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Troubles importing emails in Thunderbird

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  • Last reply by rachanab

Hi, I have a backup (the entire ".thunderbird" folder essentially, with "xyz.default', "installs.ini" and "profiles.ini) of my Thunderbird emails from my previous organisation and I wish to import these emails on the Thunderbird client at my new organisation. My mails are in Mail/Local Folders for locally saved mail, and in ImapMail/imap4.xyz.com and ImapMail/outlook.office365.com for mail that was on the previous organisation's server and I basically wish to have all the emails in Mail/Local Folders folder on my new Thunderbird installation so that I can access them offline. To do this, I copied the whole xyz.default folder to .thunderbird on my new system, and edited .thunderbird/profiles.ini to point to it, something like this:

[Profile1] Name=myemails IsRelative=1 Path=xyz.default Default=1

And then in the same file in the [General] section changed the option StartWithLastProfile=1 to 0 so that whenever you open Thunderbird you'll be asked to choose profiles.

With these steps I do see the mail folders (including imap emails) in my Thunderbird client for a brief amount of time but later only the emails in local folders are visible. Also, imap accounts keep asking me for my password since they are trying to access the server (which I do not have an access to anymore). Is there anyway I can stop it from doing this so that I can see the emails on the imap account, with the final goal being able to copy the emails from imap account (s) to the Local folders on thunderbird so that I can see those emails offline too?

Needless to say, if the above steps are wrong, I would appreciate knowing the right way to do this also.

Thanks in advance, Rach

Hi, I have a backup (the entire ".thunderbird" folder essentially, with "xyz.default', "installs.ini" and "profiles.ini) of my Thunderbird emails from my previous organisation and I wish to import these emails on the Thunderbird client at my new organisation. My mails are in Mail/Local Folders for locally saved mail, and in ImapMail/imap4.xyz.com and ImapMail/outlook.office365.com for mail that was on the previous organisation's server and I basically wish to have all the emails in Mail/Local Folders folder on my new Thunderbird installation so that I can access them offline. To do this, I copied the whole xyz.default folder to .thunderbird on my new system, and edited .thunderbird/profiles.ini to point to it, something like this: [Profile1] Name=myemails IsRelative=1 Path=xyz.default Default=1 And then in the same file in the [General] section changed the option StartWithLastProfile=1 to 0 so that whenever you open Thunderbird you'll be asked to choose profiles. With these steps I do see the mail folders (including imap emails) in my Thunderbird client for a brief amount of time but later only the emails in local folders are visible. Also, imap accounts keep asking me for my password since they are trying to access the server (which I do not have an access to anymore). Is there anyway I can stop it from doing this so that I can see the emails on the imap account, with the final goal being able to copy the emails from imap account (s) to the Local folders on thunderbird so that I can see those emails offline too? Needless to say, if the above steps are wrong, I would appreciate knowing the right way to do this also. Thanks in advance, Rach

Chosen solution

You need to get copies of the mbox files that are in the imap account name folders and put them into the 'Local Folders' mail account'.

Exit Thunderbird before you do this.

You may need to use the original backup copy. I suggest you use the right click and 'Copy' method as this will not effect the original. If those imap accounts did not have synchronised downloaded full copies of emails, but only downloaded headers then you will only see *.msf files and no mbox file (no extension). Full downloaded copies of Emails are stored in mbox files. If you see folders with *.sbd extension, it means you had subfolders, then they may contain mbox files.

I've posted an image below showing what is required.

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Chosen Solution

You need to get copies of the mbox files that are in the imap account name folders and put them into the 'Local Folders' mail account'.

Exit Thunderbird before you do this.

You may need to use the original backup copy. I suggest you use the right click and 'Copy' method as this will not effect the original. If those imap accounts did not have synchronised downloaded full copies of emails, but only downloaded headers then you will only see *.msf files and no mbox file (no extension). Full downloaded copies of Emails are stored in mbox files. If you see folders with *.sbd extension, it means you had subfolders, then they may contain mbox files.

I've posted an image below showing what is required.

Many thanks for the solution! This has solved my problem! Thanks again :)