Thunderbird.

J

jonnyc

Guest
I read somewhere that Mozilla is no longer developing Thunderbird; so why am i still being offered updates for it?
Is the version I have old? How could that be? I only recently installed it from the repository. My first experience with Thunderbird was a bad one, and now that it's behaving itself I'm a bit reluctant to fix what ain't broke; but on the other hand maybe an update would improve things. During my initial problems folks trying to help would direct me to menu items that were simply not there on my version. Left me a bit leery!

JC
 


jonnyc said:
I read somewhere that Mozilla is no longer developing Thunderbird
Click to expand...
Thunderbird is currently still developed by Mozilla, and it is now up to version 38.3.0 -- which is what Linux Mint has provided to me in regular updates.
 
atanere said:
Thunderbird is currently still developed by Mozilla, and it is now up to version 38.3.0 -- which is what Linux Mint has provided to me in regular updates.
Click to expand...

Well thanks for the info.
Goes to show, don't believe everything you read on the web!
I'll give it a go.
Hope I don't regret it!
Tnx. BCNU.

JC
 
You are correct... Mozilla did talk of dumping Thunderbird a few years ago. But it never really happened.

Good luck!
 
I'm sure if Mozilla dumped it, someone would pick up on it and continue to develop it as it is the best, most robust e-mail client out there. Either in Windoze or Linux.
 
Jim Laughlan said:
I'm sure if Mozilla dumped it, someone would pick up on it and continue to develop it as it is the best, most robust e-mail client out there. Either in Windoze or Linux.
Click to expand...

Well I was very impressed at first. It seemed to be the answer to my needs. But when I tried to import my contacts from Orange mail (Outlook CSV format), the result was (and still is) a list of blank entries. Tried with another installation on a Windows M/C and got an error message saying "....not possible owing to bug no.123456..." or suchlike. Then I remembered the bit about no further development and my heart sank.
However the worst gripe was that after installing it (in Mint 17.2) I discovered that all my email from the last 3 years had disappeared. Turned out that in "Server Settings" there is one which, BY DEFAULT, deletes all emails from the server after 14 days! So now, like it or not, I'm stuck with Thunderbird since it now contains the only record of my email from the last 3 years. Which reminds me, having just installed an upgrade, I'd better go and make sure that it hasn't reinstated that poxy setting!
These were my only two moans. Otherwise a super programme.

JC
 
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jonnyc said:
Well I was very impressed at first. It seemed to be the answer to my needs. But when I tried to import my contacts from Orange mail (Outlook CSV format), the result was (and still is) a list of blank entries. Tried with another installation on a Windows M/C and got an error message saying "....not possible owing to bug no.123456..." or suchlike. Then I remembered the bit about no further development and my heart sank.
However the worst gripe was that after installing it (in Mint 17.2) I discovered that all my email from the last 3 years had disappeared. Turned out that in "Server Settings" there is one which, BY DEFAULT, deletes all emails from the server after 14 days! So now, like it or not, I'm stuck with Thunderbird since it now contains the only record of my email from the last 3 years. Which reminds me, having just installed an upgrade, I'd better go and make sure that it hasn't reinstated that poxy setting!
These were my only two moans. Otherwise a super programme.

JC
Click to expand...
Any email client, on first installation, you have to go through the settings to make sure it's adjusted to your needs. Is your email address on a IMAP or POP server?
 
Jim Laughlan said:
Any email client, on first installation, you have to go through the settings to make sure it's adjusted to your needs. Is your email address on a IMAP or POP server?
Click to expand...

POP server, I think.
And No I don't expect to have all my email wiped on what was just a trial run to see it the programme would do what I wanted. There's no question about it, the default for that setting should be to leave everything as it is save instruction to the contrary. That's just sloppy design.
However I'm stuck with it now, which, as I've already intimated, I'm quite happy with. Do you know where Thunderbird keeps the mail so that I can make a backup copy? I've looked, but I
probably wouldn't recognize it unless it was very obvious!

JC
 
All of the mail (and configuration settings too) are stored in a "profile" folder. That folder is "hidden" inside your home folder, and it is always called ".thunderbird". (All files and folder that start with a dot (period) are hidden.) For backing up, I would save the entire .thunderbird folder. But don't forget where it is! It's easy to lose hidden files/folders! :D

To see the hidden files and folders, go to your Home folder with your file manager, click on the "View" menu at the top, then select "Show Hidden Files". You can also use CNTL-H to toggle hidden files into view and back to hidden.

Since you had trouble with Thunderbird before, you might want to test your profile by copying it to a flash drive and using it on another computer or even with a Live DVD. It is certainly possible to store your profile in some other place, but .thunderbird is the default. Good to be sure it works as you expect!

Cheers!
 
atanere said:
All of the mail (and configuration settings too) are stored in a "profile" folder. That folder is "hidden" inside your home folder, and it is always called ".thunderbird". (All files and folder that start with a dot (period) are hidden.) For backing up, I would save the entire .thunderbird folder. But don't forget where it is! It's easy to lose hidden files/folders! :D

To see the hidden files and folders, go to your Home folder with your file manager, click on the "View" menu at the top, then select "Show Hidden Files". You can also use CNTL-H to toggle hidden files into view and back to hidden.

Since you had trouble with Thunderbird before, you might want to test your profile by copying it to a flash drive and using it on another computer or even with a Live DVD. It is certainly possible to store your profile in some other place, but .thunderbird is the default. Good to be sure it works as you expect!

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Homer to the rescue again!
Yes, I remember looking at the hidden files once before, but I'd forgotten.
If I'm reading this correctly, that means that I can copy .thunderbird to a thumb drive and, in the event of a wipe-out ( smoke coming out of the box or whatever) In another M/c I can install Thunderbird and then substitute the saved copy of .thunderbird and I should then be up and running. Or is there another gotcha in there? Forgive my paranoia, that last one was a narrow squeak!

JC
 
Yes, sir, that's the plan. But seriously... test it. I think a Live DVD will do this, but of course it needs to be a distro with Thunderbird included. If you boot a Live copy of Linux Mint, then copy the .thunderbird from your flash drive to the "liveuser" home folder and paste it.... I think this will work fine. Of course, you are only "pasting" into RAM so it will all disappear when you reboot. But it will verify that your flash drive had all your stuff... well, all the stuff that you care to wade through to check (settings, stored mail, etc).

Be careful about this though: if your Thunderbird automatically fetches mail when you do this test, and if your Live DVD is online (especially with a cable connection to the router)... then it may download mail for real. That will get lost then when you reboot! Better to NOT have an internet connection to do the test.

I'm going to go test too!

UPDATE: Yep, it worked fine. So it doesn't really care what the Linux username is either (which is not related to the email client anyway). Better to save the .thunderbird folder when Thunderbird is not running, or you will get an error on a "lock file". It's not a big deal though, just skip that file if you see that error.
 
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atanere said:
Yes, sir, that's the plan. But seriously... test it. I think a Live DVD will do this, but of course it needs to be a distro with Thunderbird included. If you boot a Live copy of Linux Mint, then copy the .thunderbird from your flash drive to the "liveuser" home folder and paste it.... I think this will work fine. Of course, you are only "pasting" into RAM so it will all disappear when you reboot. But it will verify that your flash drive had all your stuff... well, all the stuff that you care to wade through to check (settings, stored mail, etc).

Be careful about this though: if your Thunderbird automatically fetches mail when you do this test, and if your Live DVD is online (especially with a cable connection to the router)... then it may download mail for real. That will get lost then when you reboot! Better to NOT have an internet connection to do the test.

I'm going to go test too!

UPDATE: Yep, it worked fine. So it doesn't really care what the Linux username is either (which is not related to the email client anyway). Better to save the .thunderbird folder when Thunderbird is not running, or you will get an error on a "lock file". It's not a big deal though, just skip that file if you see that error.
Click to expand...

It should be alright online because the setting gives you 14 days before it deletes all your email; plenty time IF you know it's there! Also, if I do it now it will save my blank non-contact list so I'd better sort that first. Given my bad result and the non-op bug notice in Windows, I'd say that importing contacts is a major problem area for Thunderbird, (it's shit-hot at deleting email though!).
What I'll do is take a printout of the contact list from Orange Mail, (now that I can use the printer!), manually edit out all the crap, and then input the result into Thunderbird via the keyboard. Bit of a chore but it will make it useable. Will post the result.

Cheers!

JC

P.S. I am assuming that my contact list will be part of .Thunderbird. Is this correct?
JC
 
Yes, contacts are stored in the .thunderbird profile folder too. As far as I know it stores everything in there, even plug-ins if you install any.

I have Thunderbird set to delete mail on the server immediately after I get it, so that's why I cautioned you about being online when you test it. I don't want you to lose more mail because of something I suggest to you! :eek:

If you save a lot of mail (and especially attachments), the profile may become fairly large. At one time mine was around 2 GB, but I've cleaned most of that now and my profile is only about 225 MB.

Cheers!
 
atanere said:
Yes, contacts are stored in the .thunderbird profile folder too. As far as I know it stores everything in there, even plug-ins if you install any.

I have Thunderbird set to delete mail on the server immediately after I get it, so that's why I cautioned you about being online when you test it. I don't want you to lose more mail because of something I suggest to you! :eek:

If you save a lot of mail (and especially attachments), the profile may become fairly large. At one time mine was around 2 GB, but I've cleaned most of that now and my profile is only about 225 MB.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Hi again!
Well I finally got round to testing with a live cd and it worked perfectly, so now my .thunderbird file is safely stored away in several places off the computer. Thanks for the tip!
On another note, I notice when I delete a mail in Thunderbird it offers to "compact" files to save disc space. Do you know what this does exactly? Sounds suspiciously like deleting something somewhere, and I'm certainly not going to press the button to find out the hard way!
Have you used this before?
Is there a manual for the program I could read and find out these things from the horse's mouth?

JC
 
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OK, glad the backup solution is working for you!

Compacting files is a good idea (and yes, I do compact too). But there is a chance for problems if your mail folder becomes corrupted. Thunderbird has a limit of about 4 GB for storing mail, but it will be better to compact regularly before approaching the limit, or else the compacting process might take a long time, or might be more likely to fail. Here are a couple of "horse's mouth" resources about compacting:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/compacting-folders
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders

There is an excellent PDF manual for Thunderbird (164 pages), although it's a little out of date. It would still be very useful though, I think. And of course the "horse's mouth"... Mozilla... can provide help in many ways. Here are a couple more links for you:
https://www.flossmanuals.net/_booki/thunderbird/thunderbird.pdf
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/thunderbird/learn-basics-get-started

Cheers!
 
jonnyc said:
Homer to the rescue again!
Yes, I remember looking at the hidden files once before, but I'd forgotten.
If I'm reading this correctly, that means that I can copy .thunderbird to a thumb drive and, in the event of a wipe-out ( smoke coming out of the box or whatever) In another M/c I can install Thunderbird and then substitute the saved copy of .thunderbird and I should then be up and running. Or is there another gotcha in there? Forgive my paranoia, that last one was a narrow squeak!

JC
Click to expand...
"Homer to the rescue", indeed..... :3 Someone sent me a Laptop, and I had trouble with the Backlight being off..... :) Turns out, Atanere told me that all I needed was the "nomodeset" option to be declared in the "grub" File!..... ^^ That's Atanere..... Our hero!!..... :D
 
Aw shucks, you're making me blush! But I learned something from you too: I did not realize it was just the backlight... and that the screen could be seen by shining a flashlight on it. When I've had that problem it has always been so dead and dark that I thought it was not getting a video signal at all. So I am glad to know the difference! Thanks! :)
 
atanere said:
Aw shucks, you're making me blush! But I learned something from you too: I did not realize it was just the backlight... and that the screen could be seen by shining a flashlight on it. When I've had that problem it has always been so dead and dark that I thought it was not getting a video signal at all. So I am glad to know the difference! Thanks! :)
Click to expand...
No problem, buddy!..... :3 Yeah, I thought it was a no-Video thing too.... Until I saw a faiiint LXDE Desktop, I think.... ;) I'll get to your Inbox Message, too..... Soon.... I promise!...... :p
 
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