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Synchronising a PC/Laptop/USB Stick

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May 30, 2007 - 8:02am
#1
mikemmb
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Synchronising a PC/Laptop/USB Stick

Hi,
I am new to this forum and have searched for synchronisation info between different instances of Thunderbird and found plenty of discussions, but I am still not clear on the best way to do it.

My train of thoughts are:
(1) I have, probably like lots of people, a PC, a Laptop, a USB Stick.
(2) The USB Stick has limited memory so should only hold the minimum of mail.
(3) The PC and Laptop have plenty of memory so can hold lots of historic mail.
(4) I should use the archive correctly and only keep a minimum of mail "active".
(5) If I did not have an "archive" folder on my USB Stick, I could then sync my Laptop with the USB Stick (except the archive folder of course).
(6) I could then sync all Thunderbird folders between my PC and Laptop.

I have looked at (but not tried) SynchingThunder which looks like a good solution.
Has anyone done this, is it even practical, is there a better way?

Thanks Mike

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May 30, 2007 - 8:10am
Simeon
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I havent tried syncing emails with it yet

but you could try Toucan but it is still beta so be warned.
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts” - Richard P. Feynman

"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate

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May 30, 2007 - 9:24am
(Reply to #2)
mikemmb
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Thanks Simeon, I think I had

Thanks Simeon,
I think I had better wait till Toucan is out of Beta though.

Has anyone got "SynchingThunder" going in this config?

Thanks,
Mike

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May 31, 2007 - 3:37am
(Reply to #3)
Ryan McCue
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Not beta, pre-release

It's in the pre-release stage; Steve's just waiting for John (T. Haller) to reply back so he can get it officially up on this site.
Short story: Perfectly fine to use.
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Simeon.

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May 31, 2007 - 3:54am
(Reply to #4)
Steve Lamerton
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Well,

thats not strictly true, since I haven't heard anything from him for a couple on months I have started to add new features, some of which are buggy, I would wait for the final release.

Yours

Steve Lamerton

My Blog

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May 30, 2007 - 4:02pm
shookmon
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Something to consider...

My approach to this issue is to not download the files locally to either the PC or Laptop. Instead I connect to the IMAP mail server my mail host provides. My mail stays on the server.

That way, all my mail is available from wherever I connect from, and I use ThunderBird Portable on the USB stick to access it.

If IMAP is a possibility for you, I can assist getting you changed over to it.

Michael D. Shook

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May 30, 2007 - 5:20pm
(Reply to #6)
mikemmb
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IMAP as an option

Hi Shookmon,
Thanks for the steer onto IMAP, which I had not heard of, mainly because as you may have gathered I am no computer expert, just a user and recent convert to portable apps!

But looking at the IMAP website it seems to say that it may not be suitable for multiple computer access as this will leave mail scattered all over the place in the various computers .... or have I misunderstood your proposed use??

Another thing that may effect my choice is that we spend some of our time in Spain where we currently have no internet access (no land line) and a system that retains mail on my laptop (or USB stick) for offline access between internet cafe visits would be good.

Thanks,
Mike

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May 30, 2007 - 6:31pm
(Reply to #7)
shookmon
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IMAP as an option

I'm not sure what website you're referring to, but the heart of an IMAP server is that all the emails stay on the mail server. There's never(?) any mails on a local box, especially if you were to use Portable Thunderbird on the USB key. They're even available using webmail from a friends PC without any software installed at all. The options depend only on your provider, and can usually be worked around.

However, as you surmised when you mentioned travel, in order to read email, you need to be connected to the internet.

Hmmmmmmmm

Well, I can dream up a few really goofy bunny trails around this issue, but they end up worse than the original problem.

Depending on how often/much you need offline emails, you might find IMAP OK to use and not having to synchronize multiple machines worth the loss.

So, back to your original problem, the real issue is the lack of storage space on the USB stick to hold all of your old emails, so you can't use it as the primary email client. Is it possible that by keeping a hard line on deleting old emails you could get away with a single installation of the client on a larger USB stick? 4GBs are available now at not too expensive price (with 8 and 16 available soon), and that's a lot of emails! You avoid the syncing problem this way.

Also, there is the possibility of not using a USB Flash stick. Portable Apps work quite well on USB pocket hard drives, and those are available up to 160 GB and larger.

Hope some of this rambling helps, and good luck.

Michael D. Shook

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May 31, 2007 - 1:56pm
(Reply to #8)
consul
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it's all on the remote server

I use imap as well, with my university email account, and with the 3 that I work with, all the emails stay on the server. The only reason I use TB-P is so I can keep my addressbook and my settings as I like at whatever computer I may login into. Also, it has a better user interface than say web-based interfaces. Smile

One thing I can't leave on the server is my usenet settings, so I need to use TB-P to keep track of read or unread messages and which newsgroups I am subscribed to.

Eventually, my server accounts get full, so I do use TB-P again to download them all onto my 4gb sandisk and then transfer the files to my laptop and back that up, as I archive everything.

Also, PAM is cool-looking with the "water" skin.

"... respect, all good works are not done by only good folk. For here, at the end of all things, we shall do what needs to be done."

Don't be an uberPr∅. They are stinky.

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