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Resolved How to access old email files on my computer

Discussion in 'Firefox, Thunderbird & SeaMonkey' started by Barry, 2015/03/17.

  1. 2015/03/17
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    I have old email files on my computer that I would like to view using Thunderbird. Is there a way to add a folder for these old inbox files without destroying the current folder? I'd like to save and access what I can and then eliminate any remaining files, freeing up partition space. Some of the large files are inbox, all mail, sent and .msf files. Any help would be appreciated.
     
  2. 2015/03/18
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Try this:

    1. make sure thunderbird is closed & not running.

    2. open your thunderbird profile here:
    c:/users/<your username>/appdata/roaming/thunderbird/profiles/xxxxx.default/mail
    Finding Your Profile

    3. make a new folder in mail and name it appropriately, e.g. old or imported.

    4. copy the old mail (inbox, all mail, sent and .msf files) to that new folder.

    5. start thunderbird
     

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  4. 2015/03/18
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    I've moved my storage file to another partition, so that seems to make it a bit more challenging. I attempted to add a screen shot, but apparently I have reached my limit regarding attachments, and I have no idea how to delete old attachments. I added a folder labeled old email and placed it in the location where my emails are kept, the old folder you mentioned and even relabeled the files and put it among my present files, but nothing shows up on Thunderbird (even when I add similarly named folders to my Thunderbird page). It just accesses my gmail account and reads what is there, not what I have saved on my computer. Maybe I need to unravel this and start over from scratch. Should I just save my email back on my C drive and then start over?
     
  5. 2015/03/18
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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  6. 2015/03/19
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    Tony, thank you very much.

    My hotmail accounts save emails indefinitely, but gmail is a different story. Everything before January 7th of this year is no longer online. Using Mozilla's Import/Export Tool I was able to retrieve gmail email all the way back to April of 2013, when I switched from isp.com to gmail. I also found isp.com emails from January 2010 till July 2012. Who knows what happened to the ones in between, but, if I haven't missed them by now, I'll probably not miss them in the future. The program is easy to use. The hard part is figuring out where the old files might be hidden.

    I'll wait for the OK from you, but would there be any problem with deleting all the old email information saved in different places, or might that impact my present use of Thunderbird? I can't see tying up space that can be used for something important.
     
  7. 2015/03/20
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    It should not affect anything if you delete the old emails. However, I STRONGLY suggest backing them up onto a cd or thumb drive before you delete them. Thumb drives are cheap now, about 50 cents/gigabyte. A worthwhile investment.
     
  8. 2015/03/20
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    Thank you. I'll back them up and then delete all of the large email related files stored other than where I want it to be stored. I'm finding myself deleting most of the old files, anyway, but some are worth keeping.
     
  9. 2015/03/20
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Also, when finished, it's a good idea to backup your thunderbird profile.
     
  10. 2015/03/20
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    How do I go about backing up my Thunderbird profile? Would that be the folder that says Profiles along with the .ini that says Profiles?
     
  11. 2015/03/21
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Use the Finding Your Profile link above to locate your profile. The directory will be named something like this:
    xxxxxxxx.default

    Just copy the entire profile directory & its contents to another drive or removable media. The .ini file tells Firefox which profile to load and where it's located. Copy the ini too if wanted. It can be edited to change to another profile. example:
    Code:
    [General]
    StartWithLastProfile=1
    
    [Profile0]
    Name=default
    IsRelative=1
    Path=xxxxxxxx.default
     
  12. 2015/03/22
    Barry

    Barry Geek Member Thread Starter

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    Thank you for the information. I'm busy, now, but I'll get to it as soon as I can.
     

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