Thunderbird portable - importing settings
Robert M Jones
usb drive. I also have thunderbird 3.0.4 on my hard drive (for
newsgroups, RSS and one little used email account) and also MSOutlook
(for all my other email accounts and contacts and calendar)
I tried doing an "import" of settings into the new Portable TB
installation - but the only sort of import I could get to work was of
addressbook and mail from MSOutlook - which imported all the MSOutlook
contacts, and imported all the messages and folders - which I didn't
really want, but I can delete those so no problem. It did not import the
settings for any email accounts.
But I can't see how to get it to look for the main Hard Disk thunderbird
settings (there is no actual TB import option on the TB Portable import
menu, (only MS and Eudora) and I also can't succeed in importing
"settings" from MSOutlook - nothing happens in the wizard when I choose
the "import settings" option.
I want to be able to access my main email account settings on the usb
drive, so I can use TB portable to (attempt to) pop3/smtp my mail
accounts from any location (depending on the ISP being used - I also
have Firefox portable on the drive, in case I have to use webmail). Is
there an menu interface that allows me to import those settings?
I'm happy to do copy and paste with profile folders, but was surprised
that the portable app didn't seem to carry an option to import settings
or mail or addresses from another version of TB.
Thanks in advance, all help welcome
Windows XP Home, SP3.
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Robert M Jones
> On Sat, 15 May 2010 16:36:39 +0100, Robert M Jones
> <robert53new...@NOSPAMyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> I have just installed the latest version of thunderbird portable on a
>
> I have a dual boot PC.
> WinVista partition C.
> Win7 partition E.
> I have Thunderbird portable installed on partition K.
> I have all email files in a separate folder on partition K.
> ( Profiles/Mail/ account1, account2, account3, ....)
>
> In Thunderbird I did in Tools / Account settings:
> - Email account
> - Server Settings
> - Local directory
> I specified the path to separate folder for the account.
>
> By having the email files in a separate folder, I can have different
> versions of Thunderbird, all working with the same email files.
> I synchronize the profiles of those versions by hand.
> (takes just a few minutes.)
>
> In each of the bootable versions of Windows I have a shortcut to the
> Thunderbird on the separate partition.
>
> I suggest you copy all your email files ( Thunderbird\Data\Profile\Mail)
> from the Thunderbird on your hard disc to newly created folder on a
> non-Windows (non-software?) partition.
> Specify the path to the new folder in both your Thunderbird on your hard
> disc and the Thunderbird on your USB stick.
>
> Synchronize both Thunderbirds by hand.
> You should now be able to do your email from any of the Thunderbirds,
> without having to repeat receiving email for both.
>
> P.S. I hope I have made things clear to you.
>
> (and I have one shortcut in each of my Windows to link to the
> Thunderbird on a non-Windows partition.)
>
Thanks for the reply.
Unfortunately copying the Mail folder from one profile on my main hard
disk, to the portable profile on the usb stick, doesn't import any of
the account settings - just the folders, contacts and emails - which the
wizard method did anyway. And of course it leaves out the MSOutlook
settings which the import wizard claims to be able to deal with but doesn't.
It is the account settings in both TB and MSOutlook that the wizard
doesn't seem able to cope with - and which your suggestion has not
unfortunately dealt with either.
I want to be able to take my stick and use it on another machine, and if
that person has an account with my own ISP, or if their ISP will allow
it, to be able to pop and smtp my mail while away from home, using their
machine and my portable TB application.
Many thanks again.
David Pyles
folder named [SERIES OF RANDOM CHARACTERS].default) into the profile
folder created by your portable installation on the USB stick, rather
than just the Mail folder.
Or alternatively, copy the entire Profile folder, not just the contents,
and edit the Path statement profiles.ini in the Thunderbird profile
folder on the USB stick , or copy the profiles.ini from the Thunderbird
folder of the Win 7 PC into the Thunderbird folder on the USB stick.
The first method is the easiest because you don't have to mess with the
profiles.ini on the USB stick which will already be set to point to the
profile folder created by the USB installation, of which you have
replaced the contents. The important thing is to not copy the folder
itself, but just the contents.
I haven't a clue how you can get your MSOutlook settings on the USB stick.
Dave Pyles
Christoph Schmees
> On Sat, 15 May 2010 19:54:50 +0100, Robert M Jones
> <robert53new...@NOSPAMyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>> Thanks for the reply.
>> Unfortunately copying the Mail folder from one profile on my main hard
>> disk, to the portable profile on the usb stick, doesn't import any of
>> the account settings - just the folders, contacts and emails - which the
>> wizard method did anyway. And of course it leaves out the MSOutlook
>> settings which the import wizard claims to be able to deal with but doesn't.
>>
>> It is the account settings in both TB and MSOutlook that the wizard
>> doesn't seem able to cope with - and which your suggestion has not
>> unfortunately dealt with either.
>>
>> I want to be able to take my stick and use it on another machine, and if
>> that person has an account with my own ISP, or if their ISP will allow
>> it, to be able to pop and smtp my mail while away from home, using their
>> machine and my portable TB application.
>
>
> And you want to use the portable Thunderbird on your USB stick as an
> email client to be used at any location.
>
> What "wizard" do you want to use to import what "settings" from the
> email client on your HD (presumably MS Outlook)?
>
> As far as I know, settings are only imported into Thunderbird at
> installation, but I guess you want to do that more often.
>
fortunately import is possible at any time, repeatedly as well (well,
I don't know about merging or replacing the current content - didn't
try yet). You can import from Eudora, Outlook (-Express), LDIF and CSV
text formats.
And Robert, you might have a look at "ImportExportTools".
Christoph
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Robert M Jones
Thanks to all. The method that seems to work best is to copy the
contents of the profile folder on the main TB installation to replace
the contents of the profile folder on the usb stick portable-TB
installation - which imported email and newsgroup and blog/RSS settings
as well from the original thunderbird profile.
I think next time I will do a dummy run on a "usb stick folder" on
another HD partition then delete all the copied messages and folders I
don't want, and when everything is right, copy the whole thing over to
the usb stick. Doing it on the stick itself proved a problem, the whole
thing got overloaded deleting hundreds of email messages I had copied
but didn't want, and I corrupted the file system and had to reformat the
stick. All the file writing and deleting activity I suspect was not good
for the long term life of the stick.
As for the MSOutlook - I will explore export options from there and then
import into TB. Thanks again.
Thanks to all.