We already know backups for Thunderbird are important – your emails, the attachments in them, the images, the contacts, and everything in between. We also understand the risks, the potential for something going wrong that messes up our meticulously organized email life. And nobody wants to deal with that.

Backups, for all their unglamorous necessity, save the day when it comes to your Thunderbird data. Not being able to find something very important or memorable, because a dodgy update or malware erased your emails, is a precarious situation to be in.

So, the point is, back up your Thunderbird data before anything like that happens.

If you are ready to figure out how to actually getit done, continue reading. The tool we will be using is called “Mail Backup X,” anexperts’ choice for creating resilient Thunderbird backups in the most efficient manner.

Downloading and Installing Mail Backup X.

Open your browser and go to the Mail Backup X website, download the version applicable for your platform, and start the installation process, which is pretty standard. You can modify the default location and other options if you have any specific reason to do so. Otherwise, continue with the default installation.

With the installation is complete, open it up. You will see the very familiar “Terms and conditions” page. Proceed by clicking on the “Agree” button.

When you launch the tool for the first time, you’ll need to enter your license key. Butlet’s assume you don’t have it. Right next to the button that asks for license key will be another button labeled “Activate free Trial.” Click on it.

The application requests your email address – it’s not mandatory but providing it can be beneficial for receiving updates or accessing support, and even special promotional pricesthat InventPure occasionally put out.

Next, we will start with some basic tips that will make the process of backing up Thunderbird seamless and free of any annoying interruptions and setbacks.

Close unnecessary applications: Bit of housekeeping for your computer, because for large database, backup tasks can put a fair amount of strain on your computer.

• Free up system resources (like RAM and processing power) to minimizes the chance of errors, and so that the backup process can run without hiccups and.
• Minimizes the risk of the backup being interrupted or corrupted due to conflicts with other programs.

Manage Your Storage: Everything needs a space to exist, including the Thunderbird backups that you will be creating. Make sure they have the space where you can put them.

• Assess your storage space:
  • Check that your target drive (external hard drive, cloud storage, etc.) has enough room to comfortably accommodate your Thunderbird backup.
  • Remember that backups can grow over time, so consider a storage solution with some extra breathing room for future updates. Cloud storage solutions can become difficult to manage if you expect a large volume of emails in the future.
• Declutter your digital life: This can take time and you can skip this step. But if you can spare some time, it’s good practice, not just for effective Thunderbird backups, but to be more organized in general.
  • Look for outdated emails, unused attachments, and redundant files you can safely delete. This will streamline your backup and make restoring data easier if the need arises.
  • You can move all that outdated or non-essential content into one folder in Thunderbird for now. This way you can either select or deselect that folder later.
• Sync emails from servers:
  • If Thunderbird data you want to back up are mostly emails from email servers, like Gmail or Yahoo, then make sure your emails are all synced and downloaded completely.
  • With Mac Mail and Microsoft Outlook, Mail Backup X has a feature to resolve un-cached items, which means that you can resolve all such incomplete downloads from the application itself. But that’s not possible in Thunderbird. Therefore, before starting backups, resolve such un-cached, partial downloads, and any other similar issues in Thunderbird.

Setting Up Your Backup Profile:

Now we are past the stage of laying the foundation. Hopefully, you have no resource-extensive application running, have enough space to store the backups, and you have resolved any sync errors in Thunderbird.

We will now create a new backup profile in Mail Backup X.

• Go back to the application and click on ‘Setup a new backup Profile” from “Tasks” panel.
• You will see email clients like Apple Mail and Outlook. For our purpose today, click on Mozilla Thunderbird. The software is pretty intuitive and should automatically locate your email setup.

If you’re on MacOS Mojave or later, you might need to deal with disk permissions. This might sound a bit technical, but it’s mostly about ensuring Mail Backup X has the access it needs to secure your data properly. Just a few clicks on the System Preferences under Security and Privacy and you should be good to go.

You’ll then be asked which email folders you want to back up. You can select everything or just the essentials. Pay notice of the option for automatically including new folders in future Thunderbird backups, which is pretty convenient for keeping your backup up to date without any extra trouble.

Time to Personalize Your Backup Profile

• Enter your name in the “Backup Profile Name” text field. Whatever you think will spot the profile amongst others.
• Select a destination for your backup:
  • Local: A folder on your Mac or an external hard drive.
  • Cloud: Services like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
  • For cloud destinations, click on “Add new cloud space.” If you have added any space before, they will be shown under the dropdown list for you to select.
  • Add mirror destinations to store your backups in multiple places. It’s not essential, but if you’re someone who likes to cover all bases, it’s worth considering.
• Choose your data protection method: secure or unsecured.
  • Secure: This means, the backups will be encrypted, and it won’t be accessible outside the computer without the security key.
  • Unsecured: This means the standard/non-encrypted backups. The files (*.mbs files) can be opened on any computer where Mail Backup X is installed.
• Do you use a USB drive? Set it up so that Mail Backup X automatically backs up to it whenever you connect it.

Take a look at all your settings and if you think you have adjusted them properly, the profile is now ready to be activated. You can start the backup process with the press of the “Save” button. The application will get to work immediately, or after some time, depending on your configurations. You can go back to the main dashboard or even minimize the application and continue doing your regular work, while the application works in the background. The amount of time required will depend on the number of emails on your Thunderbird.

If you started with the free trial and haven’t grabbed a full license yet, definitely go to the website and check out your options. You’ve still got 15 days on that trial, so there’s no rush to decide.

Let your Thunderbird email backup profile run for a while – it’s the best way to really see how well it fits into how you work and manage your data. Hopefully, this guide has been helpful to you, and your Thunderbird backups are running just like you want them to!