Transfer Thunderbird Mail History from Mint Backup to Trisquel?

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Zem Mattress
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Joined: 05/08/2014

Hello all. Novice GNU/linux user here. I would like to switch my work computer from Linux Mint over to Trisquel.

How would I go about that so as to keep my Thunderbird mail history intact? Can it be done?

I have my Linux Mint account backed up with Deja Dup right now.

Thank you for your help.

-Zem

kopolee11
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Joined: 06/05/2013

I believe all you have to do is look for the ".thunderbird" folder in your Linux Mint's home directory. Copy the contents of that folder over into Trisquel's ".icedove" folder. (Also in the home directory) That should copy all the relevant information.

Let us know if you need any more info.

Zem Mattress
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Joined: 05/08/2014

Kopolee,

I seem to be having trouble finding a ".Icedove" folder, or any reference at all to Icedove. Where does Trisquel hide it?

I'm also unable to find it in the repositories.

Also a general question: since I'm moving over to Trisquel, can I just use the Linux Mint deja-dup backup to reinstall all my data over on to Trisquel? Since they are both forks of Ubuntu? Or are they incompatible for that sort of thing?

Zem Mattress
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Joined: 05/08/2014

Found Icedove. I did a command line install. (didn't work the first time...)

General question remains:

Since I'm moving over to Trisquel, can I just use the Linux Mint deja-dup backup to reinstall all my data over on to Trisquel? Since they are both forks of Ubuntu? Or are they incompatible for that sort of thing?

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

It should work. I did restore a backup of my whole home folder onto a brand new install of Trisquel on a new computer. Déjà-Dup warned me that the system used to backup was different from the one I was currently using but it let me proceed and everything went well. No problem at all.

In my case, both systems (where the backup was made and where it was restored) were Trisquel 7. But Déjà-Dup should be completely distro-agnostic.

Zem Mattress
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Joined: 05/08/2014

Most kind. I will let you know.

Best,

Zem

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

If kopolee11's idea does not work, this extension may be useful: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

Zem Mattress
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Joined: 05/08/2014

Okay:

- I found the ".thunderbird" folder in my Linux Mint Home directory.

- But I do not find ".Icedove" in my "Home" directory, uder "Places".

I find similar by going to "Computer/home/usr/lib/icdove". However, that is not named ".Icedove" (dot Icedove).

Where is the ".Icedove" folder you mention?

Thanks!

Zem Mattress
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Joined: 05/08/2014

Thank you, root. My concern is that I do not see a folder in the home/usr/library that is named ".icedove". I see one that is simply named "icedove", with no "." in front of its name. Is that the one I need, or is there another specifically named ".icedove" ?

TralfamadorianOrator
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Joined: 11/12/2011

The '.icedove' directory doesn't get made until you run Icedove for the first time.

You don't need to launch it. Just copy your '.thunderbird' directory into your home directory and do either one of the following (if you have run Icedove already, be sure to remove the new '.icedove' directory before doing this).

a) Rename the '.thunderbird' directory to '.icedove'.

mv ~/.thunderbird ~/.icedove

OR

b) Make a symbolic link from '.icedove' to '.thunderbird' with the command

ln -s ~/.thunderbird ~/.icedove
Zem Mattress
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Joined: 05/08/2014

Okay:
I've moved my .Thunderbird files from Mint over to the Trisquel .Icedove folder.

And.... It worked like a charm! Huzzah!

Many thanks to all who helped me. Though it seems so simple this was a huge hurdle for me for adopting Trisquel as my main distro. (limited time, energy, etc)

Follow-up Q: I assume I can do the same for my Mint Firefox folder contents - copy and move them over to my Trisquel Icecat folder?

Thanks,
Zem

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

Trisquel uses Abrowser, not Icecat, by default. The profile is in ~/.mozilla/abrowser. But Icecat is in Trisquel's repository if you prefer.

Zem Mattress
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Joined: 05/08/2014

Therefore: to transfer over my browser bookmarks, history etc, I would copy my Mint "Firefox" folder contents to the Abrower folder in Trisquel?

Do I erase the Abrowser files in the process?

Thank you.

Magic Banana

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Do I erase the Abrowser files in the process?

You can move rather than remove the folder if you want.

Zem Mattress
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Joined: 05/08/2014

Forgive me, I'm not quite understanding: move to where? For clarity let me ask:

- What steps do I take to move my Mint Firefox settings, over for use in Trisquel Abrowser (or Icecat)?

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

Move to anywhere so that the application does not find the it (it is like removed except that it is just elsewhere and you can move it back if you need/want).

I believe you only need to copy the profile (the folder that ends with ".default") from the original system to ~/.mozilla/abrowser and overwrite the file profiles.ini with that of the original system.