(no subject)

[lagilman]

ETA: apparently, my brain isn't able to parse the instructions given for folders and filters. However, I am perfectly able to reinstall all my email accounts, set up Google Calender, and various other sundry tech essentials, so I don't feel as though my brain has utterly sieved out of my skill....



So, during the great Brain Swap on the computer, I backed up my email program (Thunderbird) along with everything else.

Everything else has slid back over with only minimal argh. But nowhere can I find info on how to reinstall that email backup.


Anyone? Bueller?


(edited for clarity)

Comments

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Do you mean the actual program, or the location of your mail files?

[lagilman]

In a perfect world I'd move the whole damn thing back over. If need be, I am, yes, perfectly capable of downloading the program from the internet.

I'd just rather not have to recreate all my filters and folders, not to mention losing all the material rec'd sent over the past two years, most of which is business-related.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

No, it's not that, I was just trying to qualify what you were looking for. If you need the filter and folder data only, there's a location in your user data where that should be stored.

I'd poked around about where to find the T-bird data, and there should be a specific file location at C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles (XP) or C:\users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ (Vista). I presume that Windows 7 has the Vista architecture.

[lagilman]

Which is useful, thank you, but doesn't actually answer my question about what/how to transfer over!

(this is quite frustrating, as I've been able to transfer and reinstall everything else without hiccup, but Thunderbird doesn't have a "here do this" non-geek dump, and I don't have energy or brainpower to go spelunking for specifics, hence my asking....)

[elektra.livejournal.com]

I just moved my email from one computer to another (under XP), so I'm pretty conversant.

I know this won't help much--but it's a simple install from the internet or your previous download of the exe if you can find it. Then move the data as mtlawson has helpfully suggested into the profile folder.

Then, the big key. Look for a file called profiles.ini inside the Thunderbird directory. Edit the file and change the line that starts "Path=" to point at the name of the folder you just moved over with all your data in it. This is the easiest way to make it happen.

[lagilman]

Again, everyone is telling me everything except the thing I need to know (or, if you're telling me, I'm too renovation-stressed to read it, in which case I apologize).

I have T'bird downloaded and set up. I want to transfer my filters and old mail - nothing else. In order to do that, what files specifically do I need to move over to the new housing?

EtA; And I'm not seeing anything like the files you guys are discussing. So much for the "one step backup" software, huh?

[cepetit.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

As this is something I do with annoying frequency (among multiple computers, helping others, etc.), and Tbird is my e-mail mangler of choice —

There are actually two different ways to do this. One is the way suggested by Elektra, that involves changing the path inside the profiles.ini file. The other is to copy the contents of the entire funny-name directory that you're moving from the backup into the corresponding (but not identical!) funny-name directory in the "new" install. (Aside: Yes, it should be a fresh install, to ensure that all of the security updates and bug fixes are in place.)

In Windows XP, the fresh install will have something like this:

c:\documents and settings\user\application data\thunderbird\profiles\dh738rbd.default

In your backup, you'll find a corresponding directory with a different name looking something like this:

c:\documents and settings\user\application data\thunderbird\profiles\r7902x2k.default

The objective is to:
(1) get all the data from ...x2k.default into ... rbd.default, then
(2) make Thunderbird recognize the change (which you do by either changing the path= line or changing the folder name)

Last, ensure that Thunderbird is actually closed, then reboot, then restart Thunderbird. The reboot is probably necessary so that your virus scanning software recognizes all of the changes; just restarting Thunderbird would let Thunderbird itself operate properly, but you might find incredibly slow access as your virus scanner treats everything in that directory (including all of your previously scanned mail) as "Oooh! Kewl! New data to chew on!"

[lagilman]

Windows 7, actually. And what happens when I can't seem to find that file path or anything remotely resembling it?

So much for the "one-step* backups, huh?

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

If it's Win 7, the structure is probably:

C:\users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

(I hope.)

[lagilman]

My problem isn't finding it on my hard drive, but finding it in the backup, which doesn't seem to have saved things in a logical or mirror-like manner....

*kicks Seagate*

[cepetit.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

General reference:

http://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/Profils+utilisateurs

Specific instructions for Windows 7:
Click the Windows Start button and type %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\ in the Search box at the bottom of the Start menu, without pressing Enter. A list of profiles will appear at the top of the Start menu. Click on the profile you want to open it in Windows Explorer (if this is a fresh install, there is probably only one; if there are two, the new one is going to be the one that when you open it in Windows Explorer, it only has three or four message folders in it).

For your Seagate backup, try having it search for folders named "*.default" (without the quotation marks).

[lagilman]

*sigh* Doubtless this is all a conspiracy to make me feel utterly stupid, but I'm still not seeing a correlation between what y'all are telling me and what I'm seeing on the computer screen. At this point, I've resorted my filters & folders, and will just have to hope that at some point I'll be able to restore my old emails without overwriting anything new, because there's work to be done and a bathroom renovation to deal with and y'know, stuff that doesn't wait for me to fiddle around with the innards of something that should have been working already, grrr...

Thanks anyway, guys.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Wait, are you talking about a one-touch backup from Seagate? I'd thought you'd copied them manually somewhere (or something like that), and that you were trying to find out where to stick the data.

My Norton backup, if you look at the drive itself, looks like complete junk. I had to go into the Norton backup program to find the data that way, which is annoying to no end.

Here's what I found on the Seagate docs online:

Restoring an Historical Version
To restore a specific historical version of a file that you backed up to your drive:
Step 1: Click My Drives in the Command panel.
The My Drives page opens.
Step 2: Select your drive.
Step 3: Click Backup.
The Backup window opens.
Step 4: Click Restore Files.
Step 5: The Restore a Backup window opens.
Step 6: Click Restore an historical version of a backed up file to restore a previous
version of a file.
The Restore window opens.
Step 7: Select a file and file version to be restored and click Restore.
The selected file version is restored to the location noted in the “Restore to folder”
section at the bottom of the window.


Restoring Most Recent Version
To restore the most recent version of a file that you backed up to your drive:
Step 1: Click My Drives in the Command panel.
The My Drives page opens.
Step 2: Select your drive.
Step 3: Click Backup.
The Backup window opens.
Step 4: Click Restore the most recent version of a backed up file to restore the latest
version of a file.
The Seagate Backup folder on your drive is displayed.
Step 5: Browse to the desired file and drag it to the location where you want it restored.

[lagilman]

I had done both, being a belt-and-suspenders time when it comes to data...although apparently I can neither buckle the belt nor clip the suspenders.

At this point, tho, if I try to restore again (I tried once before but had not downloaded a new version of the software) will it overwrite everything that's come in since then?

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Ouch. It might.

I have no idea how to merge files with T-bird, either.