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How to change the data/storage directory
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Dasha Zolotko
  • February 18, 2021 10:56
  • Updated

Changing the data directory is currently not supported from within Mailbird, and we cannot offer technical support for this, however there is a relatively easy way to accomplish the same thing if you don't mind fiddling with Windows a little bit. We cannot take responsibility if you break anything though and the below is only listed as a suggestion.

What you can do is to move the data directory to where you want it, then create a hard symbolic link from the original location to the new location. In the eyes of Mailbird, nothing has changed, but in reality your data directory has moved. Note that Mailbird has a separate data directory for each Windows user on your system, so if using Mailbird from multiple user accounts, you need to do this for each user individually and to different locations.

Please refer to this guide for creating symbolic links in Windows:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

First, set Mailbird to not run on startup, and then restarted my Windows 10 desktop PC.

To find the data directory, open Mailbird and hold down CTRL and SHIFT while clicking on the main menu. This will enable a hidden item called 'Open Data Directory'. Click it, and Windows Explorer will pop up and open the folder.

Now, shut down Mailbird and move the entire folder somewhere else and create the hard symbolic link.

For instance, if my Windows user name is: 'John Doe', and I moved the data directory to 'C:\Mailbird Data' I would set up the symbolic link by typing this in the Windows 7 command line (note the quotes around the paths to the folders, as there are spaces in them):

mklink /d "C:\Users\John Doe\AppData\Local\Mailbird" "C:\Mailbird Data"

Now if you try to go to the old data location you will actually go to the new location instead. That's it! You have successfully moved your data directory.

-----

If you're experiencing issues running mklink, try the junction program from Microsoft to create a junction link instead. It should effectively accomplish the same thing as far as Mailbird is concerned:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/junction

Or if you're still experiencing issues, try using this Windows Explorer extension instead:
https://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html

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