[gobolinux-users] Freshen

[Andy Feldman]

On 4/12/07, Tom Connell <Gobolinux at tjconnell.co.uk> wrote:
> I am considering starting again, but that will mean losing this EMail
> record amongst other things unless I can save my Thunderbird profile and
> restore it, but the Profile Manager that permits this is in the Windows
> version, but not so far as I can see in the Linux releases

It doesn't take a special tool to easily back up a profile, including
all the stored mail. You can just make a copy of the profile folder,
and then when you do a fresh install of Thunderbird, move that folder
back into the "profiles" directory.

Your profile should be a strangely named folder inside the following
folder: /Users/[yourusername]/.thunderbird/. For example, mine is
called k94t6qzy.slt. If there are multiple subfolders in there, use
profiles.ini from the same location (or just look in the Mail
subdirectory of the profile) to figure out which is right. Or just
copy all of them.

This technique will work equally on Windows (or even, afaik, to move a
profile from linux to/from windows) once you find the profile
directory, which is buried somewhere deep in C:\Documents and
Settings\. I have used it to carry one profile with me through
probably 4 or 5 OS installs :-).

Note: you may also have to copy the profiles.ini file so it can find
your profile directory when you copy it back into the new install...
or, if it doesn't recognize your copied profile, just edit the new
profiles.ini file so it does. It's a very simple file.

Hope this helps.

-Andy