Hi

If your emails are of a POP type, where they download to the device - it is possible to move to IMAP, where your emails are held in the cloud and accessible from Thunderbird on different devices.

I made this change myself earlier this year. Lots of emails to move, it did take some time, but this guide was really useful:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switch-pop-imap-account

Thanks for your replies... And yes, Paul, this is a duplicate because I wasn't sure if the one I sent to the Firefox community also went to Thunderbird community; obviously it does. Maybe my need has to do with the perhaps unusual way I use T'Bird. I get about 80 emails each day. Two or three times a day, using my browser, I always first check the Inbox on the server where my emails arrive (Earthlink in my case, although I also use gmail and some others). There I scan them all, and then read and delete many, having no further use for those partiicular ones. If time permits, I also look at what my filter on the server has put in Suspect Email, as there's just about always something of interest there. My server holds a limit of 100 MB (Inbox plus Suspect), and that limit is reached in a couple of days if I let it go. Then I leave the browser, fire up TB application on my computer, and download into my TB Inbox what I allowed to remain on my server's Inbox (not Suspect Emails; those will be deleted automatically in due course), deleting them from the server Inbox in the process. The wonderful TB filter sorts all incoming emails into a broad and deep set of folders that are my permanent store. This is where I keep media-emails for later reading, and most importantly where I go over the emails I need t spend more time with and reply to. Yes, these are stored (by TB) on my computer, just like the data files of any other application. But I have a Dropbox account and my other applications, such as WORD store copies of everything on Dropbox. That way, if I'm away from my main computer, I can still look at and work on those files. But I can't do that with Thunderbird. OR CAN I? THAT'S MY QUESTION!' I have two laptops, one of which is the "main computer" where I use TB and keep my TB Inbox. That computer has to go in for repair, which could take several days. So, I'm needing to use TB on a different computer during that time, and I don't want the server Inbox to fill up. Just looking at emails on the Server is not good enough. I can even reply to emails there, but those replies will not be associated correctly with the threads when eventually downloaded in TB on my main computer. I hope this gives a clear picture of my problem. I can take it up with Dropbox, but I thought I'd ask TB folks first.

   Thanks for any further suggestions.

==John

(Edited to remove paragraph spaces to make question readable.)

The understanding of IMAP is that emails reside on the server and imap accounts on various devices hook up to server to see what is on server. IMAP accounts are usually offered a lot more space quota, but in your case IMAP may not necessarilly be a solution.

Thunderbird works best when you use the default location for storing emails.

Try: Create a folder in Dropbox called 'TBIRD' copy the profile name folder and put it in 'TBIRD'. so you have something like this. C:\Users\NAME\Dropbox\TBIRD\xxxxxxxx.default

where xxxxxxxx.default is the copied profile folder name. Remember you have to Exit Thunderbird first before you copy the profile name folder.

Then you need to set up a new profile which points to the new dropbox location. In Thunderbird

• Help > TRoubleshooting Information
• Under 'Application Basics' near bottom - Profiles - click on 'about:profiles'

It opens in a new window

• click on 'Create a new profile'
• click on 'Next'
• Give it a suitable name like 'DBOX profile'
• click on 'Choose folder'
• browse to where you have copied the profile

eg: C:\Users\NAME\Dropbox\TBIRD\xxxxxxxx.default

• select profile name folder and click on 'Select folder'
• Click on 'Finish'

This updates the 'profile.ini' file, so that a new profile location is added to list of profiles. So Thunderbird knows a profile exists in a different location - dropbox.

then you can choose which one you want to use as default. Maybe you keep using the original because it still exists in old location - remember I did say 'copy' profile name folder. Then you can perform a copy of profile and simply overwrite/update the one in dropbox. I suppose doing it that way means you effectively have two copies which may be useful. Or you can set the DBOX profile as default. Then other computer can access dropbox - create a new profile and point it to profile on dropbox.

A completely different approach is to keep a copy of the profile on a USB drive and just take it with you. Update profile on other laptop/computer and then use it. Perform backup to USB when finished and then update when you return. If you have a lot of emails this may not be so easy, but you could use an external hardrive.

OR use a USB/external hardrive with profile and use a portable version of Thunderbird - sorry do not know a lot about portableapps but this is a link to website:

• https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/thunderbird_portable