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.
🐧 Get the latest tutorials on SysAdmin, Linux/Unix, Open Source/DevOps topics:
- RSS feed or Weekly email newsletter
- Share on Twitter • Facebook • 16 comments... add one ↓
| Category | List of Unix and Linux commands |
|---|---|
| File Management | cat |
| Firewall | Alpine Awall • CentOS 8 • OpenSUSE • RHEL 8 • Ubuntu 16.04 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
| Network Utilities | dig • host • ip • nmap |
| OpenVPN | CentOS 7 • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Debian 8/9 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
| Package Manager | apk • apt |
| Processes Management | bg • chroot • cron • disown • fg • jobs • killall • kill • pidof • pstree • pwdx • time |
| Searching | grep • whereis • which |
| User Information | groups • id • lastcomm • last • lid/libuser-lid • logname • members • users • whoami • who • w |
| WireGuard VPN | Alpine • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Firewall • Ubuntu 20.04 |
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
:)
I use Ubuntu 9.04 and want to back up my email files in Thunderbird. I’ve read the above instructions but they are meaningless to me. If I knew where to type them in I expect they would work. I need instructions right from the beginning what to do when I look at the ubuntu desk top.
I want to pass my mail files from one machine to another.
I tried:
alan@AlanUbu:~$ tar zcvf /Documents/email-alan-15mar2010.tar.gz /home/alan/.mozilla-thunderbird/
tar: /Documents/email-alan-15mar2010.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Removing leading `/’ from member names
/home/alan/.mozilla-thunderbird/
/home/alan/.mozilla-thunderbird/khirznc6.default/
/home/alan/.mozilla-thunderbird/khirznc6.default/lock
/home/alan/.mozilla-thunderbird/khirznc6.default/localstore.rdf
What am I doing wrong?
Alan you have to write full path :
/home/alan//Documents/email-alan-15mar2010.tar.gz
try this :
tar zcvf /home/alan/Documents/email-alan-15mar2010.tar.gz /home/alan/.mozilla-thunderbird/
backup to tape drive? that’s cool
who still does that :)
Good instructions, been looking for something like this for a long time. Thanks.
Thanks!!!!
how can i store my all mails of thunderbird in to my system…..iwant to save all mails sapretly
try to give me graphical method in linux
Thunderbird Archive files are stored elsewhere on the disk.
Where, and why? I have no Idea.