Thunderbird - download and export
Hi everyone, I am a rank beginner and not very 'computer literate.' I want to download all of my emails from Thunderbird (I have 4 email accounts) and also export them to an external drive, including: All emails (entire history, not just recent mail) All attachments Metadata (dates, sender/recipient, subject, folder info, etc.) Contacts / address book Ideally, a format that I can restore later if needed. My main questions are: What is the best step-by-step method to export everything to an external drive? Is there a way to do this so that the backup is complete and restorable later? Where does Thunderbird store emails on my computer, and can I copy that to my external drive? Is there a recommended way to export contacts too? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, jrm Thunderbird version: 147.0 Windows (64-bit) Email type: IMAP
All Replies (1)
If this is to restore to thunderbird, here are the steps:
For backup:
- ensure thunderbird is NOT running on old machine
- enter %appdata% in search window on task bar and press Enter key
- this should open windows file explorer in Appdata\roaming folder
- highlight the Thunderbird folder and copy to external media
To restore, do this:
- ensure thunderbird is installed on second computer, started once and NOT running
- enter %appdata% in search window on task bar and press Enter key
- you should be in Appdata\roaming folder , copy&paste the exported Thunderbird folder there. This may prompt to overwrite an existing folder of same name. allow it
# start thunderbird and all should be there
The above steps export all accounts, all messages, all settings, and all contacts.
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