How To Backup Gmail Using Thunderbird

Gmail had some issues a few days ago and reseted some email accounts so many people now want to backup their Gmail account(s). I got this request by email so I though I'd suggest a very simple (and free) way to backup your Gmail account: using Thunderbird.

Using the exact instructions in this post, Thunderbird will not delete your Gmail emails and will not mark them as read so it acts exactly as a backup, without interfering with your actual emails. You can of course use this to send emails too (just like with any email client - I've used Thunderbird because it's easy to set up and cross-platform) but the purpose of this how-to is to use Thunderbird just to download your Gmail emails (so you can turn off the outgoing server if you want) so you have a local backup in case something goes wrong with your Gmail account.

If you want to backup your Gmail account online, you can use TrueSwitch to copy all your emails into your Hotmail account or use Backupify which is free for a regular (non custom domain) Gmail account.

How to backup your Gmail account using Thunderbird

1. To backup your Gmail account using Thunderbird you'll firstly need to enable POP in Gmail. To do this, go to Gmail settings and on the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab, under "POP Download" select "Enable POP for all mail (even mail that's already been downloaded)" under "1. Status". 

Under "2. When messages are accessed with POP", select "keep Gmail's Copy in the inbox":

2. Now you can start Thunderbird and add a new mail account (File > New > Mail account). On the first screen, enter a name, your Gmail address and Gmail password, then click "Continue":

3. On the next screen, Thunderbird will automatically download the Gmail settings from its database. If you use Thunderbird 3.1.x, this is how it will look:

Here, you must select "POP" instead of "IMAP" for the incoming server. If you use an older Thunderbird version, you may need to click "Edit" and select enter the settings manually for the incoming server (POP) and enter the following info for the incoming server: pop.googlemail.com, port: 995

Now click "Create Account".

That's it! Now simply click "Get mail" and let the Gmail backup begin. Thunderbird will download all your Gmail emails - this will take a while. Now whenever you want to update the "backup", simply open Thunderbird and let it do its job.

If you're behind a firewall / router that blocks the incoming POP port (955), you can install TOR and then use it as a SOCKS proxy in the Thunderbird settings.

Thanks to JC for the suggestion!

Thunderbird Indicator Adds Folders Support

Thunderbird Indicator is an add-on for Mozilla Thunderbird which notifies you of new mail messages via Ubuntu's standard notification system and the Messaging menu. Once a new mail is received, the Messaging menu's icon turns green and a notification pops up. The Indicator Applet also provides quick access to your contacts and allows you to compose a new message.

A while ago we were telling you about a PPA that provides a package called "xul-ext-indicator" that integrates Thunderbird in the Ubuntu Messaging Menu. This is actually a Thunderbird extension packaged in a .deb so you can easily get updates.

Until now, "xul-ext-indicator" (Thunderbird Indicator extension) displayed a notification (using the Messaging Menu and NotifyOSD) for emails that arrived in your inbox so if you used filters for your emails, the extension failed to work. But a recent update fixes this so Thunderbird Indicator can now display notifications for emails received in any folder. If you want the old behavior (to only display notifications for emails arriving in your inbox), there is an option in the Thunderbird Indicator preferences:

To install Thunderbird Indicator in Ubuntu (the "fixed" version is only available for Ubuntu 11.04 for now), use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ruben-verweij/thunderbird-indicator
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xul-ext-indicator libnotify-bin

The latest version is only avilable for Ubuntu 11.04. In Ubuntu 10.10, you can try to install the 11.04 package or download this .deb I've created for Ubuntu 10.10 last week (this is the one I'm using - ignore the version number, it's actually 1.4).

Thanks to Radu for the screenshot!

Integrate Thunderbird In The Ubuntu Messaging Menu [PPA]

So you're looking for a really easy way to integrate Thunderbird in the Ubuntu Messaging Menu? You can try a package I've recently came across (called "xul-ext-indicator") that is available in a PPA, which adds Thunderbird to the Messaging Menu and provides quick access to your contacts, compose a new mail and unread emails. Using this package, you'll also get NotifyOSD notifications when new mail arrives.

To add the PPA and install xul-ext-indicator in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ruben-verweij/thunderbird-indicator
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xul-ext-indicator

For NotifyOSD notifications, also install the following package:

sudo apt-get install libnotify-bin

Note: I've tested it with Thunderbird 3.1.x and it worked great on all 3 computers I've used (as opposed to some other solutions for adding Thunderbird to the Messaging Menu I've tried out).

Firefox And Thunderbird Application Menu (Global Menu) On The Way For Ubuntu 11.04

In Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, Firefox and Thunderbird will finally get an AppMenu (global menu). The above screenshot shows the initial work on this done by Chris Coulson.

Just like at the beginning of the work to AppMenu, both menus show up (in Firefox and on the top panel), for testing purposes only but once the work is completed, the menu in Firefox / Thunderbird will be removed.

If you want to try it out already, you can get the code @ Launchpad.

Info and screenshot via Jorge Castro.

Thunderbird 3.1.6 Ubuntu PPA Repository [Maverick, Lucid, Karmic, Jaunty and Hardy]

You could easily install Thunderbird 3.1.x in Ubuntu using Ubuntuzilla, but that was only available for 32bit users.

A PPA repository is now available which provides the latest Thunderbird 3.1.6 (final, not daily builds) for Ubuntu Lucid - both 32bit and 64bit.

To add the PPA and install Thunderbird 3.1.6 in Ubuntu, simply paste the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ricotz/ppa && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install thunderbird

Update: I've replaced the original PPA in this post with a new PPA which provides Thunderbird 3.1.6 packages for Ubuntu Maverick (10.10), Lucid (10.04), Karmic (9.10), Jaunty (9.04) and Hardy (8.04)!

Download Thunderbird 3.1 Ubuntu .DEB

If you found the Ubuntuzilla way of installing Thunderbird 3.1 in Ubuntu a bit too hard, here is a .deb file you can download and install Thunderbird 3.1 in Ubuntu.

Note: this is the unmodified Mozilla release binary of Thunderbird, packaged into a .deb by the Ubuntuzilla project. This means they were only able to package it for 32bit since Mozilla does not provide 64bit binaries.

Download Thunderbird 3.1 Ubuntu .deb (32bit)

Many thanks to WebUpd8 reader eMcE for the tip!

How To Install Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 (Final) In Ubuntu

Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 was just released featuring faster search, quick filter toolbar, better migration assistant and many other improvements. A complete list of what's new can be found @ Mozilla's website.

There is no PPA for Ubuntu providing the latest Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 for now and there are no plans to push an update in the existing Ubuntu versions (that means Lucid too) like it happened with Firefox so the only way to install it is manually, or by using Ubuntuzilla (it works with any Ubuntu version).

So to install Thunderbird 3.1 in Ubuntu, firstly install Ubuntuzilla. You can download a .deb file from HERE.

Once Ubuntuzilla is installed successfully, to install Thunderbird 3.1, all you have to do is run the following command in a terminal:

ubuntuzilla.py -a install -p thunderbird

During the installation, Ubuntuzilla will ask you to choose the localization you want to install, so it will install Thunderbird 3.1 in your language!

If you used the manual method to install Thunderbird 3.1 we were telling you about not so long ago, then all you have to do is select "Check for updates" from the Thunderbird About menu.

Update: you can also download a Thunderbird 3.1 Ubuntu .DEB file!

Update 2: There is now a PPA repository for Thunderbird 3.1 available for Ubuntu (both 32bit and 64bit) users.

Thanks to Linux Freedom For Live

Poll Results: Best Linux Email Client

Although many users asked us to post a "best Linux email client" poll, it took us quite a long time to actually have the poll on WebUpd8. The reason? Predictable results.

But in case you still need a confirmation, here are the poll results for the best Linux email client:

Many thanks to everyone who voted in our weekly poll!

Browse all our weekly polls.

Install Thunderbird 3.1 RC 2 In Ubuntu And Other Linux Distributions

Thunderbird 3.1 release candidate 2 is out - you can read the full release notes HERE.

Unfortunately for Ubuntu users, this version is not available in the Ubuntu Mozilla Daily PPA but if you're using the version from Mozilla's website, you should receive an update today. If not, you can install Thunderbird 3.1 RC2 from Mozilla by using these commands (for any Linux distribution):

wget -O - http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/3.1rc2/linux-i686/en-US/thunderbird-3.1rc2.tar.bz2 | tar xj -C ~

The above command is for EN-US language. For other languages, edit the link above with the download link for your language which you can find HERE.

If you used the package from the Ubuntu repositories, this step is not required, but if you've installed Thunderbird 3.0 or 3.1 from a PPA, you can migrate all your profiles to the new Thunderbird installation using the following command (make a backup first!):

mkdir ~/.thunderbird
cp -r ~/.thunderbird-3.*/* ~/.thunderbird/

Then to run it, simply double click the "thunderbird" (not "thunderbird-bin"!) file from the "thunderbird" folder in your home directory.

The advantage of using Thunderbird directly from Mozilla's website is that you'll receive the updates directly from Mozilla - so you'll get them a lot sooner. This means that next week when Thunderbird 3.1 final will be released, you'll receive an update in Thunderbird and you'll no longer need to wait for a PPA to get Thunderbird 3.1 for your Ubuntu version.

Also, the package from Mozilla is built for i686, not 386 so it should be better optimized for newer processors.

Best Linux Email Client

So what's the best Linux email client? The 5 contenders are: Mutt, Evolution, KMail, Thunderbird and Claws Mail. Vote below:






Many people asked for this poll so there you have it.


If you use Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, you may want to give Evolution 2.30 a try before voting.

Install Thunderbird 3.1 Beta 2 In Ubuntu

Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 beta 2 was released, the new version featuring a new "Quick Filter" bar and better Thunderbird 2 upgrade/import tools (read full release notes).

I gave up installing Thunderbird from the Ubuntu official repositories or even Ubuntu PPAs a long time ago so nowadays I simply go to Help > Check for Updates to update my Thunderbird, because I installed the .tar.bz2 package downloaded from the Mozilla website. If you want to install it this version too in Linux, here's how to do it.

1. Download and install Thunderbird 3.1 beta 2 with one command:

wget -O - http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/3.1b2/linux-i686/en-US/thunderbird-3.1b2.tar.bz2 | tar xj -C ~

This installs Thunderbird 3.1 beta 2 in your home folder. You can download Thunderbird 3.1 beta 2 with a localization for your country by editing the "en-US" in the above url. Or manually download it from HERE.

2. If you used the package from the Ubuntu repositories, this step is not required, but if you've installed Thunderbird 3.0 or 3.1 from a PPA, you can migrate all your profiles to the new Thunderbird installation using the following command (make a backup first!):

mkdir ~/.thunderbird
cp -r ~/.thunderbird-3.*/* ~/.thunderbird/

3. Now you most probably want a menu entry or shortcut for the new Thunderbird.

a) Panel shortcut

To add a shortcut on the Gnome panel, right click a panel, select "Add to panel", select "Custom application launcher", then under "Name" enter "Thunderbird 3.1 Beta 2" and in the "Command" field, enter: "/home/your_username/thunderbird/thunderbird", replacing "your_username" with your username.


b) Menu entry.

We'll create a new .desktop file for Thunderbird 3.1 beta 2:

sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/thunderbird3beta.desktop &

and paste this in the newly created file:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Thunderbird 3.1 beta 2
Comment=Read/Write Mail/News with Mozilla Thunderbird
GenericName=Mail Client
Exec=/home/YOUR_USERNAME/thunderbird/thunderbird %u
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=thunderbird
Categories=Application;Network;Email;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;
StartupWMClass=Thunderbird-bin
StartupNotify=true

In the code above, replace YOUR_USERNAME with your username.

That's it!

Thunderbird 3.1 Beta 1 Released (And How To Install It In Ubuntu Linux)

Mozilla released the first beta of the new Thunderbird 3.1 codename Lanikai.

Lanikai Beta 1 is built on top of the Gecko 1.9.2 platform. Notable changes include:

• Several fixes to improve upgrading from Thunderbird 2.
• Several fixes for auto complete, tabs, and activity manager.
• Several design improvements and corrections to the interface.
• Stability and memory improvements.
• 119 bugs fixed
  

For a complete change log, see this page.


Download Thunderbird 3.1 Lanikai Beta 1.

Install Thunderbird 3.1 Beta 1 in Ubuntu

Thunderbird 3.1 Beta 1 is not available in the Mozilla Daily PPA (in fact, the last Thunderbird build in the PPA is from December, 2009), but you can still install the latest Thunderbird 3.1 beta 1.

The following commands will download Thunderbird 3.1 beta 1 (for En-US localisation, if you want to download Thunderbird 3.1 beta 1 for a different localisation, see THIS page and replace the download link), extract the archive, copy all the existing Thunderbird 3.0 profiles (if you installed Thunderbird 3.0 from the Mozilla daily PPA) to the new profiles location and then runs Thunderbird. Just copy/paste the commands:

wget -O - http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/3.1b1/linux-i686/en-US/thunderbird-3.1b1.tar.bz2 | tar xj -C ~
cp -r ~/.thunderbird-3.0/* ~/.thunderbird/
cd ~/thunderbird
./thunderbird

Since this version of Thunderbird is installed by using the package distributed by Mozilla, you'll have to create a shortcut on your desktop or panel. To do this, right click your panel, select "Add to panel", select "Custom application launcher", then under "Name" enter "Thunderbird 3.1 Beta 1" and in the "Command" field, enter: "/home/your_username/thunderbird/thunderbird", replacing "your_username" with your username.

Add Thunderbird To Ubuntu Indicator Applet (Experimental)

Update: there is now a PPA to easily install this. See: Integrate Thunderbird In The Ubuntu Messaging Menu [PPA]

Ruben Verweij is working on an experimental branch of the libnotify-mozilla extension for Thunderbird, which adds rudimentary support for the Indicator Applet.

Installing it is very easy. Simply paste this commands in a terminal:

bzr branch lp:~ruben-verweij/libnotify-mozilla/experimental
cd experimental/
./build.sh

Important note: If you are using Thunderbird 3.0 (Shredder or from the Mozilla website), you must go to the following folder:

experimental/components

and edit both files, replacing every occurrence of "thunderbird.desktop" with "thunderbird-3.0.desktop"! If you don't do this you will get an empty entry in the Indicator Applet.

Once you run the ./build.sh command, the extension will be built and you will find it under the "libnotify-mozilla.xpi" name in the "experimental" folder. To install it in Thunderbird, go to Tools > Addons, on the "Extensions" tab and then drag and drop the libnotify-mozilla.xpi extension that was built earlier onto it. Then restart Thunderbird.


With libnotify-mozilla.xpi extension you will of course also get the libnotify popups:

Update: there is now a PPA to easily install this. See: Integrate Thunderbird In The Ubuntu Messaging Menu [PPA]

Linux: New Mail Indicator For Thunderbird (In The Notification Area)

If you ever used Thunderbird email client in Windows, then you are probably used to seeing a systray icon which lets you know when you've got mail. In Ubuntu, you have the Indicator Applet, but that's just for Evolution so if you want an indicator for Thunderbird, you have to install it yourself.

To get a new mail indicator for Thunderbird, one option is to install FireTray extension (which also works for Firefox, Songbird, etc., with different functionality for each). To install it, simply download the .xpi file, then in Thunderbird go to Tools > Addons, select "Install" and browse for the .xpi file.

Once installed, restart Thunderbird and you will see a Thunderbird icon in your notification area. When you have a new email, this icon will turn into a number, indicating the number of new emails.

One thing you will be glad to know is that you can change the icon, so that big icon you see in the screenshots above can be changed!

How To Use Google Wave In Mozilla Thunderbird 3

Now that you've installed Mozilla Thunderbird 3, if you have a Google Wave account, maybe you would want to use it Thunderbird.

To use Google Wave in Thunderbird 3, all you have to do is navigate to Tools > Error console, paste this code:

Components.classes['@mozilla.org/appshell/window-mediator;1'].getService(Components.interfaces.nsIWindowMediator).getMostRecentWindow("mail:3pane").document.getElementById("tabmail").openTab("contentTab", {contentPage: "https://wave.google.com/wave/?nouacheck"});

and click "Evaluate":

A new tab with Google Wave will then open. The tab will be restored each time you open Thunderbird (if you don't manually close it, obviously):

And another tip: you can change the "https://wave.google.com/wave" url in the code above with any other website URL, so you can open it in Thunderbird 3 (such as Google Reader, Hootsuite, or whatever you want).

Other Google Wave articles which might interest you:

• How To Post To Twitter From Google Wave
• Google Wave Search Operators Cheat Sheet
• Fully Integrate Twitter Into Google Wave

[via kabatology & quetzalcoatal]

Install Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 Final In Ubuntu [From A PPA]

Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 was released 2 days ago and it includes a lot of improvements, such as:

• New Search with Advanced Filtering Tools
• New Global Search Field with Autocomplete
• New Mail Account Setup Wizard
• Redesigned Mail Toolbar
• Tabbed Email Messages
• Smart Folders
• New Message Summary View
• New Add-ons Manager
• Performance improvements
• and many more

You are probably used to the fact that Mozilla doesn't yet release Ubuntu .deb packages yet, but there are still quite a few ways of installing Thunderbird in Ubuntu. I am going to tell you how to install it from the Mozilla Daily PPA.

Open a terminal and paste the following commands (depending on your Ubuntu version):

-For Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa

-For Ubuntu Jaunty:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

-For Ubuntu Intrepid:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

-For Ubuntu Hardy:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu hardy main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

Then, Install Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 (a.k.a. Shredder):

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install thunderbird-3.0

You will then find Thunderbird 3.0 under Applications > Internet > Shredder 3 Mail/News

This will install a Thunderbird branded as "Shredder". If you really want Mozilla Thunderbird branded version, you can download Thunderbird from HERE, extract it and run the "thunderbird" file inside the folder where you extracted it.


Note: the PPA in this post also has some Firefox daily builds (and further "Shredder" daily builds) so if you don't wish to use these, simply remove the ubuntu-mozilla-daily PPA after installing Thunderbird. To do this, go to System > Administration > Software Sources, on the second tab called "Other software", look for "http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/..." and uncheck it.

Mozilla Thunderbird 3 Beta 4 Released

Mozilla has released a new preview version of their desktop email application in the form of Thunderbird 3 Beta 4, adding a new email search, smart folders, and more.

Most notable improvements:

New Search with Advanced Filtering Tools: Search results now include advanced filtering tools. You have the option to filter your results by sender, tag, attachments, people, folder, and mailing list. You can also filter your email using the timeline tool.

Smart Folders: The folder pane offers a Smart Folders mode which combines special mailboxes, like Inbox, from multiple accounts. Smart Folders is now on by default.

Improved Gmail Integration: Better recognition and integration of Gmail's special folders such as Sent and Trash including non-English versions of Gmail. Thunderbird also uses All Mail as the Archives folder.

Complete release notes | Download Mozilla Thunderbird Beta 4

Eudora - An Improved Thunderbird [Email Client]

Eudora is a mail and news application from Qualcomm based on the open source
Thunderbird client from Mozilla. Eudora is extended with "Penelope add-on" which also works for Thunderbird, but the Eudora installer includes some other options with this extension, which are not available for Thunderbird. Don't worry, there is no need to install Penelope if you installed Eudora, as it comes bundled with it. Being based on Thunderbird, it works on Windows, Mac OSX. Starting with version 8, Eudora it also works on Linux.

Eudora features:

• Play your music for new mail and filters
• Recent mail - A "Recent" folder was added to the Mailboxes window and a "Recent" submenu was added to both the Mailboxes and Transfer menus.
• Saved search criteria - Go to File->Save, then open the search criteria later via the menu arrow on the "Search" button.
• Add a picture or logo to your signature, you can also include a link to your company web site. Go to Edit > Insert > Downloadable Picture, to insert a hyperlinked graphic.
• ScamWatch - the program watches, that there was no "substitution" of links when in the link one address is written, and the link specifies other site.
• the Utility of import from Outlook (Windows) - very simply to import mail, contacts and investments from Outlook in Eudora, doing transition with outlook on eudora is easier than when or.
• And many others
  

Basically, it has some great tweaks that don't come with Thunderbird that make it look more professional and also some very useful features that you will only notice while using it.

Eudora 8.0b7 was released about a week ago and it includes Penelope version 0.5a4 and Thunderbird 3.0b3.

Important changes and fixes in 8.0b7:

- Search Messages now uses the fast index if turned on in the preferences, Advanced -> General -> Enable Global Search and Indexer. The checkbox "Use indexed search" in the Search Messages can be used to turn this on/off.
- Activity Monitor, About, Error Console, and Venkman windows are now saved/restored across sessions.

For full release details, go HERE.

Installing Eudora 8 beta on Linux

Download Eudora 8 beta for Linux (download link at the end of the post) and open up a terminal, then paste this:

sudo tar -C /usr/local -xvf <place where you downloaded the file>

Then create a symbolic link for easy execution:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/eudora/eudora /usr/local/bin/eudora

You can now start eudora by typung "eudora" in a terminal. You can right click your desktop or panel and create a launcher for it if you want.



Thanks Tinhed for the tip and also, expecting a comment with your impressions if you started using it :)

Download Eudora 8.0b7