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Set the location of local folders

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by Zenos

Jeff.Ray
Jeff.Ray
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So Thunderbird allows me to have "local folders" but they stick them in a buried folder (i.e. long, long address). It is easy to get TB to show me where these files are created. But I would rather they go where I want. I just want them in a folder I create, maybe called "c:\TB-Files"? Is it possible to redirect the TB local folders to a location I specify? Thanks, Jeff

So Thunderbird allows me to have "local folders" but they stick them in a buried folder (i.e. long, long address). It is easy to get TB to show me where these files are created. But I would rather they go where I want. I just want them in a folder I create, maybe called "c:\TB-Files"? Is it possible to redirect the TB local folders to a location I specify? Thanks, Jeff

All Replies (3)

gild
gild
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Yes, you can move 'Local Folders' to another location, but why?

The messages stored in 'local folders' are usually only accessed by Thunderbird and are in the special mbox format used in all the other mail folders within Thunderbird. They are not meant to be used like windows folders.

They are part of your profile inside the 'Mail' folder along with all your account providers. If you move IMAP account messages into these folders, they are not deleted until you decide to delete them. They are always accessible to Thunderbird, even if you close the original mail account.

Moving your mail storage location - Thunderbird http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_mail_storage_location_%28Thunderbird%29

TB-38.3 Win10-PC

Jeff.Ray
Jeff.Ray Question owner
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Hi Gild, Backup. That's why I want the files located where I can easily find them. I know you can backup everything and those will be included. But my experience is that sometimes the email programs go wrong--not my whole computer. I want easy access to my past Thunderbird emails in case I have to start over. This has "saved me" in using Outlook.

Actually, what I would dearly love is to be able to easily export the messages i want to keep as pdf files so that I could readily access/read them.

Zenos
Zenos
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Messages are one thing. But what about extensions, address books, filters, customizations? Are these not valuable too?

Better to backup your entire profile. And you can relocate it, if that suits you. But I would discourage any suggestion of separating out any of the mail stores (e.g. Local Folders) since doing so detaches them from your profile and makes restoration of the profile much more hard work than it need be.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-tb?esab=a&s=profiles&r=1&as=s

I am amused by the idea that storing emails as PDF would make them "easy" to access. Searching and indexing are both clumsy with PDF. And you lose all the threading context. And do you have a PDF creator that can do something useful with attachments?

Modified by Zenos