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Backing up individual email Inbox sub folder

  • 5 replies
  • 0 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by redoc

Old_Deuteronomy
Old_Deuteronomy
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I routinely back up my Tbird data by simply copying and pasting the /volume/users//<username>/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird folder to my backup device. This works perfectly well for me, as I proved when my PC crashed and I had to rebuild it; no trouble getting all my emails back.

In order to manage my correspondence easier, I have set up a number of subfolders in the Inbox in which I store emails for relevant topics (e.g. software licences, financial stuff, insurances, etc). All these are happily backed up together in the one action. However, I now need to backup just one subfolder, by itself, to my backup device and then delete the subfolder from my Inbox. Are there any suggestions as to how I might do this, or is it an impossibility?

Many thanks for any suggestions or received wisdom

I routinely back up my Tbird data by simply copying and pasting the /volume/users//<username>/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird folder to my backup device. This works perfectly well for me, as I proved when my PC crashed and I had to rebuild it; no trouble getting all my emails back. In order to manage my correspondence easier, I have set up a number of subfolders in the Inbox in which I store emails for relevant topics (e.g. software licences, financial stuff, insurances, etc). All these are happily backed up together in the one action. However, I now need to backup just one subfolder, by itself, to my backup device and then delete the subfolder from my Inbox. Are there any suggestions as to how I might do this, or is it an impossibility? Many thanks for any suggestions or received wisdom

All Replies (5)

Old_Deuteronomy
Old_Deuteronomy Question owner
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Sorry, I forgot to say I am using Windows 10 os (not able to upgrade to 11) and Tbird 102.3.0 (32-bit)

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
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It usually would be enough to copy the corresponding mail file (without a file extension) in the file system to your backup device. However, some manual action may be required to re-create an entire folder hierarchy in case the backup needs to be restored.

Modified by christ1

Old_Deuteronomy
Old_Deuteronomy Question owner
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Hi Christ1. Thanks for your advice, but I'm not sure what you suggest I do here. I can't see any copy command when I right-click on the relevant folder.

The Tbird file structure involved is something like this:

<username>/Inbox/Subfolder10/Sub-subfolderD. It's Sub-subfolderD I want to be able to archive (and then delete), leaving the rest of the Sub-subfolders (A-C) untouched. Complicated! Am I asking the impossible?

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
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There is no copy command within Thunderbird. You need to copy the mail file using Windows Explorer. It's in your Thunderbird profile folder. To locate the profile see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data#w_how-to-find-your-profile

Make sure to close Thunderbird prior to copying the mail file.

redoc
redoc
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And this will back up all sub folders and the corresponding emails in them? I have a lot of both and lost them last time.