Thunderbird question - imap vs pop

There are two choices I guess. One is "set up your existing email-use your current email address"-- then there is an "import" selection. Sheesh - don't confuse me with two choices, Thunderbird.

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Also, Zebal, I do want all mail from msn as that is the stuff I want to save off my pc by exporting to external drive. Thanks again

That sounds like a plan. Thanks.

For Thunderbird, all emails are in your "Profile". You can backup the entire profile using the following BAT file. It was written in Greek by someone on StackOverflow.

The BAT copies from the "Profiles" folder in AppData, to the "Thunderbird" folder in Documents.

The new folder is automatically given today's date. For example 2021_03_27

To restore, simply copy-paste from the backup to the Profiles folder.

BTW: I'm not a techie, so it might be safer to remove all the blank lines in the BAT. In all my posts on this excellent forum, I need to insert multiple lines between paragraphs. Otherwise every line is joined up into one single long paragraph. (I was told that the forum software is written in BASIC, like PC-DOS . Maybe not.)
------------------------------------

REM This bat copies files from sd to dd

@Echo Off

Set "sd=C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles"

Set "dd=E:\Documents\Data\1SoftwareRelated\Backups\Thunderbird"

Set "ds="

If Not Exist "%sd%" Exit /B

For /F "Tokens=1-3Delims=/ " %%A In ('RoboCopy/NJH /L "\|" Null'

) Do If Not Defined ds Set "ds=%%A_%%B_%%C"

If Not Defined ds Exit /B

RoboCopy "%sd%" "%dd%\%ds%" /E

Pause

Oh boy...I am so NOT a techie - for me attempting this would be akin to walking into a dark cave. Hmm. I still have to install Thunderbird so will take it from there once I do. Don't know about this suggestion, however, Thanks so much. Dark caves notwithstanding.

patriceltic said:

Oh boy...I am so NOT a techie - for me attempting this would be akin to walking into a dark cave. Hmm. I still have to install Thunderbird so will take it from there once I do. Don't know about this suggestion, however, Thanks so much. Dark caves notwithstanding.

It's easily done manually, just back up your Profile Folder, found easily here...

- Copy everything below the dashed line into Notepad or N++, or some other ASCII editor (i.e. no hidden control characters).


- Save as "Thunderbird"


- That file is likely to have a TXT extension.


- Change the extension to BAT. Save.


- Double click on the file in Win Explorer.


- A DOS console will open, and the file will execute.


- The file stops (because of the "Pause" command). Hit Enter to close the console. (Otherwise the buffer might not be flushed - I can't remember all that stuff. DOS is a pesky environment.)


- The new file will be in your target directory.


If you repeat the backup on the same day, the latest backup will overwrite the earlier backup.

Thanks.

OldGrantonian - love that avatar as well. Thanks, you clarified the process. Appreciate.

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Well, all of this may be for naught. I tried to set up Thunderbird using my current msn address and it fails the set up. It says: Unable to login at server - probably wrong configuration - user name - or password.
So, no deal at this point.