My wife and I use to computers each with Thunderbird installed.

We are planning a vacation. Is it possible to create as second profile
on the laptop, and move the profile from the other computer to this
computer, so she could access her email as if it was on the other computer?

knuttle wrote:
> My wife and I use to computers each with Thunderbird installed.
>
> We are planning a vacation. Is it possible to create as second profile
> on the laptop, and move the profile from the other computer to this
> computer, so she could access her email as if it was on the other computer?

Start Tunderbird on the second PC with "tunderbird -p", which opens the profile
manager and create a new profile.
End Thunderbird and delete the *content* of the new created profile and copy
the *content* of the desired profile of the other PC into it.

On Vacation start Thunderbird also with "thunderbird -p" and choose between
the options.

On 2/8/2024 7:57 PM, knuttle wrote:
> My wife and I use to computers each with Thunderbird installed.
>
> We are planning a vacation.  Is it possible to create as second profile on the laptop, and move the profile from the other computer to this computer,  so she could access her email as if it was on the other computer?

Check the version of Thunderbird on each machine first.

It would be really nice if they matched, but the two machines
could be using different streams (nightly, regular, extended support
or whatever). Mine, in the Help : About says...

"You are currently on the Release update channel"

Yes, there is an element of portability. I'm using it right now.
My profile isn't in the normal place.

This is the style of "profiles.ini" used. You don't have to do this,
and this just demonstrates how you can hand-craft a pointer. A machine-generated
"profiles.ini" is more complicated than this.

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=0
Path=C:\Users\username\somewhere\ABCD1234.default
Default=1

If you start Thunderbird from the command line...

(Non-Administrator terminal is fine)

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird

thunderbird.exe -p

That starts Thunderbird running the Profile Manager. That
is a graphical way of editing the profiles.ini file. Now
you should be able to add a profile to the profiles.ini
as a linkage to your locally-stored profile folder from
the other machine.

You could make a shortcut link to the Thunderbird.exe
executable, and add a -p to the launch line, and that
would make a profile-launcher.

When two people share a computer, they could do

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird # Not necessary, if added to %path%

thunderbird.exe -p his.default
thunderbird.exe -p hers.default

and if you pass a reference to the randomly-named profile
folder .default, then that is the profile that will be
used in the session. If you just did

thunderbird.exe

then whatever the last profile was that was selected,
it might be the one that loads. So if you did this.

thunderbird.exe -p his.default

thunderbird.exe # his.default launches again

And that's because there are lines in the .ini file, defining that behavior.

StartWithLastProfile=1

Paul

knuttle wrote:
> My wife and I use to computers each with Thunderbird installed.
>
> We are planning a vacation.  Is it possible to create as second profile
> on the laptop, and move the profile from the other computer to this
> computer,  so she could access her email as if it was on the other
> computer?

The advice noted in other followups is noted, for how to move data
around. I would also note that the easiest way of finding the location
in the Windows Explorer is at %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles . That
construct gets you to the default location, and is easier to use than
having to enter the full path, including the specifics of your user name
(and that the AppData folder is normally hidden).

The exact path can be found in Tools -> Troubleshooting Information then
clicking on the about:profiles link. That's useful if your profile is
in a non-default location.

However, rather than trying to copy profiles, you may want to review how
you're doing your mail. Reading between the lines, it seems that you're
using POP, and that's not necessarily suited to this kind of situation.
In POP, the expectation is that you're connecting to the server,
downloading your mail, and then immediate deletion from the server, and
where you're using only one device.

IMAP is generally better suited for this kind of information. The
expectation there is that your mail is stored on the server, and a "get
mail command" is copying your mail locally, but leaving your mail on the
server. Thus, IMAP does well if you need access from multiple devices.
With an IMAP connection, any changes you do in Thunderbird are
replicated back to the server. That includes use of folders (POP sees
only the Inbox), read/unread status and more.

In Thunderbird, it is possible to do both POP and IMAP. If you have a
POP account set up, you can add another account as IMAP and where it's
making access to the same email address. The reason to do that is to
give yourself some space to be able to play with IMAP without committing
to it irrevocably.

One other thing is that if you're doing POP with multiple devices, it's
good to look at the account's server settings, and review mail retention
settings. Although the default is to delete mail as soon as it's
downloaded, it can be useful to set mail to be left on the server for a
time following.

I do this kind of thing myself. My primary mail uses POP, but I use
multiple computers, and more than one mail client. Thus, for my POP
connection, I set that to keep mail for 14 days after download. For all
my other connections, I use IMAP. That one allows me to access my most
current mail from IMAP, regardless of what computer, client or profile
I'm using, while my POP connection allows me to do permanent storage
that way. If I send a message from an IMAP account and I want to keep
that message, then all I have to do is move the sent message from the
Sent folder to the Inbox, and the POP connection will subsequently
download, where I can then put into an appropriate folder for permanent
storage.

IMAP is great for mail storage, but even with IMAP, one reason to copy a
profile is for other data that is not shared on a server. Most
prominently that would be an address book, but if you have things like
newsgroup or RSS subscriptions, those would have to be copied among
profiles.

For that scenario, I suggest making sure that you have an IMAP account
working correctly on the first computer, then copying the entire profile
to the second computer.

Smith

On 02/08/2024 11:24 PM, NFN Smith wrote:
> knuttle wrote:
>> My wife and I use to computers each with Thunderbird installed.
>>
>> We are planning a vacation.  Is it possible to create as second
>> profile on the laptop, and move the profile from the other computer to
>> this computer,  so she could access her email as if it was on the
>> other computer?
>
> The advice noted in other followups is noted, for how to move data
> around.  I would also note that the easiest way of finding the location
> in the Windows Explorer is at %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles .  That
> construct gets you to the default location, and is easier to use than
> having to enter the full path, including the specifics of your user name
> (and that the AppData folder is normally hidden).
>
> The exact path can be found in Tools -> Troubleshooting Information then
> clicking on the about:profiles link.  That's useful if your profile is
> in a non-default location.
>
> However, rather than trying to copy profiles, you may want to review how
> you're doing your mail.  Reading between the lines, it seems that you're
> using POP, and that's not necessarily suited to this kind of situation.
> In POP, the expectation is that you're connecting to the server,
> downloading your mail, and then immediate deletion from the server, and
> where you're using only one device.
>
> IMAP is generally better suited for this kind of information. The
> expectation there is that your mail is stored on the server, and a "get
> mail command" is copying your mail locally, but leaving your mail on the
> server.  Thus, IMAP does well if you need access from multiple devices.
> With an IMAP connection, any changes you do in Thunderbird are
> replicated back to the server. That includes use of folders (POP sees
> only the Inbox), read/unread status and more.
>
> In Thunderbird, it is possible to do both POP and IMAP.  If you have a
> POP account set up, you can add another account as IMAP and where it's
> making access to the same email address.  The reason to do that is to
> give yourself some space to be able to play with IMAP without committing
> to it irrevocably.
>
> One other thing is that if you're doing POP with multiple devices, it's
> good to look at the account's server settings, and review mail retention
> settings.  Although the default is to delete mail as soon as it's
> downloaded, it can be useful to set mail to be left on the server for a
> time following.
>
> I do this kind of thing myself.  My primary mail uses POP, but I use
> multiple computers, and more than one mail client.  Thus, for my POP
> connection, I set that to keep mail for 14 days after download.  For all
> my other connections, I use IMAP.  That one allows me to access my most
> current mail from IMAP, regardless of what computer, client or profile
> I'm using, while my POP connection allows me to do permanent storage
> that way.  If I send a message from an IMAP account and I want to keep
> that message, then all I have to do is move the sent message from the
> Sent folder to the Inbox, and the POP connection will subsequently
> download, where I can then put into an appropriate folder for permanent
> storage.
>
> IMAP is great for mail storage, but even with IMAP, one reason to copy a
> profile is for other data that is not shared on a server.  Most
> prominently that would be an address book, but if you have things like
> newsgroup or RSS subscriptions, those would have to be copied among
> profiles.
>
> For that scenario, I suggest making sure that you have an IMAP account
> working correctly on the first computer, then copying the entire profile
> to the second computer.
>
> Smith
OP: In general use, the data on the two computers is not shared as
there is no need to share it. This is a one time situation to avoid
having to take two computers with us.
Once we return to the normal situation, the second profile will probably
be removed, AFTER it is transferred back to her computer.