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moving a LOT of emails before closing an account

  • 2 replies
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  • Last reply by mfidelman

mfidelman
mfidelman

Hi Folks,

I'm about to shut down an old email account - currently accessed using Thunderbird & IMAP. I'd like to simply bulk move 1000s of messages, across multiple folders, to either an account on a server we run, or to my laptop. Just dragging stuff between folders just stalls out. So what I'm wondering is:

- if I just switch to "store messages on this computer" - how do I determine when/whether everything has synced up (i.e., when can I be comfortable shutting down the account) - there doesn't seem to be any easy indicator, or,

- there seem to be several plug-ins for doing bulk imports/exports - any suggestions

Basically, it's my Dad's account, he died a year ago, and I really don't have time to go through everything for historical significance (lots of family history, he was a writer as well) - and I don't want to keep paying Earthlink $20/month to keep the account open. Just want to do a quick-and-dirty download or transfer, and deal with stuff later.

Any help/suggestions much appreciated!

Thanks,

Miles Fidelman

Hi Folks, I'm about to shut down an old email account - currently accessed using Thunderbird & IMAP. I'd like to simply bulk move 1000s of messages, across multiple folders, to either an account on a server we run, or to my laptop. Just dragging stuff between folders just stalls out. So what I'm wondering is: - if I just switch to "store messages on this computer" - how do I determine when/whether everything has synced up (i.e., when can I be comfortable shutting down the account) - there doesn't seem to be any easy indicator, or, - there seem to be several plug-ins for doing bulk imports/exports - any suggestions Basically, it's my Dad's account, he died a year ago, and I really don't have time to go through everything for historical significance (lots of family history, he was a writer as well) - and I don't want to keep paying Earthlink $20/month to keep the account open. Just want to do a quick-and-dirty download or transfer, and deal with stuff later. Any help/suggestions much appreciated! Thanks, Miles Fidelman

Chosen solution

Thunderbird doesn't like it when you move or copy too many messages at a time, hence the stalling. You want to do so using smaller batches of no more than 2000 messages at a time. The smaller the batch the better. I suggest you copy instead of move. I recommend you create a local folder, then copy them there. You can monitor progress using the Activity Manager, accessible via the Tools menu. No need for add-ons.

Alternatively, you could use a proper email archiving solution like MailStore.

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All Replies (2)

Stans
Stans

Chosen Solution

Thunderbird doesn't like it when you move or copy too many messages at a time, hence the stalling. You want to do so using smaller batches of no more than 2000 messages at a time. The smaller the batch the better. I suggest you copy instead of move. I recommend you create a local folder, then copy them there. You can monitor progress using the Activity Manager, accessible via the Tools menu. No need for add-ons.

Alternatively, you could use a proper email archiving solution like MailStore.

mfidelman
mfidelman Question owner

Thanks!