Thunderbird - get all mails

J_B

debitcardmayhem said:

Duh ????? Did you use export profile

No. I tried one of the other options - will 'profile' bring everything?

thorganby

J_B said:

thorganby said:

Why make life so complicated for yourself!

You should have followed the official tried and tested method to move Thunderbird from one PC to another PC.

http://mzl.la/1ApHiU3

Funny you should say that, but that's the *exact* website that I followed - I even printed it out and followed it to the letter it's just that for some strange reason, it won't D/L all the emails in one click, but folks have advised me how to work round that one ...

BUT, the fact that it hasn't carried over my sent mails from three of the accounts set me doing other 'complicated' stuff to uninstall/reinstall, but still no luck.

I believe that you basically don't understand how Thunderbird works and how it can be configured to work exactly how you want it to for different accounts.

All of your data, personal preferences, passwords, protocols etc. are stored in your profile/s which are deliberately stored separate from the actual program.

Simply restore any missing folders/messages from your backups.

You should backup your profile/s regularly and if you don't then the messages are obviously not that important to you.

Why do you need a "get all mail" add-on when surely that is a fundamental feature of any email client. There are options in server settings to Check for messages at startup, Check for messages every x minutes, Automatically download new messages, Fetch headers only and Leave messages on server. If you don't have Leave messages on server checked then they will be deleted after they have been downloaded or after x days.

It is difficult for anyone to advise on here as we don't know how you originally had Thunderbird configured but missing folders/messages are probably because you had more than on profile in use. If a profile is missing then Thunderbird will generate a default profile.

J_B

Thanks @thorganby for trying to assist - I will try to reply to all your points

thorganby said:

I believe that you basically don't understand how Thunderbird works and how it can be configured to work exactly how you want it to for different accounts.

I have used TB for the best part of ten years at a guess and it's always worked pretty well exactly as I wanted it to. I've added accounts to it over the years as well as removing some. (Note the J B (OT) one in the screenshot is a Onetel A/C!)

Just looking in Troubleshooting Info it tells me that I have account #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 11 where 2 is 'local folders' 4 is usenet 'eternal september' and 7 is plusnet (which I thought I'd deleted)

So, I *think* I have pretty well understood how to make it work over time

All of your data, personal preferences, passwords, protocols etc. are stored in your profile/s which are deliberately stored separate from the actual program.

Yup, got that

Simply restore any missing folders/messages from your backups.

I still have TB 68 running on the old PC and the profile folder is still there

You should backup your profile/s regularly and if you don't then the messages are obviously not that important to you.

I have used mozbackup in the past to back up and/or restore and it has worked fine, but doesn't seem to want to do so this time.

So, I then tried to move the profile folder from the old PC to the new (which was also suggested by you) but it hasn't brought all the folders across as it should have done ... shouldn't it?

I am trying @debitcardmayhem suggestion of using 'Import Export Tools' but it has been whirring away on the old PC for about 2 hours now, so isn't going to work obviously

Why do you need a "get all mail" add-on when surely that is a fundamental feature of any email client. There are options in server settings to Check for messages at startup, Check for messages every x minutes, Automatically download new messages, Fetch headers only and Leave messages on server. If you don't have Leave messages on server checked then they will be deleted after they have been downloaded or after x days.

I suppose 'old habits die hard'! From the days of MS Outlook Express I've always preferred the 'send and receive' button that it used and have therefore carried that through to TB and this still works with TB68, but not TB78

I don't mind setting it up differently if that's how it has to be in TB78

It is difficult for anyone to advise on here as we don't know how you originally had Thunderbird configured but missing folders/messages are probably because you had more than on profile in use. If a profile is missing then Thunderbird will generate a default profile.

I am not aware that I had more than one profile (about profiles only shows one). I had all my 5 accounts on TB working fine, but now I have some folders missing.

Does you have any ideas how I can transfer these?

debitcardmayhem

Did you try export/import profile as I suggested  ?

J_B

debitcardmayhem said:

Did you try export/import profile as I suggested  ?

Yes, that's when it tried and failed - there was an initial error message that a script was running, do you want to wait or stop it, but both options produced no result.

Thanks for your efforts nonetheless.

J_B

Just a bit of an update -

I uninstalled TB and deleted all the old profile folders.

Reinstalled TB and transferred the profile over and I now have most of the info. Some sub folders that I have created have not transferred over I posted on Mozillazine to see if anyone there has any suggestions.

EDIT - and the 'get all mails' button works now!  😁