Sharing your Thunderbird and Firefox data between Ubuntu and Windows

Filed under: Internet, OS Updates, Windows, Linux, E-mail, Productivity, How-Tos

Sharing your Thunderbird and Firefox data between Ubuntu and Windows

by Grant Robertson May 23rd 2007

Dual booting Windows and Ubuntu and still need to share the same settings and data from Firefox and Thunderbird between your two favorite OSes? It's much easier than you think.

First you'll need a place to store the data which is visible in both OSes. If you have a separate FAT32 partition -- a strategy used by many a dual-boot wizard -- that's a great start! Create a directory on that partition called 'share' and inside that, create one folder for Firefox and one for Thunderbird.

Next, copy your current Firefox and Thunderbird data to the new directory. You can't merge your existing profiles from Windows and Linux so, you'll have to choose your favorite. Under Linux, the Firefox data you need will be stored in ~/.mozilla/firefox/ and the data for Thunderbird should be in ~/.mozilla-thunderbird/Profiles. Copy the data from those directories the new directory we created in the first step.

(If you're looking for your Thunderbird and Firefox data under Windows, you'll likely find it in C:/Documents and Settings/user/Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/ )

Finally, you'll need to create a new profile under both the Windows and Linux versions of each program. The easiest way to open the profile manager in both applications is from the command line. In Windows you'll open the command prompt and run 'thunderbird.exe -profilemanager' and 'firefox.exe -profilemanager'. In Linux the applications have different filenames('mozilla-thunderbird -profilemanager' and 'firefox -profilemanager', but you'll notice it's still the same command line switch.

Use profile manager to create a new profile (and delete the old.. make sure you have a backup!) and set the profile directory to the newly created copy under that 'share' folder we created in step one. Presto! Now you're using the same data in Linux and Windows for your favorite browser and Email client.

Thanks Shevin!

Tags: dual boot, dual boot tips, DualBoot, DualBootTips, firefox, thunderbird

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Matt Fletcher said 8:23AM on 5-24-2007

Presumably, if linux can already read the FAT32 partition where my windows thunderbird install is, I could just point the linux thunderbird to the existing windows profile folder, and not have to move it for both OSes?

Ankher said 4:31PM on 5-24-2007

Hello? Anybody home? Feisty Fawn can read NTFS partitions. So you don't have to move anything from both. All you have to do (provided you have Ubuntu) is go to ubuntuforums.org and ask how. (or search for it)

Magic Power said 8:45PM on 5-25-2007

It IS possible to reroute Firefox's and Thunderbirds' Linux profiles to the Windows partition, since Linux can read/write to NTFS partitions quite well (e.g. ntfs-3g).

But just take the time to reroute both versions. You'll only have to reroute them once, but more important: You even keep your profiles when you reinstall either OS. Otherwise, you'ld have to take special actions when you're reinstalling Windows: Not only copying the profiles, but also setting them back afterwards with exactly the same path, and exactly the same login-name.

I've used this shared-OS-map method for a long time already, and find it very handy.

It is also possible to only route your bookmarks if you want. And this can even be done for Opera. (my favourite browser).

Firefox:
- Go to about:config in address bar.
- Add this key: browser.bookmarks.file
- Point that key to where your (shared) Firefox bookmarks are kept.

Opera:
- Go to Bookmarks->Manage (Might be differently named, I'm not English).
- Right-click->File->Open and point to your shared bookmarks file.

Garry said 5:33AM on 7-10-2007

The easiest way is to use a USB pen drive, install the suite of PortableApps.com and then use in any windows and run under 'wine' in linux.
Works so well - use mine in window at work with all docs and then run it under linux wine when I am at home and it works a treat ...

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