Where does Portable Thunderbird save its email files when they get downloaded from gmail? And how can those locations be changed?
I was hoping that it would save the emails to the usb drive (or wherever the program is installed) but it doesn't appear to work that way. When I moved my thumb drive from one computer to another, I downloaded all the emails that are on the server again.
My major fear is that if I use Portable Thunderbird on a public computer, I'll be leaving behind a large quantity of email messages that really should not be left behind.
(I suppose the larger question is what information s left behind on the computer's hard drive when using Portable Thunderbird off a thumb drive.)
Thanks for your help,
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I was hoping that it would save the emails to the usb drive (or wherever the program is installed)
It DOES
x:\{yourpath}\ThunderbirdPortable\Data\profile
is where the mail folders are kept, so there is no need to change it.
Something seems to be wrong with your set up.
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Are you running ThunderbirdPortable\App\thunderbird\thunderbird.exe or ThunderbirdPortable\ThunderbirdPortable.exe?
If you're running thunderbird.exe from the App directory, that would explain the behavior you're experiencing, and then it's a mistake solely on your behalf. That breaks the portability, and your personal data
would, will stay behind on the computers you're running it on. Also, if that's the case, you should go to that computer, check whether your own personal data was saved in the %APPDATA% directory, and then remove just your profile.If you're running ThunderbirdPortable.exe (the one which appears as "Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition" in the PortableApps.com Platform), then something is still wrong with your setup, as it should have saved the emails in the ThunderbirdPortable\Data\profile directory (as Tim posted above).
So... Which is it?
If you're using it as instructed (meaning running ThunderbirdPortable.exe or running it from PortableApps.com Platform), then I'm very sorry for my assumption...
It only seems as the most probable cause, at least to me..
Regards
My posts are old and likely no longer relevant.
I haven't been able to find the data on my hard drive, so I'm wondering if it's a third possibility -- the drive letter?
On my personal computer, the memory stick shows up as E:. On my work computer, if it's not attached to the docking station the memory stick shows up as D:. On the same computer, if the computer is attached to its docking station, the drive letter shows up as E:. (My work computer's DVD drive is built into the docking station, not in the computer itself. While this keeps the computer lighter, it does tend to move drive letters around.)
So when I ran the program on my work computer, it had a different drive letter, so it downloaded everything a second time.
Is this a possibility?
Fred
it isn't as the apps here use a launcher that deals with this and also moves data between host and usb drive. What it doesn't deal with are changed paths.
Do you always close TB and then wait a few secs before dosconnecting the drive? If not, the launcher might not have finished copying files back to the USB drive.
"Der Klügere gibt nach, deshalb regieren Dumme die Welt."
Drive letters don't matter, since ThunderbirdPortable is built to run while you change them. Hence the "Portable" in ThunderbirdPortable, or in PortableApps... Read Benedikt93's post, too.
Another possibility has occurred to me, while reading John's post in another topic about Thunderbird Portable... Are you retrieving your emails over POP or IMAP? If you're using IMAP, then only the email headers get downloaded and saved, while the emails themselves don't get saved for offline use; they are only temporarily cached in your email client. So, every time you close Thunderbird, the cache is emptied, and next time you want to see an email you're downloading it again. That's the limitation of the protocol, not Thunderbird... If you want your emails to stay downloaded, then you should use POP. For more information about these protocols, you can search about them either on Wikipedia, or on Mozillazine.
Could it be something this simple?
If this part was "[...] I downloaded some of the emails [...]" instead of "all the emails", then the answer would surely be about the protocol in use. The way you said it assumes POP is being used...
Regards
My posts are old and likely no longer relevant.
It could be.
Since the files are all on the usb drive according to all of you, I'll trust that I'm not leaving files behind on the different computers.
Who knows, perhaps it was just a bit of paranoia on my part.
Fred