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Re: Backup

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J. P. Gilliver wrote:
> On 2025/6/7 17:10:47, NFN Smith wrote:
>> pablito wrote:
>>> Is it possible to configure TB to do an automatic backup at a certain 
>>> time ?
>>> TNX
>>
>> Not within Thunderbird.  For that, the best bet is with some sort of 
>> external tool that supports scheduling.
> 
> (Would be a good thing for the dev.s to add - especially to avoid the 
> "running" aspect, and for those less savvy who don't know about things 
> like %APPDATA%.)
>

That would be nice, but I think that's one of the many things that won't 
appear in Thunderbird unless it first appears in Firefox.

In any case, the rule of thumb is that whether you're working in 
Thunderbird or Firefox (or for that matter, any other Mozilla-derived 
projects), it's always a good idea to shut down the app before you 
tinker with data inside a profile.

I've always been annoyed with locating profiles in %APPDATA% (or in 
Linux, $HOME/thunderbird or in MacOS, ~/Library/Thunderbird, all hidden 
folders), although I get the rationale that because that's all data 
that's intended to be interacted with through the relevant application, 
rather than directly. However, with Mozilla apps, there reasons to 
tinker with profile data, although something to go about carefully.

>> If you're working in Windows, what you want to get backed up is the 
>> contents of %APPDATA%\Thunderbird.  You don't have to copy to a 
>> different drive, just another location locally, although it's a good 
>> idea to make sure that Thunderbird is closed when you do it, so that 
>> you're not trying to make backups of open files.
> 
> While we're stuck with using something external, is there some simple 
> command (that could be put in a batch file) that will tell TB to shut 
> itself down cleanly? (I envisage the batch file - which could then be 
> scheduled - having the shutdown command, if we can contrive one, 
> followed by the backup instruction.)>

There are a variety of approaches, and Paul has suggested more than one 
down-thread.  Although I've suggested copying, Paul correctly suggests 
that putting into a .ZIP archive is a good way.  Besides just getting a 
backup, that's an ideal approach if you're moving a profile to a new 
computer.

I agree that you don't have to use a formal backup tool, and depending 
on your skills with something like batch file programming in Windows or 
bash scripting in Linux or MacOS, it's not too hard to set up, including 
setting a script that will run through the Windows scheduler or a 
crontab job, including making sure you kill any active processes before 
you begin.

One consideration is that if your regular computer backups don't include 
all of your user data (even if you're not doing full system or bootable 
backups), because your Thunderbird data is in a hidden folder, then you 
have to explicitly include the Thunderbird data as part of your backup 
jobs.  In Linux, it's easy enough to get all of that data by specifying 
the $HOME directory, but you have to work harder for Windows and MacOS. 
For Windows, you can specify the absolute path to your profile (even if 
it doesn't show up when you're browsing from the Explorer), but the nice 
thing about using the %APPDATA% variable (or %APPDATA%\Thunderbird), it 
will always resolve to the correct location, and where you don't have to 
account for how your username is defined.

For what it's worth, I use Duplicati for backups of all of my platforms, 
Windows, Linux and MacOS, where they run late at night (when I'm not at 
the computer) off the appropriate schedulers. For Linux and Mac, I don't 
use them frequently enough that I normally leave applications open, but 
on Windows, I sometimes will leave an app (whether Thunderbird, Firefox 
or most likely, Seamonkey) open overnight, and I have never seen any 
issues with running a scheduled backup against an open profile.  By 
contrast, there are other applications, where if I happen to have them 
open when Duplicati runs, I get warning messages about files that are 
open (usually status files) and where those files don't get backed up. 
But I don't think I've seen any warnings about open files with any 
Mozilla apps.

For copying a profile that is a backup, it may not be a big thing to 
have an app open. On the other hand, for other tinkering inside a 
profile (i.e., changing file contents) it is advisable to close an app 
first. But if I'm making a backup manually, then I close the app as a 
matter of habit.

Smith

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Thread

Backup pablito <abc@abc.bom> - 2025-06-07 12:23 +0200
  Re: Backup NFN Smith <worldoff9908@gmail.com> - 2025-06-07 09:10 -0700
    Re: Backup "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2025-06-07 21:01 +0100
      Re: Backup Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-06-07 18:00 -0400
      Re: Backup NFN Smith <worldoff9908@gmail.com> - 2025-06-08 21:03 -0700
        Re: Backup Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-06-09 00:39 -0400
          Re: Backup "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2025-06-09 11:52 +0100
            Re: Backup Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-06-09 14:09 -0400
    Re: Backup Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-06-07 16:04 -0400
  Re: Backup "David E. Ross" <nobody@nowhere.invalid> - 2025-06-07 09:22 -0700
  Re: Backup "Alan K." <alan@invalid.com> - 2025-06-07 16:38 -0400
    Re: Backup "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-06-08 00:10 +0200
      Re: Backup Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-06-07 18:20 -0400
        Re: Backup "Alan K." <alan@invalid.com> - 2025-06-07 18:29 -0400
        Re: Backup Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-06-08 04:21 +0100
          Re: Backup Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-06-08 00:13 -0400

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