Backing Up Firefox and Thunderbird

[slyph...@gmail.com]

I am an older person and not adept at some kinds of searches, so if this has been asked before, please excuse me and direct me accordingly. Thank you.

Environment:
Win/32 7 Pro SP1
Firefox 47.0
Thunderbird 45.2.0

I use both programs fairly heavily, and of course I want to be safe against loss in between times I clone my hard disk to an external drive. For a long time I have been using MozBackup 1.5.1 to create backup files on a fairly regular basis, which I then copy over to a USB flash drive. One time I did use MozBackup to restore TB, and it worked perfectly (of course, with the loss of a couple of emails that came in after the B/U).

I seem to recall reading recently that MozBackup is no longer being supported, use at your own risk. I know where my Mozilla profiles are stored, but in "raw" form they take up hundreds of megabytes (I have a lot of emails stored), and to copy them off would take a lot of time and use up a lot of flash drive space. Are there recommendations here for making "safety against loss" backups of Mozilla profiles?

Thank you again.

[Dave Pyles]

Compress the files. That's what Mozbackup does.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14200/windows-compress-uncompress-zip-files

Here's a short link in case the long one above doesn't work:
http://tinyurl.com/zjbjb3q

Dave Pyles

[Keith Nuttle]

If you want to keep the button backup (Click Icon) for Thunderbird then
install ImportExportTools.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/?src=ss

With the addon installed you click on Tools in the Menu, Click
ImportExportTools, and then click Export Profile. Nearly as simple as
Mozbackup which I miss.


You must go into the Options for ImportExportTools and specify a folder
for the back up. I had a time finding the back up folder before I
learned this.

[Big Al]

Just backup
C:\users\<name>\Appdata\Roaming\Mozilla
C:\users\<name>\Appdata\Roaming\Thunderbird

It's copies EVERYTHING.
System is destroyed or whatever, reload either program, copy back the
folder above (after killing the current copy) and then run the program
the first time. Works great if you don't jump from version 3 to
version 45, and you're not.
AppData is hidden show you'll have to show hidden files. Or just type
it in the address line in explorer.

[Frank]

I've got a Seagate back-up portable hard drive attached. Hope it is
doing its job as it is encrypted so I don't see the actual files.
Few years ago I had a Carbonite subscription. It was a PITA as it was
always copying stuff but when my old computer went south it had not
copied FF or TB profiles not to mention several videos and music CD's.

[Big Al]

>
> I've got a Seagate back-up portable hard drive attached. Hope it is
> doing its job as it is encrypted so I don't see the actual files.
> Few years ago I had a Carbonite subscription. It was a PITA as it was
> always copying stuff but when my old computer went south it had not
> copied FF or TB profiles not to mention several videos and music CD's.

You could zip one of the directories and delete it, then try to restore
that one folder, if it fails then unzip the good data and spend 3 weeks
trying to figure why. LOL

[Chris Ilias]

On 2016-08-18 2:29 PM, slyph...@gmail.com wrote:
> I am an older person and not adept at some kinds of searches, so if
> this has been asked before, please excuse me and direct me
> accordingly. Thank you.
>
> Environment: Win/32 7 Pro SP1 Firefox 47.0 Thunderbird 45.2.0
>
> I use both programs fairly heavily, and of course I want to be safe
> against loss in between times I clone my hard disk to an external
> drive.

This article should help:
<https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles>.

--
Chris Ilias <http://ilias.ca>
Mailing list/Newsgroup moderator

[Joy Beeson]

On Thu, 18 Aug 2016 11:29:02 -0700 (PDT), slyph...@gmail.com wrote:

> I seem to recall reading recently that MozBackup is no longer being supported, use at your own risk.

As long as you don't switch to an operating system or program that
your version of MozBackup can't handle, it will do fine. "Not
supported" just means that it won't be updated to deal with new
situations. (My word processor has been unsupported for more than
twenty years, and still works better than any other word processor for
what I use it for. But I have to keep an obsolete computer to run it
on.)

I regularly use MozBackup to move a URL in an e-mail from my writing
computer to my browsing computer, and expect to continue doing so
until someone takes a baseball bat to both computers.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

[MalcolmO]

On 2016/08/18 10:22 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:
> My word processor has been unsupported for more than
> twenty years

Pray tell, which one is that? I'm gonna guess WordStar. ;)
--
Malcolm

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message
<mailman.2082.147164989...@lists.mozilla.org>,

I'll guess Manuscript (so old it wasn't called ManuScript).
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"This situation absolutely requires a really futile and stoopid gesture be done
on somebody's part." "We're just the guys to do it." Eric "Otter" Stratton (Tim
Matheson) and John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi) - N. L's Animal House (1978)

[Joy Beeson]

On Fri, 19 Aug 2016 19:37:48 -0400, MalcolmO <us...@domain.invalid>
wrote:

PC-Write. It dates back to when programs had manuals.

I don't have drivers for any printers that haven't worn out and been
recycled, but I hardly ever want hardcopy anyway.

[MalcolmO]

On 2016/08/21 8:58 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:
> PC-Write. It dates back to when programs had manuals.

Wow! I date back to when I used to write them! :D Wrote one for a game,
one for a spreadsheet, one for a DTP program.

PC-Write rings a bell but I can't recall it to mind. You go, girl! Text
editing is the purpose of life, isn't it. Or has my life been misspent?
Those may be independent questions. :D
--
Malcolm

[Joy Beeson]

On Mon, 22 Aug 2016 22:34:35 -0400, MalcolmO <us...@domain.invalid>
wrote:

> PC-Write rings a bell but I can't recall it to mind.

It was shareware, if that helps, and all the examples in the manual
mention cats. The only date I can find in the manual is on the
addenda: October 1988. (Well, I stopped looking when I found one.)
Quicksoft died not too long after I bought my last update.

> Text
> editing is the purpose of life, isn't it.

Well, everything else depends on it.

> Or has my life been misspent?
> Those may be independent questions. :D

--