Just replaced Outlook 2021 with Thunderbird
Uisng Outlook before, I used Macrium Reflect to dump my Outlook PST file to me NAS for backup.
It's not clear to me what the equivalent is for Thunderbird. I have 2 accounts setup in TB and some local folders.
I would like to a file and folder back up in Reflect to dump, essentially, my accounts and local storage.
Where would I need to point Reflect to in TB to do that?
Regards,
Kevin
All Replies (11)
The profile is at c:\users|<yourID>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles but any backup must be done when Thunderbird is not running. If the profile is less than 2 gig, the easy approach is to use Tools>export menu for a onetime backup.
Thanks for the path. Interesting that Reflect had no problem backing up the Outlook PST file when Outlook was still running. My current Outlook PST file is 2.39GB but I have not carried all of that over to TB.
In the path that you gave me...only 2 files...see attached image. The 2nd file has a TON of data in it. Not obvious what to backup? The whole folder?
The profile.ini file at c:\users\<yourID>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird is a simple text file and identifies which folder is the profile folder. My guess is it's the bigger folder. The entire folder is the profile and all of it needs to be backed up, as it contains addressbook, all account settings, plus all message folders.
Thanks David.....below is my profile.ini file. The dicmtlx4.default.release is 6.36GB, so would seem to be the file you referred to although why it takes 6.38GB beats me. My PST was about 2.5GB.
When I imported my PST file into TB, it was all kind of messed up with, it seems, mapping of field to field incorrect. Rather than find different ways to try another import, I went through and fixed the contacts manually (over 450). Took me a while but I cleaned them up, deleted some old one that I no longer needed etc, etc
I'll now go change the Reflect job to backup the profile etc.
Many thanks for the pointers/help.
K
To see what is taking up the space, you can browse the profile mail folders at the Mail folder for POP and the Imapmail folder for IMAP. the accounts and their folders, such as inbox and sent, will be there and that may help you see what is using the storage. If anything seems wacko, post a screenshot of the folder in question and it might spark some ideas.
OK, here goes.....
In the MAIL folder, I see these files: Mail 6.25GB
Outlook Import.sbd 1.69GB Outlook Import1.sbd 2GB Trash 2.47GB
Maybe I need to empty the trash>? Are the Import files no longer of any use maybe?
Kevin
See latest attachment....showing my two accounts and folders.
K
I see that one of the Outlook data files seems to have all of my stored email folders in them. In fact, they appear to be a duplicate of each other (maybe that is the "1" on one of the files?
It certainly appears that I can delete one of them? Maybe when first setting up TB, I did more than 1 import? (don't remember doing that but......)
K
If everything is working ok, such as inbox, sent folder, etc., then those two files are not needed. To be safe, I would exit thunderbird, rename the files, restart thunderbird. If all is okay, then delete them. Not sure how they were constructed, but they do appear unnecessary.
OK, thanks again.
I renamed the file with the 1 at the end as these files appeared to be duplicates. Restarted TB. The filename with the 1 on the end was still there but empty. I assume that I could delete that file in TB?
The elements in the remaining folder appear to be my stored emails from Outlook. Emails filed away for many years. I now have to look into whether TB has the ability to create "quick moves" for emails stored in regular folders over time. Outlook had this functionality for repeated use of stored emails. It would appear that I can use the remaining folder to store emails in TB much as I did in Outlook although I had started setting up "other" folders in "Local Folders" in TB.
K
Clean_Up attachment shows folder size before and after the cleanup.
K