How do I export a whole mailbox from Thunderbird?

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 12:43 pm

Instead of clicking though each one by one and saving as?

If there isn't an option, is there another email client that will let me import Thunderbird mail like Thunderbird will from other clients? And maybe THAT one will let me save a whole mailbox without spending god knows how long exporting each one separately?

Rashidi · Post by **Rashidi** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:33 pm

does it have POP3 support?

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:41 pm

what exactly are you trying to do? lemme rephrase this: why do you need to do this?

this seems like a good addon for thunderbird

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:47 pm

Well, simply because my installation is long overdue for a reformat, and I have a -lot- of saved email.

So there's really no way to do this? How come? Nobody who made the app thought anyone would ever want to uninstall Thunderbird or reformat their PC?

Rashidi wrote:does it have POP3 support?

Well yeah. I admittedly don't know much about the inner workings of email, but isn't that pretty much a given?

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:05 pm

blackmyst wrote:Well, simply because my installation is long overdue for a reformat, and I have a -lot- of saved email.

So there's really no way to do this? How come? Nobody who made the app thought anyone would ever want to uninstall Thunderbird or reformat their PC?

Rashidi wrote:does it have POP3 support?
Well yeah. I admittedly don't know much about the inner workings of email, but isn't that pretty much a given?

the easy to backup is this:

copy the %APPDATA%\thunderbird directory somewhere, then copy it back when done

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 11:50 pm

Well yeah. I admittedly don't know much about the inner workings of email, but isn't that pretty much a given?

POP3 is a standard email protocol, so yes.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:02 am

funkyass wrote:the easy to backup is this:

copy the %APPDATA%\thunderbird directory somewhere, then copy it back when done

Yeah I thought of that, but it seems kind of hackish and error prone. :/ Also, I'd like to switch to a mail client that does let me do this.

Ah well, if all else fails I'll just do what you mentioned anyway.

snkcube · Post by **snkcube** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:27 am

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answ ... opic=13271

Gmail has the ability to move mail from another email client to theirs easily.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:29 am

snkcube wrote:http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answ ... opic=13271

Gmail has the ability to move mail from another email client to theirs easily.

Most e-mail clients do.

The problem arises when you don't actually want to change e-mail clients.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 2:38 pm

snkcube wrote:http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answ ... opic=13271

Gmail has the ability to move mail from another email client to theirs easily.

Does this work with actual PC based apps instead of just with other online mail services?

To clarify: these are not stored online messages. These are already downloaded to the PC. Just need to get them out of Mozilla's mailbox format without having to click save as for each of the 500 something emails. Then switch to another (not online based) mail client which won't give me this nonsense in the future. :\

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:20 pm

did you check the link I posted?

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:38 pm

funkyass wrote:did you check the link I posted?

Whoops, I didn't, because the link doesn't show in this forum skin. I thought you were just suggesting an addon to be made, haha.

It seems to do exactly what I want, but this comment worries me:

Sorry for the goose egg, but if it doesn't work, it shouldn't get a rating. There is no logical explanation for the error counts of messages, it is not consistent in the error and appears to be random. When you want to export a folder, you want to do just that, all messages, not some, not a few or a range, ALL. It doesn't do that and therefore it doesn't work and should be taken off the board.

Ehh well whatever. It works, and I don't seem to be missing any messages. This thread could've been over much sooner had I paid more attention. :p Thanks!