My boss has thunderbird on his main office pc but wanted to check his email from other locations from his laptop. I downloaded the Thunderbird Portable to a usb flash and it does not seem to be working. I cannot receive email at all, it does not show any of the email that should have been in the inbox. I sent a test email and the pc received it but he laptop did not. There was NOT a profile "profile" folder within the "Data" folder so I created on and copied his entire default folder into the "profile" folder I created. What have I done wrong or not done right? Thanks, Heid
New: Kanri (Oct 9, '24), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, '24)
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did you set up an e-mail account on the portable one?
This you have to do as first. then it should work.
meaning create an profile on the portable one first, then later the mails etc can be copied to it.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
is the "leave messages on server" setting checked? otherwise once the e-mail downloads to the desk pc, then it can't also then download to the portable app on the laptop...
and of course the "leave messages on server" should be checked on t-bird, pe, otherwise you'll scratch your head wondering why there is nothing now going to the desktop...
on the main t-bird, pe page, there are also tutorials/hints on copying profile to the portable app from desktop, etc...you don't need to create an account on the portable if you copy the profile correctly...
"Copying Your Local Thunderbird Settings
If you're using a local copy of Thunderbird, you may wish to just copy your local Thunderbird settings right into Thunderbird Portable. Your local Thunderbird profile is usually installed in C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\default.???\ Just copy all of those files to the Data\profile directory within Thunderbird Portable. Sometimes, certain profiles will cause the launcher to fail or hang. In that case, start from scratch and try just copying your mailstores (Mail and ImapMail directories) as well as your prefs.js and abook.mab files."
Okay, I did all of the above and am receiving email but, depending on which computer I have "leave messages on computer" checked the mail will not come through - only one of the computers will receive new mail. My employer and I both need to be able to receive and send email. By the way, thanks for the help.
Heidi
That would be the first question.
Pop accounts have mechanism writing kind of logbook of messages downloaded and not downloaded , deleted and not etc. The logbook is valid for the particular mail client and state of it.
When you have one TB on one computer, it will download mails, but leave the message on the server if it told to do so.
*Not at the same time*, but when computer 1 did finish talking to the pop account, it will give it free and other computer can do the same.
But sure, if you take the Thunderbird portable to the computer 2 , it will not receive any messages any more, this is clear, its log is uptodate.
If you have IMAP, which would be more suitable in such situation, then more people can read the mails, they will stay on server until they are 'purged' by one of the users. Single users can 'delete' them , but they will then be deleted , or better marked as deleted for that particular user only.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
should be ticked on all mail clients in question here. You can specify how long the massages should stay there as well, but do it on all computers same, otherwise the game will not work!
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Both laptop and main computer are POP. Do both computers have to be reconfigured to IMAP or can I just reconfigure the laptop to IMAP and leave main computer POP? How do I reconfigure one or both?
It does not matter so much.
If you use pop, then check on all computers in question to leave massages on server.
You can set time for all messages to expire let say to 5 or 10 days.
If you decide to use IMAP, then again, it is more useful to have all computers to use the imap , this gives more overview what is going on on the server.
It is not sure, that your mail server does offer imap service. But most do today. So get infos about your mail server and as you got the access data (name of the server, user name and pw) from your provider, you will get the same for imap.
Set up then account and in process of setting it up you will be asked to select imap or pop. Thats all.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I installed TB on my USB key and it works pretty well on my own PC. Unless at my work, I’m able to receiving mail with it but unfortunately not for sending… It seems that TB cannot reach the SMTP server. Anybody have an idea why?