Thunderbird/Enterprise/Migration

Migration From Thunderbird 2.0 To Thunderbird 3.0

Warning: This is Draft

• This is draft of Migration Guide for corporate users.
• Migration Guide is being tried to create, because we knew this kind of documentation is needed in Bug 562589. This draft is a brief summary of knowledge about auto-sync/offline-use settings obtained in the Bug 562589 (as of 2010/05/06).

Background

Upon release of Thunderbird 3.0, next big changes were made.

• Gloda(Global Search and Indexer) is enabled by default.
• Auto-sync of IMAP folders is enabled by default for all IMAP accounts.
• Per folder "offline use" setting of all IMAP folders is set to "offline use=ON" by default upon migration(first use of Tb 3.0.x).
• View of folder pane is forced to "Smart Folders" even though "All Folders" is Tb 2 user's ordinal choice in his daily use.
• Tb 2's "Account Wizard" and Tb3.0beta's "Account Wizard for Gmail IMAP" is removed before official release of Tb 3.0.0.

But spec of above changes, required settings for above changes, are not so well documented yet. This Migration Guide is to avoid confusions upon upgrade from Tb 2.0.x to Tb 3.0.x by people who has to manage corporate system, around above big/important/drastic changes by Tb 3.0.x.

Disable Migration Wizard

lockPref("mailnews.ui.show.migration.on.upgrade",false);

Disable Gloda(Global Search and Indexer)

Gloda is new feature of Thunderbird 3.0 and is enabled by default. Corporate users usually doesn't want very different behaviour from Thunderbird 2. Disable Gloda before migration.

But how? Is it possible? Enhancement is needed?

Disable Auto-sync, Keep per folder "offline use" setting

Auto-sync of IMAP folders is enabled by default for all IMAP accounts. And per folder "offline use" setting of all IMAP folders is set to "offline use=ON" by default upon first use of Tb 3.

1. Disable auto-sync (one of next two, or both for fail safe)
   • lockPref("mail.server.default.autosync_offline_stores", false);
   • lockPref("mail.server." + serverFromAccount + ".autosync_offline_stores", false);
2. Disable per folder "offline use" setting change upon migration
   • lockPref("mail.server." + serverFromAccount + ".offline_download", false);

Hints&Tips

• mail.server.serverX.offline_download (default=true)
  • When an IMAP folder is created or subscribed, set offline use=off if false, set offline use=on if true. i.e. This setting is for default of offline use=on/off of an IMAP folder.
  • It's enhanced by bug 562589, and next meaning is added.
    • Upon first use of Tb 3, if serverX.offline_download=false is set before upgrade, IMAP folder's "offline use" is not touched by Migration code of Tb 3.
• Current behaviour of UI for auto-sync setting:
  • Unchecked->Checked
    1. Set mail.server.serverX.offline_download=true
    2. Set offline use=on of all folders of the IMAP account
  • Checked->Unchecked
    1. Set mail.server.serverX.offline_download=false
    2. Set offline use=off of all folders of the IMAP account
• Gloda and auto-sync/offline-use are possibly independent, althoug relevant.
  • "Download Now" button downloads mail to offline-use regardless of offline-use=On/Off.
  • "Download Now" button seems to be intercepted and discarded if auto-sync is enabled and offline-use=On. It looks due to already started schedule based automatic downloading.
  • Auto-sync automatically downloads mail data to offline-store if auto-sync is enabled and if offline-use=On is set in an IMAP folder.
  • "Work Offline" automatcally downloads mail data to offline-store automatically, if per folder offline-use=On is set in an IMAP folder.
  • Gloda indexes mail data in offline-store, if mail data is saved in offline-store, perhaps regardless of auto-sync is enabled/disabled and offline-use=On/Off and Working Online/Working Offline.

"Smart Folders" view at folder pane

View of folder pane is changed to "Smart Folders" by default. As ordinal use is "All Folders", change to "All Folders" should be recommended to users, in order to avoid unwanted questions to Help Center.

Can "forcing Smart Folders view" be stopped? How? Is it possible? Enhancement is needed? Tb 3.1 won't force "Smart Folders" view(or renamed one) upon upgrade?

Account definition by autoconfig

As only "autoconfig" is availabe for account definition, setups for autoconfig should be carefully done, in order to avoid user's confusions due to unexpected behaior of autoconfig or failure during autoconfig, if account definition by user himself is permitted.

IMAP folder file location

Because default of IMAP folder file location is profile directory, big offline-store file produces problem of "too big roaming profile", if Roaming Profile is used. Even if Roaming Profile is not used, performance problem may arise, if profile is located on network resource or if MS Win's Offline File(CSC) is used for the big offline-store file.

In such cases, you need to choose one of next.

1. When Gloda is mandatory for IMAP mail data
   • Locate mail directory for IMAP account at location with which remote/network access won't happen(e.g. "Local Settings" of MS Win), and accept download of all mails to any PC which uses the IMAP account.
2. When Gloda is not needed for IMAP mail data
   • Disable auto-sync of all IMAP account, and locate IMAP folder file at any place.
     • As new feature of "Disk Cache for mail in IMAP folder of offline-use=off" in added to Tb 3, mail data of viewed mail is held in far larger Disk Cache than very small memory cache of Thunderbird 2. So, frequency of problem like "repeatedly downloaded big attachment data" is reduced very much copared to Thunderbird 2.