FossaMail Portable: A Complete Guide to Setup and Use

How to Backup and Migrate Your FossaMail Portable Profile

Overview

Backing up and migrating a FossaMail Portable profile preserves emails, accounts, address books, filters, and settings so you can restore them on the same machine or move them to a new computer or a fresh FossaMail Portable install.

What to back up

• Profile folder (contains mail, settings, extensions)
• Address books (abook.mab, history.mab) if present
• Filters and message rules (msgFilterRules.dat)
• Mail folders (Mail/ and ImapMail/)
• Certificates and keys (cert9.db, key4.db)
• prefs.js (custom preferences)
• extensions/ and chrome/ directories (optional, for add-ons/themes)

Locate the profile

1. In FossaMail Portable, open Help > Troubleshooting Information.
2. Under “Profile Folder” click “Open Folder” (or navigate to the portable app’s Data\profile\ folder).
3. If not available, look inside the FossaMail Portable folder for a “Data\profile” or “Portable Settings” directory.

Backup steps (single-machine)

1. Close FossaMail Portable completely.
2. Copy the entire profile folder (recommended) to a safe location (external drive, cloud storage).
   • To keep file permissions and timestamps, use a zip tool or file-copy utility.
3. Optionally export address books:
   • Address Book > Tools > Export > select format (LDIF/CSV).
4. Verify the backup by opening the copied folder and checking for expected files (Mail, prefs.js).

Migrate to another FossaMail Portable install

1. Install or extract FossaMail Portable on the destination computer.
2. Run FossaMail Portable once, then close it to create the default profile structure.
3. Replace the destination profile folder with your backed-up profile folder (match the same folder name/path under Data\profile).
4. Start FossaMail Portable. Your accounts, mail, and settings should appear.
5. If accounts don’t show, check prefs.js for paths referencing the old location and update them to the new relative paths.

Migrate to a non-portable FossaMail / Thunderbird-style client

1. Install target client (e.g., desktop FossaMail/Thunderbird).
2. Locate the desktop client’s profile folder (Help > Troubleshooting Information).
3. Close the target client.
4. Copy Mail, ImapMail, address book files, cert9.db, key4.db, prefs.js into the target profile folder. Backup existing files first.
5. Start the target client. You may need to re-enter account passwords if password databases differ.

Handling passwords

• Passwords are stored in key4.db/cert9.db and must be copied for saved passwords to work.
• If encryption or master password is used, you’ll need it to access saved passwords after migration.

Troubleshooting

• Missing messages: ensure Mail and ImapMail folders copied entirely.
• Profiles not recognized: ensure folder names and profiles.ini (if used) point to correct profile path.
• Corrupt prefs: if FossaMail fails to start, try removing prefs.js (it will regenerate) then reconfigure key settings manually.
• Extensions/themes not working: copy extensions/ and chrome/ folders, or reinstall add-ons.

Quick checklist

• Close FossaMail Portable
• Copy full profile folder (recommended)
• Backup certificate/key files
• Export address books (optional)
• Replace profile folder on destination
• Start app and verify mail/accounts
• Re-enter passwords if needed

If you want, I can provide exact path examples for Windows (portable folder structure) or step-by-step copy commands (robocopy/rsync) for your OS.