Forum der Gemeinschaft Thunderbird

Hi. Please could you guide me through moving my email messages from a POP3 account on one Mac to another? I have an old iMac (late 2015, Monterey) that I am tearing down for parts, but this has been my main Thunderbird computer. It is running the latest version of Thunderbird (153.0.2), as I updated it to do the Export. I am trying to move my email accounts onto my M1 Macbook Pro. When I first installed Thunderbird on the Macbook I was delighted to see that my data and settings for the IMAP accounts had somehow miraculously (to me!) migrated. But I have a POP3 account which has only partially moved across. It seems to be receiving new emails, but all the Inbox history is missing, and other folders such as Drafts and Sent are not there either, I just have Inbox, Spam and Deleted. I have tried your Export/Import method twice, but to no avail. In the expanded profile on my USB stick I can see Mail>mail.oddplanetstudios.co.uk which looks like it might contain all the files and messages. Now I want to move them across into Thunderbird, but I don't know what the steps are to do this. I would be very grateful if you could lead me through this, if it is indeed what I need to do, or give me some directions to do it differently. Many thanks.

My ISP changed us to another mail provider. So I created a new version of my existing email with different server settings, then restored my email backup. I did this all offline and it was successful. All my emails and folders were there.

Next, I went online to download new email, after which all of the messages and folders from the backup were removed (overwritten). I've tried repeating the process by removing the new account and reinstalling it, but I can't get my old emails and folders back. This is a significant problem because I have over a decade of financial and legal emails in the backup. I have tried a number of the solutions posted in the Community but have not been successful in getting my emails back. I'm using Windows 10 and Thunderbird 115.10.1.

Any insights are most appreciated.

I backed up my Thunderbird folder on my old pc, and moved it to my new pc. When I started Thunderbird, the appearance of the Inbox, plus my Address Book, was moved to the new pc. I don't see the Local Folders (and all the messages I put into the Local Folders) from my old pc, on the new pc Thunderbird app. I checked that the "Profile Folder" under Troubleshooting / Application Basics, was selected for the profile I moved from the old PC. I can see in the profile folder all the Local Folders. Any idea on how to get Thunderbird to recognize these transferred Local Folders and contents, so I can continue to access them on my new pc running Thunderbird ? Thanks

Old PC died and will not start up. I bought a new PC and was able to recover most file in the initiating the new desktop. I installed Mozilla Thunderbird on the new PC, but when I opened it only 55 EMAILS were available with the oldest being about 2 weeks old dating back to July 16, 2026. Is there a time limit for maintaining EMAILS online? Also, all of my contacts and Calendar events are not available.

I had created several folders to save important EMAILS and none of those sub-folders are visible to me. How do I get to those folders and EMAILS? Contacts and calendar are not as important, but they were used all of the time to communicate and stay on schedule

I tried to import using the tool provided, but received the following message: Import failed unexpectedly, more information may be available in the error console.

I have lots of important information that I can't access!

Help

I have 3 computers. Two are running Windows, and one is running Linux. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Linux Mint has Thunderbird built in. I keep the two Windows computers in sync with a file compare program, "Beyond Compare" Are my local folders compatible between the two operating systems so I can sync my Linux Thunderbird local folders with the ones I have stored in Windows Thunderbird local files?

Are txt files stored the same in both NTFS and ext4 systems?

I want to get all my emails down and saved before Yahoo starts deleting them. I asked already and got directed to the tool Importexporttool.NG which I got. Installed. Tried it. It didn't work. Something wrong on that machine. Big mess. Now I am here on a new machine: linux mint, new Thunderbird. complete with the tool. I have got two accounts with yahoo. I have one set up via IMAP and it has downloaded everything. Inbox and nearly 100 custom folders. The second one is not set up yet. Next step I think is to get all these emails, custom folders and all, into 'local folders'. Then set up the other account and do the same Then I'm done. Right now I have a hitch: can't clearly see how to do this with Importexporttoolng and certainly don't see any other way. You will appreciate that with 100 folders manual on each folder is something i want to avoid if i possibly can. We only have about three days left I think. Anyone can steer me through this?

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Environment:

Thunderbird: 153.0.2esr (64-bit) Operating system: Windows Occurs with multiple email accounts Reproduced on two different computers running the same Thunderbird version

Description:

After updating Thunderbird to version 153.0.2esr, released on 4 August 2026, emails can no longer be dragged and dropped from Thunderbird to the Windows Desktop or any folder in Windows Explorer.

The problem occurs with all tested email accounts and folders. It has been reproduced independently on two different Windows computers using the same Thunderbird version.

Saving an email manually with Ctrl+S works correctly and creates the .eml file. Normal drag-and-drop between folders in Windows Explorer also works. Only dragging an email from Thunderbird to Windows Explorer fails.

The issue also appears to affect third-party applications that use Thunderbird to create or send emails automatically.

Steps to reproduce:

Open Thunderbird 153.0.2esr on Windows. Select an email in any account or folder. Drag the email to the Desktop or another folder in Windows Explorer. Release the mouse button.

Actual result:

The email is not copied or saved to the selected Windows folder.

Expected result:

Thunderbird should export the email as an .eml file in the selected folder.

Additional information:

Ctrl+S successfully saves the same email. The issue affects every tested email account. Thunderbird extensions were disabled, but the problem remained. Thunderbird Troubleshoot Mode did not resolve the issue. Restarting Thunderbird, Windows Explorer and Windows did not resolve it. Thunderbird and Windows Explorer are not running with different elevation levels. The problem was reproduced on a second computer after installing the same Thunderbird version. No relevant error is shown in Thunderbird’s Error Console when the drag-and-drop operation fails. The issue was not present before the recent Thunderbird update.

This appears to be a regression in Thunderbird 153.0.2esr affecting email export through drag-and-drop and possibly Thunderbird’s integration with external applications.

I found a bug in Thunderbird 153.0.2esr version that wasn't a problem in previous versions. When I drag an email from Thunderbird into a folder in Windows File Explorer (Windows 10 PC), when I drop the email into the folder, I get an error box titled :Error Moving File or Folder", with the contents with a large red X and text "Unspecified error".

The workaround is to right-click the selected email(s) and choose "Save As...".

Anybody else here able to reproduce this and confirm it is a bug?

I have 3 computers. Two are running Windows, and one is running Linux. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Linux Mint has Thunderbird built in. I keep the two Windows computers in sync with a file compare program, "Beyond Compare" Are my local folders compatible between the two operating systems so I can sync my Linux Thunderbird local folders with the ones I have stored in Windows Thunderbird local files?

Are txt files stored the same in both NTFS and ext4 systems?

I'm changing email servers and need the best way to automatically backup my complete(multiple domains and user accounts) emails in thunderbird to a separate drive or local machine before changing servers. I would prefer an automated way to do this so I can continue to update backup file routinely

I already back up my profile regularly to a remote drive

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

Hello - new forum user with some previous familiarity with Thunderbird. I'm looking for advice on mail import from Outlook (M365) on Mac OS. I will only be using TBird for accessing historical mails in future rather than as the main mail app going forward.

I have installed Thunderbird and looked at the Import Tool but it doesn't list Outlook as an option. I've looked through the Import Tool support pages and I can see Outlook is an import option but it only seems to appear when I filter the web page based on Windows 11 rather than Mac OS.

Am I able to use the Import Tool on Mac OS with Outlook?

I'm using Mac OS Monterey 12.7.6 and have Thunderbird 153.0.1 and Outlook for Mac 16.89 (M365) installed.

If the Import Tool isn't available, is the next best option to drag individual folders from Outlook to the Mac desktop to create MBOX folders and then drag those into Thunderbird?

Thank you in advance.

I have Thunderbird on the old computer. For twenty+ years I have read the instructions for moving it to the new computer. i cannot understand/am not at all confident in my ability AND I have only ONE keyboard/mouse. I have to move it from one computer to the other to operate them.

Right now all email is on the old computer, no email is on the new computer. No email has ever been on my cellular telephone. One set of periforals - keyboard/mouse.

I DO have the Bravura, the Plugable transfer cable and accompanying software, and many other things came across, but not the Thunderbird.

I want to do the move/installation correctly so that not one stored email is lost or corrupted.

I need help.

I purchased an Iphone 17 Pro Max and am trying to get the same email as I do through Thunderbird on my I Phone. How do I set this up so that I can see the same email on both the pc an Iphone

To be really useful to me I need Thunderbird to be able to read my Outlook pst-files.

For years my practice has been to move emails from the ost-file to the pst-file too limit the size of the ost-file. Both files are localized on my computer but only the emails in the ost-file are in my gmail-account. So the method helps me limit the size of my gmail-account but still gives me total access to my email-history.

Without a similar possibility in Thunderbird it's difficult for me to leave Outlook, which I really want to. Can you help me?

I am trying to import some mbox files to help sort scrape and sort my emails for a long ongoing complaint with my housing. However I can’t get past finding the local folder to then import the mbox file? Does anyone know where this is? I am using latest Thunderbird 153.0 and MacOSX Tahoe 26.5.1 Thank you.

I am upgrading from my old HP computer running Windows 10 (not window 11 compatible) to a new Lenovo PC running windows 11. How can I transfer all my emails and email files to the new computer sothat I do not lose them?

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to access some old emails which I know were stored on a laptop running Ubuntu 20.04. The laptop was wiped years ago but I have restored the data from a backup in October 2023 or thereabouts.

When I try to open Thunderbird it throws up a dialogue saying 'You have launched an older version of Thunderbird' suggesting I need to re-create my accounts. I just need to access the emails from the restored data and I'm worried if I connect to the mail server that my settings might just erase the emails all over again.

What should I do?

Thanks in advance. Any help would be gratefully received.

The Windows 10 PC crashed after an update, but I have command line access. I copied the profile folder from the Thunderbird installation to a USB drive, but can't find a way to move the subfolders (like 'name' and 'name.msf') to an existing installation on the new PC.

Is there a way to import these into the new installation?