sharing profile folder between linux and windows

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buscon
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sharing profile folder between linux and windows

Post by buscon »

hi all,

I have a linux computer with thunderbird and I would like to share the thunderbird profile folder (on a fat32 partition) with windows, so that i can read my emails on windows too.
I found a few guides to configure thunderbird on linux, assuming you have thunderbird running on windows. I could not find information about the opposite situation though.

Any hints or tutorial on this?

thanks!
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DanRaisch
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Re: sharing profile folder between linux and windows

Post by DanRaisch »

buscon
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Re: sharing profile folder between linux and windows

Post by buscon »

DanRaisch wrote:Did you review this article -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sharing_a_pro ... _and_Linux
yes i checked that article and tried to do what is explained in this guide:
http://web.archive.org/web/200502071415 ... _mail.html
I can share the account between the two OS, but on Windows thunderbird complains about the extensions. That is I would like to share only the emails and not the whole actual profile: is there a way to do that?
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DanRaisch
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Re: sharing profile folder between linux and windows

Post by DanRaisch »

Windows thunderbird complains about the extensions.
Say a bit more about that. What error message (complaint) are you seeing?
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tanstaafl
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Re: sharing profile folder between linux and windows

Post by tanstaafl »

Lightning and Enigmail are the only extensions I'm aware of that have a binary component (making them operating system specific). I'm ignoring themes. I second Dan's request for the full text of the error messages.
buscon
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Re: sharing profile folder between linux and windows

Post by buscon »

there is not an error, but the installed extensions, light lightning and Enigmail, does not appear on the windows side, so Thunderbird is asking me again to install them. if I do that, then I have to reinstall again on linux, like this in an endless loop.

I was reading in this guide, that it is possible to share only the email between the two accounts, that would make sense but to me it is not clear how to do that.
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tanstaafl
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Re: sharing profile folder between linux and windows

Post by tanstaafl »

You could configure the profile to store mail for each account outside of the profile. Then create a similar profile (which stores mail in the same locations) for the other operating system. That way you have one profile for each operating system (needed due to the add-ons being different) who share the same mail. Since each operating system has a separate profile you don't need to worry about having to re-install the add-ons repeatably due to their being operating system specific.

That is what the second paragraph in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sharing_a_pro ... _and_Linux suggests. If you do that you need to move the mail per http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_m ... hunderbird and then create a new (second) profile per http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager for the other operating system that also stores mail outside the profile, in the same location as the other profile. You don't need to create the symlink in Linux to use the address books stored in the windows copy of the profile if you don't want to, but it would provide a way to share your address books. Alternatively both profiles could use an add-on to synch with a common remote address book. Ideally you're using a email provider that supports CardDAV and use the CardBook add-on to do that. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sharing_address_books

Please tell me whats confusing/needs clarification.

I'll try to expand the text in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sharing_a_pro ... _and_Linux but it might take me a couple of days until I have a chance to do that.
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Re: sharing profile folder between linux and windows

Post by wsmwk »

tanstaafl wrote:You could configure the profile to store mail for each account outside of the profile. Then create a similar profile (which stores mail in the same locations) for the other operating system. That way you have one profile for each operating system (needed due to the add-ons being different) who share the same mail.
Perhaps I missed something, but I cannot believe the article doesn't mention not using the profile/data at the same time.
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tanstaafl
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Re: sharing profile folder between linux and windows

Post by tanstaafl »

wsmwk wrote:Perhaps I missed something, but I cannot believe the article doesn't mention not using the profile/data at the same time.
The second paragraph (first bullet) said "One potential problem is that some extensions (such as Lightning) have separate downloads for Linux and Windows." The article is basically a shell pointing to third party articles that explained in detail what to do. However, some of the articles it links to are now obsolete and the link for "Email:Sharing your Thunderbird profile" (which explained how to configure GnuPG and the Enigmail extension for both operating systems) is broken. There is a snapshot on the wayback machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20070419110 ... rd_profile . That's the next to last snapshot, the last one is incomplete.

I wrote the KB article 10 years ago. A lot has changed. Lightning 1.0 wasn't even released then. I'll expand the article a couple of days from now, and eventually rewrite it so that its standalone.

https://superuser.com/questions/852229/ ... os-machine
https://enigmail.wiki/Quick_start

wsmwk:
What happened to the version of engimail that was supposed to support Pretty Easy Privacy" (p≡p)? That was originally targeted for December 2015. Wikipedia says "As of June 2016 the FAQ note it will be available in Q3 2016". That note is gone. The only mention of it that I could find on the enigmail web site is https://enigmail.net/index.php/en/home/ ... igmail-pep
wsmwk
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Re: sharing profile folder between linux and windows

Post by wsmwk »

tanstaafl wrote:wsmwk:
What happened to the version of engimail that was supposed to support Pretty Easy Privacy" (p≡p)? That was originally targeted for December 2015. Wikipedia says "As of June 2016 the FAQ note it will be available in Q3 2016". That note is gone. The only mention of it that I could find on the enigmail web site is https://enigmail.net/index.php/en/home/ ... igmail-pep
I don't know, except they apparently are still not ready. Best to ask p≡p
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