbird backups. The manually methods in this article apply to Windows, Mac, and Linux (including Ubuntu) operating systems.
To avoid losing data, besides relying on antivirus software, you should also make a backup of your crucial data and save the backup copy in another safe place, such as an external hard drive. Since there may be financial information, important work files, etc. in your Thunderbird emails, sent or received, it is of great necessity to create a backup of them.
Besides manually carry out Thunderbird backup emails, you can also rely on third-party backup software to do the work. Why need to rely on third-party programs? Besides manually create backup tasks within the tools, you can also set up a schedule backup to automatically backup your emails even without open Thunderbird.
Among the many backup applications in the market, the powerful and reliable MiniTool ShadowMaker is recommended for its easy-to-use interface and fast speed. To make use of it, first of all, you need to download and install it on your computer.
Step 7. Then, you will be redirected to the backup task preview window. There, you can start the initial backup immediately by clicking Back up Now in the lower right. Or, you can launch the backup later by clicking the dropdowns and select Back up Later.
Step 2. If the name of your backup profile folder is the same as your current profile, just copy the backup profile and paste it to the location of the existing profile. When it prompts, select to replace the target file.
Step 2. Double-click to open the thunderbird.exe file in the Thunderbird program folder, C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe on 32-bit Windows or C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe on 64-bit OS. Then, open Profile Manager.
I thought this would be simple enough but googling about the only solutions were: A) Create a backup using Google Takeout which is a zipped MBOX file and then B) install Mozilla Thunderbird, unzip and import the MBOX file.
@Photon I have a Thunderbird profile of current and archived emails and attachment of about 1.8GB. The profile is shared across three laptops using Syncthing. To be successful and without creating conflicting files, you must close T/B on one device and allow time to sync before opening on another. My use case allows this to happen. I backup the profile (and other directories) using Borg every 24 hours. I share the profile and the Borg backup across each device and a RaspberryPI 3B, running 24/7, using Syncthing. Works for me!
The profile folder is a folder on your computer that stores your Mozilla application user data such as preference settings, passwords, extensions, themes, Firefox or SeaMonkey bookmarks, and Thunderbird or SeaMonkey mail. It's a good idea to periodically back up your profile to safeguard your data, in case something happens to your computer. Make sure to keep the backup not on the same disk (or even computer) as your profile folder, to avoid it being lost along with the profile in case of disk failure (or theft). This article describes how to back up your profile and restore it.
Recommended: If you're a Windows user, it's no longer recommended that you use the MozBackup program as in the past. MozBackup is a profile backup utility for Mozilla Suite, Firefox, and Thunderbird.
While Mozbackup has been extremely popular in the forums, it's no longer maintained and has recently been problematic because of changes to the Thunderbird profile structure in newer version of the program. If you elect to use it, its recommended that you verify that you can restore a backup it creates before relying upon it. Use Mozbackup 1.5.2 Beta 1 (there is a download link for it in the News section) rather than the version available at the normal download link. Mozbackup 1.5.1 usually works fine but a few users have had problems where it doesn't backup everything it is supposed to. The beta has been the subject of fewer problem reports in that regard.
If you're using Portable Thunderbird or Portable Firefox Mozbackup won't back up your profile because it expects to find it via the profiles.ini file, and one of the goals of portable applications is to avoid having to register and install the application on each PC. Portable Apps Suite (Base Edition) includes a PortableApps Backup utility. Toucan is a stand alone utility with more options, that lets you synchronize, back up and secure your data. It also supports command line arguments.
If you are comfortable with copying files and folders you can manually back up your profile. This process can be as simple as copying a single directory to a backup location. Most of the work is in finding where the profile folder is stored.
SysInfo Thunderbird Backup Tool is a reliable utility for the users to back up Thunderbird mailbox items into the hard drive or locally on the system. The software can save or export mailbox data such as emails, sent items, drafts, and attachments into different file formats & Email clients. It includes multiple features like previewing the files, saving in the same folder, removing duplicate items, and many more. Moreover, the Thunderbird backup tool can easily download or migrate Thunderbird items into PST, EML, AOL, Gmail, Yahoo mail, Office 365, and other file formats or email clients.
I have less storage on my computer, but I want to back up the Thunderbird mailbox data. Then I can use this Sysinfo Thunderbird mail backup software. This tool contains a Migrate or Backup Emails feature without any attachments files. You can easily back Thunderbird profile data into a local drive by opting for this one.
Since I have already worked out a storage solution for old files that is quite reliable, moving my old email to that storage solution makes sense. (FYI, my storage solution is to run a local file server in my house with a RAID array so I have plenty of space and local backups. Certain folders on the file server are backed up in real-time to an online service so I also have a real-time offsite backup of all my important files. In other words, I have local and offsite redundancy for all my important files.)
And there are the emails. Just where I want them. This also means that you have a local copy of all your emails in a folder exactly where you want them. At this point, you have technically made a backup of all the email you wanted to backup.
Mozilla Thunderbird will automatically create a Thunderbird Profile which stores your email data and Thunderbird configurations. If you would like to create a backup of your email data you will first have to locate your Thunderbird Profile. Once located you will have two options: copying your entire profile, or copying just your email data. Instructions on how to locate your Thunderbird Profile are included below. All screenshots taken in this article were done in MacOS Catalina version 10.15.4.
Mozilla Thunderbird keeps your email data within a hidden folder located on your computer. Carbonite does NOT add this location to your backup set by default. To ensure the files are backed up, navigate to the location where they are stored and select them for backup.
MozBackup 1.4.9 Alpha 2 released! This version comes with support of Songbird, better support for portable applications, quicker backups, better backup of Thunderbird and some bugfixes. See Changelog, Download.
MozBackup 1.4.9 Alpha released! This version supports latest devel versions of Firefox 3.1 and Thunderbird 3.0, fix some problems with large backups and some other minor bugs. Be aware that this is alpha version so please use only for testing. See Changelog, Download.
Mozilla Thunderbird is becoming popular day by day among those who want to use a feature-rich yet free-of-cost email application. With its regular and timely updates, Thunderbird provides essential service to its users. It is a desktop-based email client that stores its complete data on the system where it has been installed. The Address Book of Mozilla Thunderbird email is stored in MAB files. In this blog, we have chosen to discuss how to backup Address Book in Thunderbird. First of all, we will go through the reasons for MAB file backup.
760c119bf3