Backing up Mozilla Thunderbird

If you use Mozilla Thunderbird as your email client then you will need to know how to backup regularly so that in case of disaster you do not lose all your messages and addresses.

So how do you do this? Well there are a couple of ways and they are not that difficult.

1. Use a utility such as MOZBACKUP

Mozbackup will automatically backup the essential files for Mozilla Thunderbird as well as Firefox. The program will not backup all files in your profile, however almost all people will only need the essential files.

Mozbackup can be found at this link, Mozbackup.jasnapaka.com

Select DOWNLOAD and then choose the INSTALL PROGRAM option to download.

Once you have the program downloaded you can double click to install it.

The program uses a wizard, so it is easy to use, just follow the prompts to setup manual or automatic backups.

You’ll just need to decide if you are putting the backup on removable drives such as a flash drive or onto rewritable CD or DVD.

2. Perform a manual backup

To backup Thunderbird manually all you need to do is make a copy of the profile folder to another location, such as a removable hard drive / flash drive or a rewritable CD or DVD.

If you are not sure how to backup to removable drives or DVD/CD, see my earlier post, How to backup your data.

So where is your data?

Windows 2000 or XP

C:\documents and settings\YOUR LOGON OR USERNAME\application data\thunderbird\profiles\profile name\

Windows 98 or ME

C:\windows\application data\thunderbird\profiles\profile name\

I suggest that you just copy the profiles folder and everything in it and you will be assured of getting everything you need if ever you have to restore due to a failure.

So thats it, as long as you get your profiles folder backed up onto a removable drive or CD/DVD regularly then you will be safe

To restore in case of a disaster all you need to do is the reverse. If a disaster has left you with a computer freshly installed with Thunderbird and none of your data then you just need to overwrite the newly installed empty profile folder with your backed up copy.