How do I backup my email so that I can import it all back in at a later time if I need to?

[Ray Parrish]

NoOp wrote:
> On 01/24/2009 02:59 PM, mark Pyles wrote:
>   
>> Hi everyone:
>>
>> I'm using Ubuntu 8.04 (Gnome desktop) with thunderbird 2.0.0.19. Is 
>> there a way to backup all  my mail and folders to be able to import them 
>> back into thunderbird at a later time if needed say like to do a 
>> re-install or if the computer runs a muck? Thanks.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>     
>
> Yes. Just copy your .thunderbird folder to whatever
> medium/partition/drive/usb-stick that you wish.
>
>
>   
Close, but that gets a bit more than just your mail, and it's actually 
/.mozilla-thunderbird not just /.thunderbird.

NoOp's method will likely get things like your user profile and address 
book along with your mail. To backup *just* your email copy the 
following folder to another location.

/home/username/.mozilla-thunderbird/jta97xpo.default/Mail

The numbers in the second to last folder may vary for your installation. 
I used this method to import my Thunderbird email from the Windows side 
of my box to my Ubuntu installation of Thunderbird. This resulted in a 
flawless import of my mail, but missed my address book, which took me 
quite a while to rebuild. Oh well, live and learn. 8-)

It does make sense to grab the whole thing as NoOp says to do, as you 
will most likely also want your profile and address book when you 
restore things.

Later, Ray Parrish

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