Copy a single TB folder to another computer

[patwchen]

Version of my TB is 78.12.0 and so is my colleague's. My TB can't receive mails today for the Inbox folder is larger than 2 GB. When I move Inbox mails to a new folder to solve the problem, with a mistake I delete all mails over there. My colleague uses same email account as mine, so the Inbox mails in his TB are exactly same as mine before they are deleted. Is there any way to transfer ONLY THE INBOX FOLDER of his TB to my computer? Thanks.

[DanRaisch]

How is the account set up, as POP or IMAP? In Thunderbird the menu path is Tools->Account Settings->Server Settings->Server Type at the top right of the dialogue.

[patwchen]

The account on both computers is set las POP. If copying the complete inbox folder of my colleague's TB is not possible, can I copy the mails in that folder into my TB? and how? Thank you a lot, Dan.

[DanRaisch]

Assuming you and your colleague are working on two different computers, close Thunderbird on both computers. On your colleague's TB installation, navigate to the profile folder ( http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird )
Locate the file Inbox with no filename extension. Copy that file to removable media. (Do not copy the file Inbox.msf.)

On your computer, navigate to the profile folder and locate the file Inbox. Replace that file with the file copied from your colleague's system. Delete the file Inbox.msf on YOUR system.

Start Thunderbird on your system and access the Inbox folder to see if the transferred data is accessible.

For the future, storing messages in the Inbox of any POP type email account is a very bad practice. As the busiest area of the system, the Inbox is most at risk of data corruption and corresponding data loss, as well as the risk of user error. The more messages in the Inbox, the more messages at risk of loss. Creating an organization of folders, typically under Local Folders, and moving all but the most recent messages from the Inbox to that structure, will help to minimize risk of loss and improve performance. The general recommendation on these forums is to keep no more than 150 or so messages in the Inbox itself.

It is also wise to regularly backup the entire Thunderbird profile. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup (Ignore all references in the article to the utility MozBackup. That program is no longer maintained and may be problematic with current versions of the Thunderbird program itself.)

[patwchen]

Hello Dan, I am happy to inform you that, with your help, I have copied all mails of my colleague's system into my TB. Thank you so much. I have also moved all messages in Inbox to the sub-folders under local folder.

[DanRaisch]

You're welcome and I'm happy to hear it all worked out for you.