Thunderbird is an email client much like Microsoft Outlook that allows for downloading email from POP3 servers, and displaying email from IMAP servers. You can create custom filters, folders, and many other unique features and addons, and the best part is that it's free. It's available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
You can get Thunderbird from Mozilla's site, or you can use your system's package manager and search for it. In package managers it is commonly found under 'thunderbird' or 'mozilla-thunderbird'.
This Howto has 2 main parts to it. The first will explain setting up a shared Thunderbird on a dual-boot system, and the second will explain how to use a networked drive inside a private network to accomplish the same goal of a shared Thunderbird profile amongst systems.
Setting up a common Thunderbird profile on a Dual Boot System
Notice: Please read this whole howto before attempting the steps.
For this step, it's assumed that you:
- Have a shared drive that is:
- vfat for Windows / Linux
- anything for Linux / Linux
- writable by the normal user(s)
- Your shared drive is automounted or manually mounted before using Thunderbird
- That you only have 1 current Thunderbird setup.
- This howto does not explain how to merge two or more existing Thunderbird profiles, only set up 1 to be used for multiple installs.
The first thing to do is to discover where your current Thunderbird information is being stored. Here are the (default) store locations:
- Windows XP/2000:
C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\ - Windows 95/98/ME:
C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Thunderbird\Profiles\ - Mac OS X:
~/ Library / Application Support / Thunderbird / Profiles / - Linux:
~/.thunderbird/or~/.mozilla-thunderbird/
Note: On both Windows and Linux, these folders are generally hidden, so you will have to enable 'show hidden files'
Browse to this directory. You should see a few different things, namely two specific items. One would be a folder with the name xxxxxxxx.default (assuming you have the default profile) which is where all your settings are stored. This contains your downloaded mail, your filters, preferences, plugins, and everything else. the xxxxxxxx is a random 8 digit string. The other important file you need to make note of is profiles.ini. This is the file that tells Thunderbird where to look for the actual folder xxxxxxxx.default.
Now you need to make sure that you have read and write permissions to the shared drive, or else this will not work! You need to move the default folder to the new location. In windows, you simply can click on it, press 'ctrl-x', open a new file browser and browse to your shared drive, and place it there with 'ctrl-c'. Here is a sample script to do it in linux (I use /media/share since that's my vfat shared partition):
$ cd ~/.mozilla-thunderbird $ mv xxxxxxxx.default /media/share/Thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default
The next step is to open profiles.ini in your favorite editor. For example:
vim profiles.ini
In there you should have something that looks like this:
[General] StartWithLastProfile=1 [Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=usd8qb1k.default
There are two values that need changing. IsRelative should be changed to 0, and Path should be the full path to your changed folder location. Here is mine:
[General] StartWithLastProfile=1 [Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=0 Path=/media/share/Thunderbird/usd8qb1k.default
Make sure you save it!
Next, you need to reboot your computer into your other OS, whether it be Linux or Windows. Once there, you can install Thunderbird, or browse to the locations listed above and find the profiles.ini file. In my Windows XP profiles.ini for Thunderbird, my Path is the only thing that is different.
Path=K:\Thunderbird\usd8qb1k.default
Save that file, and start up Thunderbird! If everything has gone right, you should have all your folders, emails, filters, plugins, and other goodies. And when you switch between, they will automatically be updated.
Using a networked drive for Multiple Thunderbird installations
This is essentially the same as above, except it allows you to have it on multiple computers instead of just a dual boot machine. Use caution however that you do not have Thunderbird open in multiple locations at the same time, for I do not believe it has the capability to handle those situations. You must also make sure that the location is always accessible before opening Thunderbird, or else it may overwrite your profiles.ini file, or crash on startup. If anyone is willing to test this, please email me and I shall update this part of the Howto.
Notice: You cannot be running Thunderbird while performing these operations. Also, any questions can be directed to ridayahNO@SPAMgmail.com and I will do my best to help you. Also, comments, critism, and additions/fixes will be welcomed.
