[ubuntu-za] Mail between two versions of Thunderbird

[Jan Greeff]

The regular upgrade option seems like a pipe dream to me, because there 
are usually so many broken packages that it becomes wel nigh impossible 
to patch it up.

The Linux option appears to be an option for guys who make a hobby of 
sorting out and playing with their computers, definitely not for those 
who just need a functional system with which to do a job and do not have 
the time nor the inclination to learn about all sorts of strange 
terminology and codes.


On 06/12/2011 08:44, frans wrote:
>
>
>
> On 11/12/05 19:15 PM, Peter Nel wrote:
>> On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 6:25 PM, Jan Greeff<jan at verslank.net>  wrote:
>>> Hi Peter, believe it or not, I a still trying to find a way to 
>>> transfer my mail profile from Thunderbird to Thunderbird on another 
>>> drive. ( I have two hard drives on my machine, so when I upgrade, I 
>>> can hopefully backup all my work and do a clean install onto the 
>>> second drive.) I have no problem with my Open Office files and 
>>> folders and the address books but the e-mails are a problem.
>>>
>>> What I did was to copy and paste the .thunderbird folder from the 
>>> drive that I want to back up into the .thunderbird folder on the 
>>> spare drive, but the result was that a new .thunderbird folder was 
>>> created in the existing .thunderbird. So now I have 
>>> home/jan/.thunderbird/.thunderbird.
>>>
>>> Do I now have to delete the first .thunderbird profile or how do I 
>>> get the program to pick up the copied profile?
>>>
>>> Best wishes,
>>>
>>> Jan
>>>
>>> Péter Wrote:
>>> ...
>>>
>>> Anyway, I did a quick search again and got a link to a page that 
>>> addresses exactly this problem of yours.
>>> http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Changing_Profile_Folder_Location 
>>>
>>> Showing various different ways of migrating your thunderbird profile.
>>> It also contained another link more specific to Windows migrators:
>>> http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_from_Windows_to_Linux#Ubuntu
>>>
>>> Perhaps thunderbird is looking for the profile in the wrong place. 
>>> This can be due to having started thunderbird before, and it might 
>>> have created it's own empty profile, and is ignoring your new one. 
>>> Also, I read in those mentioned pages of a file called 
>>> "profiles.ini" somewhere in your thunderbird directory (e.g. 
>>> /<your-home-dir>/.thunderbird/) with a setting that points to the 
>>> profile directory you want, e.g.:
>>> ...
>>> Path=/home/eric/Profiles/Thunderbird/tanstaafl
>>> ...
>>>
>>> I definitely think your answer lies in one of those two pages.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> Péter
>>
>> Hi Jan,
>>
>> Firstly,  you really should CC the mailing list with these queries, 
>> because:
>> 1) other people may benefit from the solution;
>> 2) other people might help you find one.
>>
>> You should also consider other options for upgrading (I understand you
>> mean upgrading from one version of ubuntu to the next) :
>> 1) As always, there's the option of simply running a regular upgrade
>> via the Update Manager, i.e. no new /re- install - I've done this
>> plenty of times, and wasn't disappointed - if you struggle with a
>> problem like copying your email files... then this is probably a good
>> option for you.
>> 2) You can also create a dedicated partition for your /home folder --
>> this way you can do with your / (root) partition whatever you want
>> (e.g. format and re-install the OS) without touching your application
>> settings, personal files, and email - this is done less these days.
>> Once you're /home partition gets full you run into problems, same if
>> the /-partition gets full.
>> 3) Lastly, it's also possible to copy your entire home directory
>> (/home/jan/) to a temp location (e.g. separate hard drive), install
>> the OS, then copy it back. I've also done this.
>>
>> Now WRT your problem.
>> Jan said: "So now I have home/jan/.thunderbird/.thunderbird" -- you
>> should NOT have copied the source .thunderbird folder (the one with
>> your old emails) into the destination .thunderbird folder (under your
>> /home/jan/ directory). What you should have done was to copy (and
>> paste) it straight to your home directory (/home/jan/) - it would have
>> been better if there wasn't already /home/jan/.thunderbird folder.
>>
>> Now you can do one of two things:
>> 1) if you STILL HAVE your old .thunderbird (with email etc.) folder on
>> the other drive:
>>   1.a) delete the new /home/jan/.thunderbird/ folder (that also
>> contains another .thunderbird folder), and redo it; i.e. as described
>> in the previous paragraph.
>> 2) if you do NOT STILL HAVE your old .thunderbird (with email etc.)
>> folder on the other drive: you must
>>   2.a) find the new place you copied/pasted it (.thunderbird with email
>> etc.) to - as I understand, you moved it to "/home/jan/.thunderbird",
>> i.e. it's the "/home/jan/.thunderbird/.thunderbird" directory;
>>   2.b) move it to a temp directory
>>   2.c) delete /home/jan/.thunderbird/ (the parent folder with new 
>> empty account)
>>   2.d) copy the one you just copied to the temp directory, back to 
>> /home/jan/
>>
>> Hope fully this helps.
>>
>> NB. As long as your original folder remains intact somewhere you can
>> try this again until you get it right.
>>
>> Let us know what happens.
>>
>> -- 
>> Péter Nel
>>
> If you are running more than one OS it is also possible to use one 
> profile for thunderbird...
>
> The folder should be accessible from all OS's then you just edit the 
> profile file in your thunderbird folder to point to the profile 
> folder... a link to the correct folder should also work.
>
>
>
> -- When working on a computer you have to know enough: To fake what 
> you don't know. Google what you can't fake. How (and when) to 
> 'motivate' the computer to do what Google won't tell. Frans de Waal IT 
> Manager/ Dormakorp
>