Need help getting to a profile folder for Thunderbird

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NewsAndHistory

Need help getting to a profile folder for Thunderbird

Post by NewsAndHistory »

Hi,

I'm a complete newbie and need help navigating to a folder for my email, Thunderbird. Can you tell me how to find my "Thunderbird" folder in a profile folder path that contains my <profile name> folder? I've been told to enter ~/.thunderbird/<Profile name>/ or ~/.mozilla-thunderbird <profile name>. But, where do I even enter that?

Thanks for any help you can provide.
(If you need me to tell you what version of Linux Mint I'm using, can you please tell me how I find that out?)
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
pluraldave

Re: Need help getting to a profile folder for Thunderbird

Post by pluraldave »

~ means /home/<username> (replace <username> with whatever your username is, eg my ~ is /home/dave)

. means a file/folder is hidden.

On your desktop you should have an icon called "Home". Double click it and it will open home/<username> in the file browser.

Press ctrl+h or use the file manager menus: view>view hidden files.

You should now see a load of files and folders appear all beginning with a ".", one of which will be your thunderbird settings. (.mozilla-thunderbird)

I assume you know what to do with it from there, otherwise we will need more information about what you are trying to achieve.

Depending on which version of Mint you downloaded and which file manager you have the location of any folder you are looking at is given by either a text string or a series of "bubbles". If you have it set as the text string you can type a location to go there.

I guess if you don't know which version of Mint you downloaded you are most likely to be using the gnome desktop. By default this shows the "bubbles". To the left of the bubbles or text string is a small button that you can click to switch between the two modes.
SmilerBoy

Re: Need help getting to a profile folder for Thunderbird

Post by SmilerBoy »

I am trying to locate my wives Thunderbird settings also.

She's migrating from a bespoke distro called Linux4One beacuse it sucks :) (it crashed and wont' boot for me anymore couldn't find a way to repair)

I Use Mint (Gloria) and I'm trying to install it for her, which is the easy part.

The Not so easy part is now that I'm looking at her Old Folders using a Mint Live USB Drive I can't copy some of them they have 'X' on the folders/files.

I do not have permission to copy view edit them, how can i get this permission thing changed so that i can copy over her old settings to a temp drive and re-instate them on Mint Gloria once I run a clean install and wipe her old HD

Pretty please help, I'm a Noob but an avid fan and financial supporter of Mint, (Not to Mention I carry a Live USB drive of it with me to show everyone i meet :) lol)

Thanks

Smiler
pluraldave

Re: Need help getting to a profile folder for Thunderbird

Post by pluraldave »

The easiest way is probably to just open the folder as root (right click on the file browser background) and copy them to wherever you want.

Then once you've got them in the new install change the permissions.

Code: Select all

sudo chown -R wifesusername /home/wifesusername

That is assuming that those files are actually files you should be copying over.
SmilerBoy

Re: Need help getting to a profile folder for Thunderbird

Post by SmilerBoy »

Great

Will this work on the Live CD Version of Mint because I am trying to rescue them from a corrupt Install before I fully install Mint

I was thinking that was the problem with the 'X's that the drive they're on is basically almost dead but on her old distro she obviously had a password for login which I suppose I need to enter to get access? I should put up a screen print right?

**Update** no wait this won't work, i tried copying the profiles over already but the message says I don't have permission, because obviously I'm running a Live CD and not logged into the old Distro on the Drive.

So Yeah, it's like I'm trying to steal my wifes profile etc, but I'm not and i do have her old passwords if i need them but I'm just not sure what to do to copy the folders out onto an external while I run the clean install (then Obviously re-instating the profile is another matter afterwards ! :) But I'm sure I'll find a tutorial for that. Just need to get the "X" folders (meaning the folder icons have little "X"'s on them) i can oddly browse inside the folders and see her old files (pictures etc) but they all have an "x' in the bottom right of the icons too and I can't open/view them.

I'm thinking it's a password/permission issue as that would make sense seeing as she had a login on her old (linux4One) distro

Total noob, scuse the noobiness
SmilerBoy

Re: Need help getting to a profile folder for Thunderbird

Post by SmilerBoy »

So I made some Screen Shots

First

Image

First is the Drive. We Have the 15.4GB Flash Drive built into this Acer Aspire One
This is the Old Corrupt Drive which won't boot for me, Don't really want to fix it because it's not Mint.
This is where my Wifes Pictures and Thunderbird Settings are.

Then there's a Flash Drive which I'm currently using to upload this running a Live version of Mint (Gloria)

The Filesystem drive I guess is just that fake-ish one the Live CD creates when running.

Next Screen

Image

My Wifes Root Folder on the Corrupt Distro, You can see an X on the Lost & Found Folder

Image

Documents Folder, a lot of 'random' files have the 'X' mark on them but not all, I was able to copy some files without an X to my other external 80GB Drive (seen on the desktop in the Background). I originally thought it had something to do with not being able to open PDF's in Live CD mode but now I realise it's not that type of problem.

Image

The Failure notice I get when trying to copy an image from her Pictures Folder (please note at this point I haven't done anything special with the Drive in terms of terminal commands or anything I'm just using the GUI to do everything so far (mainly cause I'm not sure how running terminal stuff on Live CD works)

Image

And this is the Error I get when trying to copy a Folder (with an X on it) over to the 80GB external (which is mounted fine and I can browse the contents of by the way)

And Finally, a minor note

Image

This is me trying to get to the folder preferences so I can view hidden files (for when I find this blasted Thunderbird Folder)
You can note that I'm unable to see the Buttons at the bottom of the screen probably because of the AcerAspire One 4.5 inch tall screen. So this doesn't help matters either.

And if anyone Cares my wireless signal is pretty poor despite being close to signal with little interference (other laptop running at 80-100% signal, this one running at 40-50% ?
Netbook is Acer Aspire One ZG5

Thanks again
SmilerBoy

Re: Need help getting to a profile folder for Thunderbird

Post by SmilerBoy »

I'm such a noob ! It's Brilliant

Your Reply does work, I just mis-read /understood it

But as I'm so happy with my previous screenshot presentation I wanted to note visually what needed to be done

(guess whos a visual learner)

Image

So Open/Mount/Double Click the Corrupt or Old Drive
Then Right Click somewhere in the background in the File Viewer and choose "Open as Root"

Image

This then opens a new 'Window' (we need a new name for that kinda thing;)
which is your Drive in Root View which has a funky Red Background (great for visual Learners, Warning in Root view!)

Image

And Hey Presto, the Wifes Old Documents with no Blocked folders with (Exes) X's on them

But I Still have the Permission Problem, I cannot Copy the Files but Now I can view them etc.
How do I get 'into' the drive with permission.....???

So Happy, Thank so far for this much (now to get the profile & stuff copied and import it into new install)
This was SO Easy to do, Doesn't Linux Rock? and isn't Mint the Best Distro!

Smiler
- searching in Forums is NOT easy.
dawgdoc

Re: Need help getting to a profile folder for Thunderbird

Post by dawgdoc »

SmilerBoy wrote: Image

And Hey Presto, the Wifes Old Documents with no Blocked folders with (Exes) X's on them

But I Still have the Permission Problem, I cannot Copy the Files but Now I can view them etc.
How do I get 'into' the drive with permission.....???
Once you had the folder opened as root, did you right click the file/folder in question, select Properties > Permissions >
then change users to read and write? and then copy to the external drive?
pluraldave

Re: Need help getting to a profile folder for Thunderbird

Post by pluraldave »

You cannot copy or you cannot paste?

You should definitely be able to copy but when you paste that folder must also be opened as root.
Then when you copy back into the new install you do the same thing. (Then change permissions/owner - see step 6 below.)

The alternative is to do as Smilerboy suggests - change permissions before copying.
If you do this you're probably best off giving everyone full permissions, copying and then setting the desired permissions in the new install.

1. Mount the corrupted drive and navigate to your wife's home folder.
By default the address bar looks like a string of little boxes.
noxes.png
Click the icon on the left hand edge to change the address bar mode so that it gives you the full typed location of that folder. If it mounts in exactly the same way as your screeenshot it will probably be
/media/disk/home/jennifer

2. Open a terminal and enter the command

Code: Select all

sudo chmod -R 777 /media/disk/home/jennifer
of course replacing the address with whatever you found it to be in step 1.
You can copy and paste to the terminal by highlighting the text with your mouse and then centre-clicking in the terminal with your mouse (centre click = click the scrollwheel or left+right together if you don't have a scrollwheel.

3. Copy the files/folders to your external drive. You should now have no problems copying. Don't forget the hidden files. (Ctrl+H to view)

4. Unmount all the drives (remove external flash drive) and install Mint.

5. Log into your wife's new account and copy the old folders back from the flash drive.

6. Set proper owner and permission levels. (assuming your wife uses the username jennifer again)
In a terminal

Code: Select all

sudo chown -R jennifer /home/jennifer
then

Code: Select all

sudo chmod -R 644 /home/jennifer
Swapping 644 for whatever permission levels you would like.

The first number is for the user (jennifer), the second for group and the last for anyone else.
Add up to get the required permission for each:
4=read
2=write
1=execute

e.g. read + write = 4 + 2 = 6, execute = 4 + 2 + 1 = 7, no permissions = 0.

Also, how did your wife manage to get to this mismash of normal and permission denied files/folders? Were they copied from elsewhere or has she been running in root?
SmilerBoy

Re: Need help getting to a profile folder for Thunderbird

Post by SmilerBoy »

All Works Perfect now thank you Both

I didn't realise I needed to open the destination Folder as Root also so that was the last Issue

Image

I Don't know why my permissions were all messed up in the First place though, but I ammened them as shown using the GUI easily enough (Rather than using Terminal as typing code scares me ! lol)

Image

And Here I'm able to Copy the Thunderbird Settings (I just took the whole folder!)
I decided to also take the whole IceCat(version of Firefox) folder too

Then I did a Nice Clean install and then replaced both Folders in the New Install back to the same location it came from
i.e. Home/User/ and Hey Presto when i open Firefox in Mint it remembers sites visited, passwords, Bookmarks etc etc...

And the Same for my Wifes Mail, it's all there, the accounts are all set up (she has multiple accs) no need to re-enter information it's like her old Computer again.

She's so happy, Now Only if she could get her wireless signal up from 50% (mine's 90% sitting next to her?) and the SD Card Reader to work... ho humm.
That's another Post though ! :)

Thanks Again, Case Closed for me anyway
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