[Evolution] Backup strategy and move evolution data among two or more PCs

[John Lauterbach <lauterba bellsouth net>]

There appears to be much confusion on how to do this for those who are not on servers.

I use my laptop for evolution (3.16.0 running under Ubuntu 15.04).  I also have a desktop with same version of evolution and same OS.

Home directories of both PC as well as other partitions on each SSD are backed up remotely to SpiderOak.

I regularly backup evolution using the backup function and store the backups on a SSD partition that is only for data files.  In other words, I can reinstall Ubuntu and not have to worry about overwriting evolution back up files.  These data partitions are also backed up on SpiderOak.  Before doing backups make sure evolution is set to NOT retrieve e-mails when first opened.

I also regularly move an evolution backup file to one of my desktop PCs.  My evolution backup files are about 5.6 GB in size so I copy the backup file to a Western Digital Passport drive (500 GB).  I then move the Passport drive to the desktop PC and copy the backup file to the SSD on the desktop PC. I generally place in the Desktop folder, but that is arbitrary choice on my part.  I then restore evolution to the desktop PC.  Again, evolution on desktop had been set previously NOT to retrieve e-mail when it is opened.  Once the restore is complete I visually check to see that important mail folders are still intact.

I have used this procedure for almost a year now, and the only problems I have had are when the copy to/from Passport drive does not run correctly.

Thank you for reading.  Please critique.

John