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Thunderbird Profile (copy/paste) no local folders/tasks updated

  • 2 replies
  • 0 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by Asjad Hasan

Asjad Hasan
Asjad Hasan

Hi, I am hoping that the community can help me find an answer to this. I have two computers that I use for work. The one in the office has TB running all the time and before I leave for the weekend/vacation I would close TB, copy the profile folder to a USB (or copy it to cloud) and then paste the profile folder on my work laptop (at home). While all the settings get copied (local folders structure, addons etc.) as I use IMAP, it downloads all the mail on the new system regardless. I thought that it should have the latest mail downloaded as part of the profile folder, is that not the case? The bigger issue is that none of the Completed Tasks Lists, Templates, etc. get updated. It still shows all the older stuff on the work laptop and no updates carry over from the PC (at work). Going through the profile folder I see multiple copies of the files prefs.js, folderCache.json, global-messages-db.sqlite appended as: prefs-computername.js and folderCache-computername.json etc. (The computername is the name of the PC - office/laptop) The profile name is the same between the two computers. TB is only started after the profile is copied locally. TB version is the same between systems. I am left scratching my head why somethings are copied but not others. Hoping that the community can help me here. Thanks!

Hi, I am hoping that the community can help me find an answer to this. I have two computers that I use for work. The one in the office has TB running all the time and before I leave for the weekend/vacation I would close TB, copy the profile folder to a USB (or copy it to cloud) and then paste the profile folder on my work laptop (at home). While all the settings get copied (local folders structure, addons etc.) as I use IMAP, it downloads all the mail on the new system regardless. I thought that it should have the latest mail downloaded as part of the profile folder, is that not the case? The bigger issue is that none of the Completed Tasks Lists, Templates, etc. get updated. It still shows all the older stuff on the work laptop and no updates carry over from the PC (at work). Going through the profile folder I see multiple copies of the files prefs.js, folderCache.json, global-messages-db.sqlite appended as: prefs-computername.js and folderCache-computername.json etc. (The computername is the name of the PC - office/laptop) The profile name is the same between the two computers. TB is only started after the profile is copied locally. TB version is the same between systems. I am left scratching my head why somethings are copied but not others. Hoping that the community can help me here. Thanks!

All Replies (2)

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor

I can only offer a comment: you mention multiple prefs.js files. This may be the problem area. Having multiple indicates one of the PCs is not successful in updating at shutdown. I cannot step deeply into this issue, but I encourage starting with the office PC and checking last update date for each to determine which is correct, and deleting all the others. When shutting down, wait a minute to ensure the prefs.js is update prior to copying to transfer to other pc. As I stated, I can only tread so deep into this, but this seems a likely culprit.

Asjad Hasan
Asjad Hasan Question owner

Thank you, david, for your reply. Apart from the cache and startupcache folder, everything in the profiles folder has a modified date from over 20 days to a year or more. I see a total of 26 prefs.js files: prefs.js, prefs-1.js,prefs-2.js,...,prefs-22.js, prefs-computername1.js, prefs-computername1-2.js, prefs-computername2.js computername1 = laptop computername2 = office PC

Opening the prefs.js file, I do not see anything that may cause the templates/tasks to not load. I am at a loss on where they are actually stored that they never get restored/backed up when transferring the full profile folder.

As always, I transfer the folder, not the individual files when I am updating.

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