Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

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Freddyfruitbat
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Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by Freddyfruitbat »

So for years I've been running Thunderbird with my profile folder on a networked drive. It's worked, but rather slowly; so recently I've reconfigured it so that my profile, and all the message files, are stored on my (relatively small) laptop's SSD drive. Works much more efficiently, but I still want to be able to access the archives of messages I still have saved on the networked drive - there's many Gb's worth and far too much to store on the laptop.

This may be totally obvious, or totally impossible?! but how can I add a new folder to my Thunderbird set up which links to the networked folders (while keeping my everything else working on the laptop?)

I envisage keeping the last 12 months or so on the laptop, and archiving stuff over to the network drive every few months.

Thanks
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DanRaisch
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by DanRaisch »

This article may have information you'll find helpful =-= http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_m ... derbird%29
Freddyfruitbat
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by Freddyfruitbat »

DanRaisch wrote:This article may have information you'll find helpful =-= http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_m ... derbird%29
But isn't that just about moving the whole of "Local Folders"? - my issue is that I want some local folders to be on my C:\ drive, and others to be on my networked P:\ drive...
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tanstaafl
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by tanstaafl »

No. You can move the storage location for any account (POP, IMAP or Local Folders) per that KB article. See the "For accounts not using the Global Inbox" section.
Freddyfruitbat
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by Freddyfruitbat »

Thanks.
Yes I see that, but surely that's an 'all or nothing' solution isn't it? ie, I can move ALL folders for an account into an alternative, networked location (which is how I was configured originally) but not just some of them?
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tanstaafl
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by tanstaafl »

Correct. Because what you're doing is specifying the base directory for where all of the folders are stored for an account. However, you could create one or more virtual folders in an account per http://kb.mozillazine.org/Saved_Search which make it appear as if certain messages/folders were stored there, even though they are physically stored elsewhere.
Freddyfruitbat
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by Freddyfruitbat »

Thanks again!
I think I see how that works, but not how it can do so with different locations... in the "Search Properties" box the only location optionss are existing folders within the same account, surely?
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tanstaafl
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by tanstaafl »

No.

You can't initially create the virtual folder to include folders from more than one account. However, you can modify an existing virtual folder to add folders from other accounts. The "choose" list box lets you check a checkbox for any folder in any account. If you wanted to you could have a single virtual folder that included every message in your profile, though the performance might be unacceptable.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Saved_Search# ... e_accounts
Freddyfruitbat
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by Freddyfruitbat »

tanstaafl wrote:The "choose" list box lets you check a checkbox for any folder in any account.
Have been struggling with this ](*,) and have revisited it today. I'm getting the aforementioned 'choose' list box, but it definitely only contains three accounts, all of which are within my new existing profile, sitting on my local drive.

My previous profile is still on my networked P:\drive, and I can't see how I can include any folders from there in my new search folder...?
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DanRaisch
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by DanRaisch »

You can't in the way you are thinking of. The search function can only access messages/folders within the current profile.

If you have the message files in that old profile you could import the messages to the new profile using the "Import mBox" function of this extension -- https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/mboximport-en.html
Freddyfruitbat
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by Freddyfruitbat »

DanRaisch wrote:If you have the message files in that old profile you could import the messages to the new profile using the "Import mBox" function of this extension -- https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/mboximport-en.html
Yes I've already been using that extension; it's useful. But if I import all my old archive messages as you suggest, into my new profile which sits on my local C:\drive, then surely that will physically import them into Windows folders on the C:\ drive - which is exactly what I need to avoid (because there's simply not room for them on there).

Bit confused...!
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DanRaisch
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by DanRaisch »

What do you want/need to do with those archived messages? Do you just read them, reply to them, forward them, something else?
Somebody
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by Somebody »

I think this addon does, what you're looking for... I don't use it myself and the compatibility is flagged only up to version 31. But mayybe it's still working.
Freddyfruitbat
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by Freddyfruitbat »

DanRaisch wrote:What do you want/need to do with those archived messages? Do you just read them, reply to them, forward them, something else?
Just be able to read them, really: - it's just having the availability of being able to search them easily if I need to track down some information or other
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tanstaafl
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Re: Storing archive msg folders on network drive?

Post by tanstaafl »

I don't understand why you rejected configuring the "Local Folders" special account to use a directory outside of your current profile on a network drive, and use it just for archiving messages. All that you'd sacrifice would be the ability to use a global inbox (because you don't want your normal mail to be on the network drive too). Depending upon what directory you chose you could either reuse a directory in your old profile or just use the ImportExportTools add-on to import folders from the old profile into 'Local Folders".

It would be a kludge but you could create a dummy POP account in your current profile that is configured to use the same directory as "Local Folders" in the old profile, and which is configured not to check for new mail on startup or periodically. Add the dummy account using the new account wizard using a bogus email address such as fake@bogus.com (it checks that the domain exists, that one does). Select POP and then press the manual config button. Don't press Done or Re-Test, press Advanced config. That adds the account without checking if it is valid. Then edit the account to disable checking for new mail on startup and every X minutes. Exit and restart Thunderbird to verify the account doesn't cause any problems. Then edit its local directory setting to use the same local directory settings as "Local Folders" in your old profile.

You've now linked the dummy POP account in your current profile and "Local Folders" in the old profile on the networked drive, without having to use any add-ons. You can archive messages and/or folders by moving them to the dummy POP account. You should be able to search them and read them normally, using your existing profile.

If you want, you could then copy the archived messages to a different directory on the network drive outside of the old profile, update the local directory for the dummy POP account to use the new location, verify you can access the archived messages, and then delete the old profile.
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