I nuked my Windows 8 on my new HP Envy dv7. I made a backup, using Mozbackup (.pcv file) before I installed OpenSUSE 12.3. I am wondering if there is a method for taking this backup file and importing it into Thunderbird. I was able to take the same type of file .pcv and import my bookmarks into FireFox with no problem. Is there a way to do this with Thunderbird? If not, what is the easiest way to get this up and running>
I am new to Llnux, so my learning curve is very steep right now and I’m a little overwhelmed. Thank you…
On 2013-05-26 01:46, krs 1 wrote:
>
> I nuked my Windows 8 on my new HP Envy dv7. I made a backup, using
> Mozbackup (.pcv file) before I installed OpenSUSE 12.3. I am wondering
> if there is a method for taking this backup file and importing it into
> Thunderbird. I was able to take the same type of file .pcv and import
> my bookmarks into FireFox with no problem. Is there a way to do this
> with Thunderbird? If not, what is the easiest way to get this up and
> running>
The easiest is to ask before nuking Windows 
I can’t look right now at a Windows install, but basically you copy a
certain directory “as is”. To see which exactly I would need to boot
Windows on another machine, which is busy at the moment.
I’m not familiar with Mozbackup, sorry.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
Trust me, it wasn’t my intention to wipe out everything. I was trying to dual boot Win 8 and OpenSUSE. I had a major problem and the only way I could get out of it was to reinstall Windows 8 and format hard drive, etc., so I decided to just load OpenSUSE. I have another Win 7 machine in the house. I could take this file off the thumb drive and update restore Thunderbird on the other Win 8 system if there was a way to take the folder structure off the Windows system and bring it over to the Linux system. If you can help, that would be much appreciated.
Apparently a .pcv file is just a renamed ZIP file. So you could add back the .zip extension and open it to get to your mozilla files.
It’s been a long time ago (Suse10.2) that I did this but IIRC I did something like this:
- Placed the .pcv into a folder i created in my home
- renamed the .pcv to a .zip extracted it into the folder by selecting extract here
- there was a folder with 8 random letters & numbers.defualt it was the thunderbird profile folder
- In your home make it so you can view hidden folders then create a .thunderbird that’s DOTthunderbird folder
- C & P your Profile Folder into the .thunderbird folder start TB
As I said it’s been a while but if I did recalled it right you’ll have Thunderbird approximately like you had it.
It may depend on what you want to “restore” from Win8 to Linux.
Once you have found the .thunderbird folder, it will look something like this
carl@PVE-LinuxSRV5:~/.thunderbird> ll
total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 335 Sep 14 2009 appreg
drwxr-xr-x 4 carl users 4096 Apr 15 11:51 Crash Reports
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 300 Jan 22 21:37 profiles.ini
drwxr-xr-x 18 carl users 4096 May 26 07:01 SRV5_thunderbird_profile
Note thst for my purposes, I do not use the auto-generated Profile folders, I created my meaningful (to me) names, but the structure is the same.
I don’t believe you want (or can use) the entire Win8 Profile folder under Linux.
Some of the settings and the add-in files (a.k.a. extensions) are unique to OS.
If what you want to do it recover your Mail items, you will find them in the Mail folder or the ImapMail folder, depending on your mail service.
Your Address Books have .mab extensions
My method of transfer would be to Set up your new(on openSUSE) Thunderbird application, connect to your mail server and get up and running.
Exit the Thunderbird application.
Then copy from the Win8 backup the _profile/Mail, _profile/ImapMail and _profile/*.mab files into the openSUSE _profile folder.
For safety, you can (first) rename Mail to Mail_old as a backup/recovery technique.
Here is the _profile folder listing on my system
carl@PVE-LinuxSRV5:~/.thunderbird/SRV5_thunderbird_profile> ll
total 72928
-rwxr--r-- 1 carl users 8494 Jan 15 2011 abook-1.mab
-rwxr--r-- 1 carl users 46277 Apr 15 2011 abook-2.mab
-rwxr--r-- 1 carl users 68611 May 26 06:37 abook.mab
drwxr-xr-x 2 carl users 4096 Jan 15 2011 ABphotos
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 524288 May 25 09:16 addons.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 393824 May 25 09:16 addons.sqlite-journal
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 524288 Aug 28 2012 blist.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 36307 May 25 09:45 blocklist.xml
drwxr-xr-x 18 carl users 4096 May 23 23:00 Cache
-rw------- 1 carl users 1 May 26 07:22 _CACHE_CLEAN_
drwxr-xr-x 3 carl users 4096 Nov 29 22:00 calendar-data
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 196608 May 24 11:55 cert8.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 98304 Mar 9 2012 chromeappsstore.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 158 Apr 29 07:17 compatibility.ini
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 193388 Mar 9 2012 compreg.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 229376 Feb 12 08:42 content-prefs.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 524288 May 26 07:22 cookies.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 32768 May 26 07:22 cookies.sqlite-shm
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 18896 May 26 07:22 cookies.sqlite-wal
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 34 May 24 19:29 directoryTree.json
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 16384 May 26 06:38 downloads.sqlite
drwxr-xr-x 5 carl users 4096 Mar 17 22:49 extensions
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 886 Apr 29 07:06 extensions.ini
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 7117 Mar 9 2012 extensions.rdf
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 458752 May 10 19:28 extensions.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 2495 May 24 11:55 folderTree.json
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 54427648 May 26 07:01 global-messages-db.sqlite
drwxr-xr-x 3 carl users 4096 Oct 1 2010 GoogleContacts
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 46397 May 24 19:28 history.mab
drwx------ 6 carl users 4096 Jan 22 21:42 ImapMail
-rw------- 1 carl users 8462 Mar 17 09:52 impab.mab
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 16384 May 24 11:55 key3.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 50265 Jan 10 08:32 localstore-1.rdf
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 55264 May 26 06:38 localstore.rdf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 carl users 15 May 24 19:22 lock -> 127.0.0.2:+3112
drwxr-xr-x 6 carl users 4096 Jan 22 13:02 Mail
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 482 Feb 13 2010 mailViews.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 9498 Mar 17 09:55 mimeTypes.rdf
drwxr-xr-x 2 carl users 4096 Sep 25 2012 minidumps
drwx------ 2 carl users 4096 Apr 26 19:40 mozilla-media-cache
drwxr-xr-x 2 carl users 4096 Mar 12 2011 OfflineCache
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 265344 May 26 07:21 panacea.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 2048 May 25 09:45 permissions.sqlite
drwxr-xr-x 2 carl users 4096 Oct 5 2010 Photos
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 10485760 May 20 08:15 places.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 32768 May 24 19:22 places.sqlite-shm
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 0 May 24 19:22 places.sqlite-wal
-rw------- 1 carl users 8838 May 16 23:06 pluginreg.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 20823 Dec 27 2011 prefs-1.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 52564 Oct 7 2012 prefs-2.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 72967 May 24 20:31 prefs.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 9761 Apr 29 19:13 search.json
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 33 Aug 2 2012 search-metadata.json
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 65536 Jul 11 2012 search.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 16384 Feb 13 2010 secmod.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 430 May 25 10:59 session.json
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 449 Feb 13 2010 signons3.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 17408 May 24 19:22 signons.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 258 Sep 14 2009 signons.txt
drwxr-xr-x 2 carl users 4096 Apr 29 07:19 startupCache
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 3072 Feb 13 2010 storage.sdb
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 635425 May 24 19:25 TestPilotErrorLog.log
drwxr-xr-x 2 carl users 4096 Apr 28 2012 TestPilotExperimentFiles
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 4456448 May 24 19:22 trackerbird.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 52323 Apr 4 10:46 training.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 8 Apr 4 10:46 traits.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 0 Sep 14 2009 urlclassifier2.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 32768 Sep 9 2010 urlclassifier3.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 24 Mar 9 2012 urlclassifier.pset
drwxr-xr-x 2 carl users 4096 Sep 14 2009 US
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 1010 Nov 5 2012 virtualFolders-1.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 1532 May 24 11:55 virtualFolders.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 163840 Mar 13 21:40 webappsstore.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 carl users 124690 Mar 9 2012 xpti.dat
drwxr-xr-x 4 carl users 4096 Oct 5 2010 zindus
Perhaps more complex than some - I have 2 POP mail accounts and 3 Imap (gmail) accounts connected.
If you want to dig deeper, Google about in Mozillazine, they have several items on sharing Thunderbird profiles on dual boot systems.
Good Luck with it