I'm transffering my email provider from outlook.office 365 to gmail and changing computer and want to avoid losing data on the way
Currently I have an account with an old email address handled by a service using outlook.office365, since my original ISP no longer handles email. At renewal this is too expensive so I have set up a gmail account and am in the process of notifying correspondents and websites. Both accounts are handled by Thunderbird. Soon the old account will close and I don't want to lose my store of emails. Your procedure to use gmail to move messages looks promising. Who stores them - the email handler or Thunderbird?
Your support system would not accept my new email address despite issuing password reset emails so I am having to use my old address.
I also need to move Thunderbird to a new computer since my old laptop is too underpowered to be upgraded. So I need to be sure both changes do not leave a hole for old mails to fall through. To make things more difficult I also I have an older store of emails in a format which is not compatible so I have also to convert them before I can dispose of my old laptop. Please advise the safest sequence of moves.
Chosen solution
Addressing just the first part of your query, the "ownership" of your messages depends on the account type.
If the account uses POP then the messages are stored on your local system, almost always on your hard disk. The downside of them being stored in a POP-connected account is that if or when you lose access to the server, the account will still want to connect to the server and will generate irritating error messages when it does so.
If you are using IMAP then the only safe answer is to accept that they are stored on the provider's server. Your email client may keep local copies to speed up browsing and search, but these copies are tied to the original messages on the server and will be deleted if the server copies are deleted.
The answer to both these situations is to move messages to Thunderbird's Local Folders, which ensures that you have copies on your own local storage.
Storing messages online, i.e. in an IMAP-connected account has the huge advantage that when you switch to a new computer and add that account to its email client, those messages just automatically appear without you having to do any copying or transferring. Both the old and new computers are looking at the one common set of files on the server.
I can't answer for whether or not online is right for you. I like the convenience of having pretty much all of my email history available to my three computers, my tablet and my phone, all via IMAP. Others would consider that having mail stored online is just too dangerous and insecure, arguing that leaving messages on a server makes them accessible to inspection by third parties, including government agencies (NSA, GCHQ etc).
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Chosen Solution
Addressing just the first part of your query, the "ownership" of your messages depends on the account type.
If the account uses POP then the messages are stored on your local system, almost always on your hard disk. The downside of them being stored in a POP-connected account is that if or when you lose access to the server, the account will still want to connect to the server and will generate irritating error messages when it does so.
If you are using IMAP then the only safe answer is to accept that they are stored on the provider's server. Your email client may keep local copies to speed up browsing and search, but these copies are tied to the original messages on the server and will be deleted if the server copies are deleted.
The answer to both these situations is to move messages to Thunderbird's Local Folders, which ensures that you have copies on your own local storage.
Storing messages online, i.e. in an IMAP-connected account has the huge advantage that when you switch to a new computer and add that account to its email client, those messages just automatically appear without you having to do any copying or transferring. Both the old and new computers are looking at the one common set of files on the server.
I can't answer for whether or not online is right for you. I like the convenience of having pretty much all of my email history available to my three computers, my tablet and my phone, all via IMAP. Others would consider that having mail stored online is just too dangerous and insecure, arguing that leaving messages on a server makes them accessible to inspection by third parties, including government agencies (NSA, GCHQ etc).
Thanks for your reply. Sorry I've been so long without reporting in. I needed to do a lot of housekeepig in orfer to transfers to logical Local Folders.
I also had trouble with my account as I mentioned in the second paragraph.
I've now transferred my profile over via a file server.
All well now.