Most everyone uses Mozbackup.

http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

Use ImportExportTools to create automatic or manual backups and to restore profiles.

Thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't heard of that before. But, frankly, I don't particularly trust freeware from outside sources for something like my email and passwords and such. I would much prefer if it was built right into Thunderbird itself so I knew it was secure.

Perhaps If it were an add-on that came directly from Mozilla, I might be inclined to try it. I just don't understand why they haven't done that already. It's a pretty important utility to have these days.

sfhowes... I see the "Import" option on the Thunderbird Tools menu, but there's no export anywhere that I can find.

As I said, it's just sad that the developers of Mozilla don't see fit to include it as an integral part of their software. I mean... Come On! Everyone needs to back up their email and profiles at some point. Why would you want to rely on an outside app for that? And a lot of us just don't trust "the Cloud" I have my own external drives for that.

If you look at the first picture of my reply, note that Export is under Tools/ImportExportTools.

The add-on is one of many provided by the developer, and is probably one of the most widely used. It is frequently updated, perhaps more often that if it were part of the TB code.

Another option is to select Help/Troubleshooting Information, click Show Folder, exit TB, go up one level to show the Profiles folder, right-click a profile folder, Add to archive..., then right-click the archive file, Send To... and select your external drive (or just copy the profile folder without adding to an archive).

If you go up one more level, backing up the Thunderbird folder, you have a complete data set that, with a few minor changes, can be transferred to other computers, even ones with different operating systems

Okay, I'm just not seeing it. What version of Thunderbird are you using? I was using version 24, which I installed back in June, and just updated to 31.1.2 and there was no change in the menu. This is what I have in Tools. (see Image) As you can see, it looks nothing like the image you posted.

Am I missing something? Is there an Ad-On I need to install? I really appreciate your help figuring this thing out.

Also... Assuming I can find this Export option, the other question I have is, when you set up an automatic back up, does it copy over everything or only new files and existing one which have been modified. Just curious how efficient it is because I have numerous accounts with thousands of saved emails in various folders, and it wouldn't make sense to continuously overwrite the files that had not changed along with the ones that had.

Did you install the ImportExportTools add-on cited in my first reply?

http://chrisramsden.vfast.co.uk/3_How_to_install_Add-ons_in_Thunderbird.html

If you check the 2nd picture in that post, note the option for incremental backups. Since mail is stored in single mbox files, a change to a single message may require saving the entire folder. You may prefer to export folders as eml files (one eml file for every message).

Okay, I've got it now. I didn't realize you had posted a link to an add-on with those pictures above. I did a search but couldn't find it. Strangely, when I go to the add-on page in either Thunderbird or Firefox and search "Import Export Tools", it doesn't find that add-on. No idea why, but thanks for sending the link.

If all the email messages are stored in one big file, then I suppose it doesn't matter that it overwrites the whole thing each time. I was under the impression that they were all separate and it would have to sit there and dump the entire archive every time it did a backup. No biggie.

Again, Thank you for your help.