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Is a restore possible?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by sfhowes

Mike-on-the-Costa
Mike-on-the-Costa
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I didn't know that there is a new version of MozBackup-1.4.10-EN and when I tried to restore the Thunderbird backup on my wife's computer, the old version didn't work. I still have her.pcv file. Does anyone know if I can use it to restore all her old emails and contacts?

I didn't know that there is a new version of MozBackup-1.4.10-EN and when I tried to restore the Thunderbird backup on my wife's computer, the old version didn't work. I still have her.pcv file. Does anyone know if I can use it to restore all her old emails and contacts?

Chosen solution

A pcv file is just an archived format of the profile folder. Change the extension to .zip and extract the contents. Contacts are stored in the abook.mab (Personal Address Book) and history.mab (Collected Addresses) files. Copy them into the active profile folder, while TB is closed, to overwrite the existing files. In the backup profile, locate the mbox files - files with no extension and named after a mail folder - in the Mail/<popaccountname>, Mail/Local Folders and ImapMail/<imapaccountname> locations, and copy them into the Mail/Local Folders location of the active profile, while TB is closed. When TB is restarted, the folders should appear under Local Folders in the Folder Pane.

See this post for other backup options. MozBackup is obsolete.

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All Replies (2)

Mike-on-the-Costa
Mike-on-the-Costa Question owner
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oops, I forgot that it doesn't backup the contacts. So, is there any way I can just recover all her emails?

Mike

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

A pcv file is just an archived format of the profile folder. Change the extension to .zip and extract the contents. Contacts are stored in the abook.mab (Personal Address Book) and history.mab (Collected Addresses) files. Copy them into the active profile folder, while TB is closed, to overwrite the existing files. In the backup profile, locate the mbox files - files with no extension and named after a mail folder - in the Mail/<popaccountname>, Mail/Local Folders and ImapMail/<imapaccountname> locations, and copy them into the Mail/Local Folders location of the active profile, while TB is closed. When TB is restarted, the folders should appear under Local Folders in the Folder Pane.

See this post for other backup options. MozBackup is obsolete.