Can Thunderbird receieve and send multiple gmail accounts

[young707]

Dan, thank you for your helpful response.

To backup archives, we tried tools -> Import. But we do not see "Export" function? Is exporting is by saved archieve files or some sort?

In the MozillaZine, Archiving your e-mail.
We cannot find the box "Message Archives" shown?
We cannot find "When archiving message, place them in" box shown?
We tried to follow Tools -> copies & Folders. A single arrangement. A checkbox to keep structure... The Folder Tree... We are at loss.
What do you mean "local folders"?

Why not just show picture of Thunderbird Archives, select "2021" - how to backup the entire year? Or partial year? where to export file?
Will this be hugh 5000GB pst file like Outlook, that were easily get corrupted.

[tanstaafl]

"Local Folders" is a "special" account at the bottom of the folder pane. Its "special" because it doesn't have any instructions for how to communicate with a mail server. Its mainly used as alternate place to store mail. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Local_Folders for more information.

tools -> import doesn't know how to export anything.

Archived mail folders are stored as normal mail folders (using mbox files, one mbox file per mail folder). A mbox file contains all of the messages for the corresponding folder. Thunderbird doesn't store all of the messages in a single file like Outlook does with .pst files. Everything you can do with the built-in archive command you can do manually.

In general you need to either know how to copy&paste the files using Windows Explorer or install the ImportExportTools NG add-on from https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/th ... ttools-ng/ and use "tools -> importexporttools ng" to export folders. There are typically four menu choices for exporting folder. You could archive the messages and then export them using the ImportExportTools NG add-on. Using tools -> importexporttools ng -> export folders with subfolders (with structure) is probably your best bet.

The ImportExportTools NG add-on can be confusing . There is a help command in the menu options which explains what each command does. Keep in mind that not every format lets you export something in a way that it can be imported later on. Only mbox files (what Thunderbird uses by default to store mail folders) and .eml files (what the optional maildir storage format uses) can be both exported and imported.

One of the problems with the terminology Thunderbird uses is you have to figure out from context whether folder refers to a mail folder (some stored mail) or a directory (a location). For example the help for the menu command I suggested says "Export a folder including all of its subfolders to a set of mbox format files, one for each subfolder, exported to a single folder." "Single folder" in the last sentence means it will export the mail folders as a bunch of mbox files into a directory tree so that it retains the parent-child relationships.

[DanRaisch]

Thunderbird's Archiving functionality does not export data from the regular message folder structure. It is really just another way of moving messages to a different mail folder in the account. You can select the folder target using menu path Tools->Account Settings->Copies & Folders.


There is an extension ( https://github.com/cleidigh/Message-archive-options-TB ) that will let you set the "granularity" of the archiving. That is, will it be a single folder or nested folders based on dates. The latter could, for instance, create a hierarchy of folders with "2021" at the top, with January, February, March, etc as separate children below that parent folder.

[young707]

Well, we are probably not knowledgable enough to encrpt your advices. We tried to get external advices, but unable to help much.

We do not understand what is "archives folder tree"? is this c:\users\master\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\q0duasj8.default-release\Mail\ - then we are loss. Are we looking at archives folders here?
We do not understand what is "copiers & folders settings? Is this under "Account Settins" -> copies & folders" -> Message Archives? [/] Keep Message archives on: folder name?
No, we are only find in Tools -> Import. Do not find Export anywhere?

[DanRaisch]

We do not understand what is "archives folder tree"? is this c:\users\master\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\q0duasj8.default-release\Mail\ - then we are loss. Are we looking at archives folders here?

Yes, As I said above, Thunderbird's archiving functionality does not export anything from Thunderbird. It simply involves other Thunderbird folders set aside for the archiving purpose. Just as there is a file on the hard drive that represents each regular message folder seen within Thunderbird (the Inbox, Drafts folder, Trash folder, etc) using the archive functionality can cause Thunderbird to create a hierarchy of folders under a folder named "Archives".

Each year sub-folder could have further sub-folders, such as monthly, and there is an extension ( https://github.com/cleidigh/Message-arc ... master/xpi ) that allows some customization.

We do not understand what is "copiers & folders settings? Is this under "Account Settins" -> copies & folders" -> Message Archives? [/] Keep Message archives on: folder name?

Yes, the reference to "copies & folders settings" was referring to menu path Tools->Account Settings->Copies & Folders. At that point, click on the "Archive Options" button to see those options.

Do not find Export anywhere?

Again, archiving does not involved exporting anything from Thunderbird.

[young707]

Thank you again Dan.
After multiple meeting and conferences with multiple management groups, they have decided our backup messages to burn on DVD-R dices will not be practical here in Thunderbird. Previously, on Microsoft Office Outlook, we copy and backup the .pst files and burn on DVD-R dices, and store these DVD-R dices away.

So far, we have decided to print hardcopy of important messages and file it away. Few times, we forward some important messages to a storage account, but that do not seem practical after a month of practice.

Thank you for your help.

[DanRaisch]

our backup messages to burn on DVD-R dices will not be practical here in Thunderbird.

Can you explain why that was the decision? It would be very easy to burn Thunderbird message files to DVD, and very easy to create such files for the purpose. Just create a new folder under the chosen email account and give it a descriptive name - perhaps something like SecondQtr2021 for archives of the second quarter of this year. Then sort the messages in the original folder (Inbox?) by date and select all messages with dates between 1 April 2021 and 30 June 2021 and move (or copy) them to the new folder. [You can use Shift+click or Ctrl+click to select multiple messages.] Close Thunderbird. Use an appropriate application to burn the file named SecondQtr2021 (found in the TB profile and having no file name extension)) to the DVD-R.

Or look into an add-on (extension) which might be helpful to you. Perhaps something like this one -- https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/th ... ereloaded/

Also see this article for more suggestions on backing up TB data -- https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/backup ... rd-emails/

[young707]

Dan, we just do not know how your message system works and stored. Your filing systems are much too complicated and not straight forward, ie Microsoft Office Outlook .pst single file to backup. WE assume your messages are store in each different accounts into each different functional files. But, after studying we are unable to make much sense in your complicated designs notes across different preforms, not just for thunderbird alone.
We assume your instructions are more like system design notes rather written for user operating manual. We still unable to locate where exactly the thunderbird incoming messages are stored.

We have another request, can we retrieve previous 7 days trash in one particular account, that was delected? Thank you.

[tanstaafl]

We are not run by or formally associated with Mozilla. We're just a independent user support forum. So don't blame Dan for "Your filing systems are much too complicated and not straight forward"

"We still unable to locate where exactly the thunderbird incoming messages are stored."

Each account stores its mail separately. Look at the local directory setting (has a Browse button next to it) at the bottom of each accounts server settings. That specifies the directory tree used by that account to store its files. Thunderbird (by default) uses mbox files. New mail for the inbox folder would be stored in a "inbox." mbox file. You can ignore the *.msf files. The *.sbd files are renamed child directories used to organize the mbox files and their *.msf files for any child mail folders in a hierarchy so that the mail folders are displayed in a similar mail folder hierarchy.

A mbox file is a text file named after the mail folder, that stores all of the mail for that folder, but without a file extension. Each mbox file has a related file with the same name but a .msf file extension that stores some message attributes (like has a message been replied to), but is basically a cache of the folder listing. "inbox." has the messages for the inbox folder, "inbox.msf" is a cache of the folder listing and "inbox.sbd" is a renamed directory that may have similar files for any child folders.

Mbox is a popular storage format for third party email clients. Even Apple Mail used to use it at one time though they used a different file extension (*.mbox) for the mbox file. Microsoft has never used that format though, they prefer proprietary formats.

Thunderbird also supports the maildir format (sometimes called maildir lite as only a subset was implemented). That stores each message in a separate .eml file, following the conventions of maildir as to how they are stored/organized. Maildir has a unix background. For many years there was only partial maildir support (had to be careful moving messages between a maildir and a mbox based account for example) but now its almost as mature as the mbox support.

https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/th ... ttools-ng/

[tanstaafl]

"We have another request, can we retrieve previous 7 days trash in one particular account, that was delected? "

What to do depends upon whether you have a POP or IMAP account.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Undelete_a_message . If the folder hasn't been compacted the messages should still exist, but are hidden from view. Note: The Recover deleted messages add-on is a legacy add-on that won't work if you have a recent version of Thunderbird.

[young707]

Thanks, tanstaafl.

OK, we found it. This local folder you are talking about is E:\Thunderbird\ folder.
The johnsmith.gmail.com\Archives.sdb\2021 and johnsmith.gmail.com\Archives.sdb\2021.msf files.
We assume these are the Archives message we should backup, correct?

How do we retrived the specific backuped previous messages?

Also,
1. we do not need to dig into previous weeks' trash. We are now confirm that previous days messages, after read and printed, but DID NOT moved and left it inside the Indox, DISAPPEARED the next day.
2. we noticed, any specific account has their password changed, if we only do get all new messages, those account has new password changed will be skipped without notice. Only when we select that specific account to get message, will the password requested.

[tanstaafl]

"Are you talking about local directory : c: \ users \ master \ appData \ Roaming \ thunderbird \ Profiles \ q0duasj8.default-release \ Mail \ where we found the pop.gmail-1.com folders to pop.gmail-8.com but unable to identify exactly what account it refer to."

Yes. You can match what directory tree is used by each account by browsing each accounts server settings and looking at the local directory setting.

"We are loss on what you said about *.sbd because there are no such file type found"

Check that you disabled hiding any files/folders in the view settings for Windows Explorer.

I don't think .sbd is registered as a file type (i.e. as a file extension), its just a naming convention followed in renaming child directories by Thunderbird.

[young707]

Now we know why some read messages in INBOX were loss, because, the password were changed. When we only preform "Get all New Messages", those account with new passwords were skipped.

[tanstaafl]

If you change the password for an account using a browser you need to tell Thunderbird about the new password. The safest way is to delete the old password using tools -> options -> privacy & security -> saved passwords, exit Thunderbird (because deleted passwords are still in memory), restart Thunderbird and when prompted for the password both enter it and check the checkbox to save it.

[young707]

OK. Trying to follow your instructions: options (right panel) > Privacy & Security > Passwords > Saved Passwords.

OK. We are able to re-enter the passwords into Saved Passwords.