
Q.I'm Ubuntu Linux user and I'd like to keep backup of my email and mail settings. How do I backup Thunderbird mail and profile under any Linux distribution?
A. Thunderbird is simple to use and powerful email client with following features:
=> Safe, fast, and easy email
=> Intelligent spam filters
=> Quick message search
=> Customizable views etc
Mozilla thunderbird stores your email and profile setting in a special directory called ~/.thunderbird i.e. /home/you/.thunderbird/ or ~/.thunderbird directory. All you have to do is backup this directory.
Task: Backup Thunderbird mail and profile
You need to backup thunderbird mail and profile to tape drive, use:
$ tar zcvf /dev/st0 /home/you/.mozilla-thunderbird/
To backup files to USP pen driver mounted at /media/disk, enter
$ cp -avr /home/you/.thunderbird/ /media/disk
You need to backup thunderbird mail and profile to a /backup directory:
# tar zcvf /backup/email-vivek-22jan2007.tar.gz /home/vivek/.thunderbird/
You can copy /backup/email-vivek-22jan2007.tar.gz file to a CD/DVD or USB pen.
Task: Restore Thunderbird mail and profile
Make sure Thunderbird is not running. Simply copy backup files from tape, USB pen or CD to your /home/you/.mozilla-thunderbird/ directory:
$ tar –zxvf /backup/email-vivek-22jan2007.tar.gz -C /home/vivek
Or just copy all files from USB pen/CD to ~/.thunderbird/ directory.
A note for Windows XP/2003/Vista User
MozBackup is a simple utility for creating backups of Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite and Netscape profiles.
This program is freeware and works on Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003 only. No Linux/UNIX version exists.
It allows you to backup and restore bookmarks, mail, contacts, history, extensions, cache etc. It's an easy way to do Firefox backup, Thunderbird backup. You can download this software here.
You can also follow these instructions - Move an existing profile or restore a backed up profile for Windows.
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- Last Updated: 9-15-08
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Great How to,,
thank you very much,,
God bless you
Same here thanks for sharing nice stuff
God bless you :D
Thanks so much! you have saved me so much hair pulling!
Sorry, but I did that and still doesn’t work. It shows instantly my restored email messages and then they disappear.
There are 2 profiles of course, the restored one xxx.default and the new one zzz.default which is empty.
Should I copy the contents of xxx.default to zzz.default or it is able to recognize the new profiles?
I copied from a Gentoo linux machine to a FreeBSD one.
Thanx for your reply…
how to: backup on windows – restore same on linux
emigrate thunderbird from windows to linux
Hi.
Sorry, but don’t work on truecrypt-media!
Anyone have adds?
Re: FireFox backup
FEBE!! Open your Firefox Browser > Tools > Add-ons > Get Add-ons > Browse all add-ons > in the Search Box type: FEBE or Google: Firefox FEBE
:)