All I want to do is to TAKE A COPY of all emails in my Local (Thunderbird) folders, and STORE/ACCESS them in another environment. Purpose here is to kind of archive the current LOCAL EMAILS on another Laptop. Please advise if following will work:
1. Install Portable in target Laptop
2. Replicate Settings (for Thunderbird Local) from Current Laptop to Portable
3. Copy the Thunderbird Local Files to Portable
Thanks,
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I'm no expert, but for step 2. I'd advise doing it manually - not by copying over the entire profile, but by running ThunderbirdPortable and setting it up the same way. Then, for 3. copying the Mail folder in your local Thunderbird profile to ThunderbirdPortable/Data/profile/Mail will transfer all POPed emails (not IMAPed). If you set the accounts up with the same names as in a local installation, emails should be instantly available. If not, you might need to adjust the following paths for each and every account that has a different name:
right click the account in TB > Settings > Server settings
On the bottom it shows the location of the exact mail folder in use. Browse to the proper one (the name it has in local version).
Disclaimer: advice provided AS IS, if anything breaks, I'm not responsible; don't forget to backup. I've done such a thing numerous times and know first hand it's possible; though it's been a while and things might have changed since the Rapid Release Cycle crap. Good luck
My posts are old and likely no longer relevant.
As Iam doing this operation daily, I can confirm it works thidsway.
For initial setup copy of whole profile can make things easy as folder and a count names will be exact, thought some extensions might need update then.
Later just copy of the mail folder is ok, even between different versions of Tb.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland