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I have an existing Tbird account for my Gmail emails. Have set up a new Tbird account for my Outlook email account. Would like to move all emails, including folders and subfolders, to my new Outlook Tbird account (with the intent of closing my Gmail account altogether).

Would appreciate learning the steps to ensure the emails, folders, and subfolders are moved from Tbird Gmail account to Tbird Outlook account

I downloaded Thunderbird and added my email account. The email account I configured in Thunderbird is set to be permanently deleted. All information in the email account will be deleted. My question is whether I can use Thunderbird as an email archive? I think I copied all of the emails in the account into Thunderbird. When my email account is deleted will the copied emails in Thunderbird still be there or will they disappear as well?

Using an add on I can export TB PC inbox to mbox. But there seems to be no way to import this to TB Android. Any suggestions, please?

pop3, all emails are stored on TB PC and some on TB Android. No emails stored on server.

Tuesday Oct. 7, our ISP converted to a new e-mail program. I could NOT log in/on I called our ISP's help desk. The 'technician' could not help me log in to our Thunderbird POP 3 account. He had me, WITHOUT asking if I had essential - legal - medical-etc. e-mails in the IN BOX or in folders! He NEVER warned/cautioned all ?would? be lost - GONE.

I URGENTLY need to recover all TB POP3 IN BOX & e-mails in folders. I need to access legal messages today, if possible.

If Mozilla does not have a recovery program, what do I do? I am not seeking to recover ' deleted messages (unless his having me change from the POP3 account to a 'new' IMAP account is the same as ' "delete" '.

Any & all prompt responses APPRECIATED! Remain WELL & Be SAFE!

Robin

I've been reading how to move my emails to a new computer. There are two users on the old computer, both with Thunderbird. When moving the email profile to the new computer, does it pick up both users, or does this need to be done separately for each individual Thunderbird email account? If so, I assume I need to set up both users on the new computer before starting the Thunderbird move. Also, how can I be absolutely sure I'm dealing with a recent enough email version on the old computer? My Thunderbird updates frequently but the new one seems to be slightly off.

Hi, Forums - I am a new Thunderbird user based on on-line research suggesting Thunderbird as the best way to relieve gmail account with local mailbox archiving. My gmail is out of storage by end of the month and my plan was to move a bunch of old messages into local Thunderbird mailbox to clear room in the google account. I have set up Thunderbird successfully with gmail using IMAP connectivity option. Thunderbird shows same folder structure as labels in gmail and displays all messages from the oldest to newest. So then I tried the "archiving" by setting up a folder structure under Thunderbird's Local Folders. Specifically, to start with I I set up Inbox_archive and Sent_archive and used right click Move To > Local Folders > Folder name to move old messages from live ...@gmail.com tree to Local Folder tree. Since there is also an option Copy To, my understanding was that Move should be different from Copy by also removing messages from gmail and move them to Local folders. At a first glance these steps seemed to work. I see unique old messages in Thuderbird Local Folders. I don't see these messages in Thunderbird's gmail inbox/sent and I also don't see these messages when I search in on-line gmail in:inbox and in:sent. I noticed, however, that google storage size didn't budge. I moved a thousand of more messages in the same way (thinking maybe older messages were just small) and the storage still didn't decrease. I then looked around in on-line gmail and found the messages that I presumed "archived" still sitting in gmail's All Mail. This explains why the storage size didn't change. I searched on the forum and on-line and can't get a confident answer on what am I missing to actually remove the messages from gmail - ideally in the most straightforward manner in one action as a cut and paste from on-line to local folders. Are there any IMAP/account settings that I should have so that Thunderbird's "Move to" actually removes messages from on-line account? Or is there a different archiving command/strategy I need to use?

I am hesitant to do any more trial and error on my own since I already messed up my gmail by having now thousands of messages still sitting in All Mail without proper Inbox and Sent tags and, thus, would appreciate the recommendation from someone who is familiar with my use case.

Thank you.

I have a large number of saved emails, as part of business records. I would like to back them off to an external drive. Is there a way to do that, if so where are they stored.

So I just purchased a new computer to accommodate Windows 11. I reinstalled TB and wanted to retrieve all of my old local folders from my old account. I understand this can be done because TB stores these local folders. I keep these folders for account and billing information. I'm not sure how to go about restoring these folders and need help! The information is also stored....I believe on my external hard drive and my cloud storage. But I think the easiest way to get these folders back is through TB. Any help would be so greatly appreciated!

Michael....

I am importing all of my thunderbird data from an installation on an old laptop to a new thunderbird installation on a new laptop. I used the export tool on the old machine and the import tool on the new machine and every installation option fails. On the old machine I have tried copying the files and folder to the new machine and it fails, I have created a zip file (5MB) on the old machine and copied to the new machine and it fails (Not using the Zip tool that is limited to 2MB). I think I have tried every combination. The new installation is able to send and receive messages.

Hi, I've set up TB successfully on a new PC and been using it a while. Then I noticed my local folders archive group of subfolders was missing. I followed some instructions about moving local folders file across from the old to the new version.

Now I see the individual archive folders without the folder group name 'archive'.

Also, there are a couple of other files not visible on the new platform although they were in the original installation local files and were copied across.

I was careful to ensure the same version running on both PCs. Also that TB was closed when copying files across.

Any pointers appreciated!

To be clear, I seriously doubt the problems I am encountering are TB's fault! The problems may be my fault since I've grown older, I've tended (believed) using new versions of software present my mind a BIGGER challenge than using the older software/version I have been successfully using? I'm still using Version115.10.1

After our ISP chose to start using Zimbra Oct. 7, 2025 and their tech support could not assist me in getting TB working the had me remove POP3 settings for TB and change to IMAP with their software.

FINALLY someone helped me get TB working with IMAP. For 3 days grrr. Now the ISP says I need to use their web mail, Zimbra.

So might downloading the current TB version and somehow get the In box, all the folder contnets etc. over - into the new TB help?

I was going to backup everything tonight, now I have little to NO hope, without help!

THANKS & remain WELL plus be SAFE!

Robin

My old laptop crashed and burned, but I had a profile backup. I used the transfer tool to install the profiles on my new computer, but had a couple problems: 1- the calendar didn't transfer over. I fixed this by copy/paste Calendar-Data and calendar-data.sbd from the default-release folder . 2- No sent records were copied over. I tried copying over a sent.file (375 mb) and sent.msf from a different default-release folder (there were two default-release folders in the older profile backup, I'm not sure why). This did not update the new installation with the sent records. So my question is, how to I update the sent folder in the new build from a older backup, so that all the records are included. Win11 up to date with latest Thunderbird and Firefox versions. Thank you.

I want to use Thunderbird to read saved offline messages stored in mbox files, delete messages I no longer need, and then resave to mbox format. How do I do this? I just downloaded Thunderbird and am struggling to use the help articles and forums to find instructions.

Hello! I have a bit of a long story but hopefully this won't take too much of your time. I have a windows 11 pc that came with a realtively small ssd. I installed thunderbird and used it for many months. then i cloned this ssd to a new higher capacity ssd and installed the new ssd into my pc. i continued with thunderbird and my new ssd for roughtly 3 months but i found that the new ssd was glitching and was giving me problems.

about two weeks ago i removed the cloned high-capacity ssd which had the three months of new emails and i reinstalled the old original ssd into my pc and have continued with thunderbird. i also installed the glitchy high-capacity ssd into a docking station and i have it connected to my pc as an external drive. So my problem is that while my pc has all my original thunderbird emails, it is missing the three months of emails that are on the cloned high-capacity ssd. And to further complicate things, i have been using my reinstalled old ssd for two weeks and have accumulated new thunderbird emails.

how can i copy or import the three months of thunderbird emails that are on my high capacity ssd that is attached to the computer now as an external drive. Remember that not only does that high capacity drive have three months of emails that I need, it also has all my original thunderbird emails that it obtained through the cloning process. so my concern is that whatever import process i might do, it is either going to cause a lot of duplication of the old emails or it is going to wipe out or disturb the most recent activity (my last two weeks) when one profile is replaced entire replaces another.

MY QUESTION: is there a way to selectively import just the last three months of my thunderbird emails from the high capacity ssd that is connected currently as an external drive? I know the specfic date range that i am looking for.

thanks eric

I have a MacBook Air and an iMac desk top computer. There are 6 email accounts on the MacBook Air and 4 on the iMac. I am using Thunderbird MacBook Air 115.12.2 (64 bit) and on the iMac 140.6.esr (64 bit). For some reason I am unable to set up the 5th account on the iMac (Wrong password etc)

Can I just export the 5th account on MacBook Air and import that account on the iMac? The export file (I guess all accounts) is 8.17 GB .

If I import that file to the iMac will I duplicate the emails already associated with the existing 4 accounts or will I be able to select which account I want to import along with the associated settings and passwords?

Thank you, Ton Aston

Hi: I currently have three email accounts tied to one domain name, hosted with Godaddy. One of those emails is a business critical email. Can't run the risk of it being down. I need it to work. I hate microsoft 365 and am looking to move over to Thunderbird. A couple of questions: how do I switch from (outlook.office.com) over to thunderbird. Can I leave the domain hosted with GoDaddy or do Inned to switch hosting services. Can I bring the emails over one at a time or do they need to be all at once. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks CN

So here is my problem. Why does TB have a "local folder" section, where I can create local folders to store say billing information, or keep receipts for car payments and the like. Then, I purchase a new computer to accommodate Windows 11, (DO NO get me started on that one!) So I reinstall TB, bring up my account, and of course NONE of my local folders are there! I've looked through the "Troubleshooting Help" and the "Open Folders" etc, but you have to talk to me like I'm a 5 year old! I'm not a computer dummy, but I'm not an expert either!

And the instructions don't make sense to me! I want my local folders back. I've spent a good amount of time creating those, and for a good reason. I can refer back to bills, I can help verify what I've paid and when, and I can back up bank statements and on and on! How do I retrieve these? There has to be a way right? Like with Gmail and the like. You should be able to get those items back....and it shouldn't take a bloody genius and com puter whiz to do this! I need a simple explanation as to how to retrieve these folders. Thank you in advance for anyone willing to help me with this problem.

Michael....