Hi
Just a quick question, is thee a way to run scheduled backups of TB?
I tried searching the forum but my searches never progressed get past the "Searching... notification page.
A backup of emails is important, but it would be nice to be able to back up everything like address book, settings, plugins...
Thanks
Backup Thunderbird
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tanstaafl
- Moderator
- Posts: 49647
- Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm
Re: Backup Thunderbird
Mozbackup can be run using the windows scheduler , using command line arguments to specify what profile should be backed up. The easiest solution though might be to install the ImportExportTools add-on. It supports scheduled backups of the entire profile. Select the add-on in Tools -> Add-ons, press the Options button, press the Backup Scheduling tab, and then configure what should be backed up. If you decide to use Mozbackup (which is very popular), use the beta version whose download link is in the news section of its web page. The normal version doesn't always backup the entire profile.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Third_party_p ... d_services
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Third_party_p ... d_services
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rodhudson
- Posts: 285
- Joined: August 28th, 2007, 2:09 pm
Re: Backup Thunderbird
This isn't a reply, but a further question about backing up using Mozbackup.
If you are using, [ as I now am]...Thunderbird Profile Manager to start, which gives you the option of which profile to use, how does Mozbackup deal with that ?
It appears to let you back up one profile. But if you go to back up a different one on the same day, it warns you "This has already been back-upped. Do you want to overwrite ?
So does it back up ALL the profiles ? Or just the one that is highlighted.?
Either way is not very clear. But I guess that's in line with most of T-Bird documentation. Great program....poor documentation. Couldn't exist without sites like this !
[Is the Notifications facility STILL not working ? Can't believe it. SOO long out of order !
If you are using, [ as I now am]...Thunderbird Profile Manager to start, which gives you the option of which profile to use, how does Mozbackup deal with that ?
It appears to let you back up one profile. But if you go to back up a different one on the same day, it warns you "This has already been back-upped. Do you want to overwrite ?
So does it back up ALL the profiles ? Or just the one that is highlighted.?
Either way is not very clear. But I guess that's in line with most of T-Bird documentation. Great program....poor documentation. Couldn't exist without sites like this !
[Is the Notifications facility STILL not working ? Can't believe it. SOO long out of order !
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tanstaafl
- Moderator
- Posts: 49647
- Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm
Re: Backup Thunderbird
Mozbackup appears to rely upon the information stored in profiles.ini to figure out the current profile. If you are using the profile manager to select a profile and don't check the checkbox to use the selected profile without asking at startup I suspect Mozbackup can't identify that you were running that profile as it appears that Name=default is no longer set in the profiles.ini file.
Mozbackup lets you back up the selected profile as a *.pcv file. If you want to backup all of your profiles you need to do that one at a time for each. I have no idea about "This has already been back-upped. Do you want to overwrite ?", I'd normally assume that means you were accidentally backing up the same profile rather than it being due to it limiting you to one backup per day.
Mozbackup is a very popular program. Part of that reason is because it eliminated the need to know where your profile was stored. That isn't as important nowadays as help -> troubleshooting information -> show folder will open windows explorer at your current profile. Mozbackup hasn't been abandoned, but it hasn't been maintained for years and the effects of that are showing. The latest version doesn't always backup everything it is supposed to. The beta (link is in the news section on that web page) doesn't appear to have that problem.
I suggest you browse http://kb.mozillazine.org/Third_party_p ... d_services for some alternatives. Personally, I like the scheduled backup feature of the ImportExportTools add-on. Its main limitation is that it doesn't zip the backup (the Mozbackup *.pcv file is a renamed zip file) but that's not a big deal to me, and its offset by the fact the add-on is actively maintained and the author is active in these forums.
"Is the Notifications facility STILL not working ? Can't believe it. SOO long out of order"
The new mail alert popup works when I startup Thunderbird. My impression is that it only pops up when you are already running Thunderbird if it finds a new message when it periodically polls for new mail every X minutes. Since most of my mail is in IMAP accounts which use a IMAP IDLE command to have the mail server automatically notify Thunderbird of new mail without waiting for the email client to poll for new mail , and I've set X to 15 I've usually already read the message by the time Thunderbird polls for new mail. So I'm unsure how well it works in that scenario.
Try running in safe mode (help -> restart with add-ons disabled) to see if your problem is a side effect of an add-on that doesn't play nicely with the latest version of Thunderbird.
Mozbackup lets you back up the selected profile as a *.pcv file. If you want to backup all of your profiles you need to do that one at a time for each. I have no idea about "This has already been back-upped. Do you want to overwrite ?", I'd normally assume that means you were accidentally backing up the same profile rather than it being due to it limiting you to one backup per day.
Mozbackup is a very popular program. Part of that reason is because it eliminated the need to know where your profile was stored. That isn't as important nowadays as help -> troubleshooting information -> show folder will open windows explorer at your current profile. Mozbackup hasn't been abandoned, but it hasn't been maintained for years and the effects of that are showing. The latest version doesn't always backup everything it is supposed to. The beta (link is in the news section on that web page) doesn't appear to have that problem.
I suggest you browse http://kb.mozillazine.org/Third_party_p ... d_services for some alternatives. Personally, I like the scheduled backup feature of the ImportExportTools add-on. Its main limitation is that it doesn't zip the backup (the Mozbackup *.pcv file is a renamed zip file) but that's not a big deal to me, and its offset by the fact the add-on is actively maintained and the author is active in these forums.
"Is the Notifications facility STILL not working ? Can't believe it. SOO long out of order"
The new mail alert popup works when I startup Thunderbird. My impression is that it only pops up when you are already running Thunderbird if it finds a new message when it periodically polls for new mail every X minutes. Since most of my mail is in IMAP accounts which use a IMAP IDLE command to have the mail server automatically notify Thunderbird of new mail without waiting for the email client to poll for new mail , and I've set X to 15 I've usually already read the message by the time Thunderbird polls for new mail. So I'm unsure how well it works in that scenario.
Try running in safe mode (help -> restart with add-ons disabled) to see if your problem is a side effect of an add-on that doesn't play nicely with the latest version of Thunderbird.