Thunderbird Community Forum

My email was rossmann@telkomsa.net My husband died on 25 May 2023 and telkom closed his account. I opened a gmail account. I am now wanting to open a few emails from 2022 regarding contracts but Thunderbird obviously only has my old email. Please could you assist me Kind regards, Chrissie Rossmann

/storage/emulated/0/Download/takeout-20260225T235023Z-14-001 (1)/Takeout/Mail/All mail Including Spam and Trash.mbox

Hello, I retired in June. I asked my employer to allow me to archive my emails before they deactivated my work account. The Director of IT has been very helpful in recommending various apps that can do that. One was enormously expensive. One archived all my emails together (29K) and it is very difficult to locate one separately. The IT Director has also recommended Thunderbird. I have downloaded it but am having difficulty using it. I have saved all my emails using Google Takeout and the emails are saved in an mbox format. If you could help me get started with making sure the Thunderbird default settings are correct, placing the emails into Thunderbird and showing me how to access certain emails (and delete ones I don't need to save), I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you, Susan Hook

What do I have to do to get help in this Forum? This is the second time I've posted a Question seeking help, and yet again it is being ignored. Do I have join some secret clique or group? If so please tell me?

Due to issues with upgrading from Ubuntu 24.04.1 to 26.04.1, I decided to just start from scratch with a new clean install.

After finalising the install, I copied across my Thunderbird data to the new partition, merging directories as the data copied across. But, somewhere in the transfer I lost about the last two years emails, with only emails up until 12/24 being available.

There are a lot a important emails I need to recover, and I'm guessing they're still on my PC, in the old partition, and I desperately need help to recover them.

System:

Win 11 Home (lastest updates, also my notebook's latest updates from the manufacturer) Thunderbird version 151.0

Okay, this is a multiple clusterf#@$.

I ended up needing to do a Win 11 Home "reset" keeping data. But I needed to back up some files first. But my back up drive was full. Usually, it's because of EaseUs ToDo not deleting files and just adding and adding to the system backup. But that wasn't the main issue: my Thunderbird profile (which I backup separately) was about 280 GIGABYTES in size! This is an extension of a prior problem for which nobody on here new how to solve and certainly nobody from Mozilla chimed in to help. So I did what I'd done before (but it'd never been like this) and delected a couple of THOUSAND seemingly redundant iterations of files from my profile, but NONE of the folders inside the profile.

Of course the Win11 reset deleted Thunderbird and all the profile information. No big problem, I've done this before...but it didn't work copying in all of the old files (from my backup drive) into a new profile and selecting that profile to boot. So, I went to the "Recycle Bin", undeleted all of those files back into my backed-up profile. But I'm only able to get Thunderbird to see all of my address book information. It is not finding my Thunderbird and email account settings nor my email messages (21 years worth). I 100% did NOT delete my email messages (c:\users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\PROFILENAME\Mail).

I can laboriously redo my email account information (five different accounts) and Thunderbird user settings, but I really DESPERATELY NEED HELP restoring my email messages.

PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME!

In reference to the article [[Knowledge Base Article|http://mzl.la/1ApHiU3]], "Move Thunderbird data to a new computer", this misses the transfer of Local Folders.

The instructions only include moving the Thunderbird application data folder with profile information but does not include Local Folders, after completing these instructions the Local Folders will not be present on the new computer.

The path for Local Folders is under Account Settings > Local Folders, this folder needs to be copied to the similar path on the new computer as well.

I have copied emails from a Windows 10 to Windows 11 computer using these instructions and it appears to work.

I asked this question on Google and the AI answer although sounding logical and easy did not work.

I have a number of saved emails that I would like to add to my local folders. Any help will be appreciated.

Tell me how I can make Thunderbird work for me. As I mentioned, when I try to import data from Outlook 2016 running on Win 7, it brings up a screen saying "Importing... 33%, then freezes". I've tried waiting for half an hour, but the import never completes.

None of the methods listed, either via Thunderbird or on the Internet in general work. Or, if they are supposed to work, the directions are not complete or accurate.

I'm trying to move stored emails from Outlook 2019 POP3 Windows10 32-bit into your latest Thunderbird. NO luck. Yes, I get a .CSV file from Outlook, and change it to MS-DOS version, then nothing. Similar with names/address. There is a lot of talk about having to use EML as the transfer medium--but, Outlook can't create EML. Worse, within Thunderbird, even with you Import/ExportTools NG add-on, there is no commone EML linkage to make the transfers work. SO...where is a guaranteed method to make these transfers work?

As of now Thunderbird is just a crude mail client--I can receive emails, I can send emails (but have to manually enter the address). None of the old Outlook emails are available. None of the old Outlook addresses are available.

Don't mean to be so cynical; but, I'm so tired of software making promises and then not delivering.

Robert Yohe, Jr.

Hello.. I was deleteing some mail in my inbox and then the program burped and said there is no more space. I tried to download new mail and got the no space message when I noticed that the whole inbox was gone.

I managed to recover the inbox folder and now I'm trying to put it back into the email program through windows explorer but when I try to paste it into the folder with the index.msf file I get the error that I don't have permission and must have administrative permission to copy the folder. I went through the properties and security tab and gave "everyone" full permission for the inbox, but it still won't let me past the folder back where it belongs.

How can I get the Inbox with it's mail back into my Thunderbird program?....

I'm using a Lenovo laptop with Windows 11.

thanks, David

I am using TB as my email client. I use it to manage my email from Greenby who are an email and web hosting service operated by Enix Ltd. The ISP Plusnet has migrated customer's email from their servers to Greenby's as they no longer provide an email service. I am in the process of leaving Greenby (A look at TrustPilot reviews will tell you why.) At some point I will be closing my Greenby account as it attracts large amounts of spam and scam emails, which it is time consuming, difficult or impossible to block.

I want to archive my email to my hard drive and I have read the guidance on how to do this using TB. I am quite happy to keep the TB software on my PC.

Will I need to keep TB software to read my archived email? Does TB function if it not acting as a client from a third party server?

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Sorry for long post. Struggling to get backup done, running out of time and other things in life now getting really urgent . Got my Yahoo Mail headache again today. Please can someone advise me? Thunderbird 150.0.2, Mac OS 10.15 7 Catalina, 2018 Macbook Pro.

Not tech-savvy so finding it hard to find what settings to use in TB. Other people's post answers always seem to show dialog options I'm not seeing on my computer

AIMS: - Prevent folders from deleting in my backup, if I delete stuff on Yahoo. - Backup Yahoo emails to a stable, local copy on an external drive, so I can access old emails + attachments independently without it trying to reconnect / synch with Yahoo Mail - After backup, delete more mail to reduce YM storage from 39GB to less than 15. Feel reluctant to do this yet, as I already lost a big folder of work from my backup by trying to muddle my way through this. - Ideally would like to end up with a local copy I can access in Mail Backup X What I've tried; - Backup using Mail Backup X. Took 18 hours and some large folders were incomplete so I tried again after splitting them up in Yahoo Mail. I liked the software but something went wrong on the 2nd try and it now won't connect to Yahoo at all. Deleted and replaced 3rd party password multiple times. Server details are accepted, but then the icon just spins endlessly, hence trying Tbird instead. Deleted the MBX account which meant no error logs available (Yes. I should not have done that). - Tried both IMAP and POP backup using TBird - have added TBird ImportExport add-on but have no idea what settings to use, advice welcomed Questions/assumptions that may be wrong: - Was advised to use server export.imap.mail.yahoo.com, what's the reason for this and would it work? Can't remember if Yahoo allowed me to enter this setting. Sorry, hard to recall as I tried so many times. - POP only backs up 1 folder - Inbox. Really?? that's not a solution then - TBird's default is IMAP so surely it would always try and connect to synch, and so would any copied backup accounts? - if I get the ImportExport add-on settings right, can I *really* achieve the goal of a local offline backup I can trust, that I could keep on an external drive and access later via Mail Backup X?

Dear Sir or Madam, I downloaded and installed Thunderbird. Then, I wanted to import my emails and email addresses from my Outlook 2019 (as part of Office 2019). The emails did transfer. Not sure if my email addresses (called contacts?) transferred. At the end of these transfers, I no longer had Office 2019. My taskbar icons for Word, Excel, and Outlook gone. The only "Outlook" I now had was the "Outlook app." Office 2019 gone. Apparently, it got replaced with Office 365. Not at all what I wanted.

Did I so something wrong? Is this something to be expected?

Thank you.

My Thunderbird (windows) is really not working, so I want to reinstall the whole thing. I have 4 accounts and a local folder. I don't want to backup all the profiles before reinstalling, as I am having an annoying issue with g-mail (I don't HAVE a gmail any more, but Thunderbird wants to login to gmail every time I open it). I only want to backup the "local" folder, as, so I want to reinstall the accounts one by one from scratch. In that way I hope, I can purge Thunderbird of the gmail. Now the question: How do I backup the local folder in a way that makes it easy to import it back after all the reinstallment?

I have several MBOX files with me and I want to import MBOX files into the Thunderbird email client. I've come across different methods, including manual techniques and third-party tools, but I'm unsure which approach is the most efficient, especially when dealing with multiple or large-sized MBOX files. Some methods also seem complicated for users who are not very technical.

Suggest me any reliable tool for this!

Please help me log on to Thunderbird in order to open a mailbox file sent to me containing email messages to and from the church I worked for until the June 28, that were in an account they closed before I could archive materials in it.

I was actively using Thunderbird in 2024-2025. Then I moved to Outlook. I had difficulty to move emails from Thunderbird to Outlook, so 2024-2025 emails remained in Thunderbird only. Last month my company did not extend Kylos domain subscription therefore Kylos will delete my emails from server soon. I'm afraid I will loose 2024-2025 emails then. Could you please advise / explain the solution not to loose my emails in Thunderbird. Server configuration IMAP. Emails moved from inbox and outbox to local folders, but for IMAP it may not be solution.

I have a new windows laptop. I run thunderbird e-mail. I have about 13 e-mail accounts and numerous folders and a few address books and groups.

I need to transfer it entirely to the new laptop.

Where do I go on the old computer to copy files to a drive then go to new laptop and paste files to seamlessly accomplish this move?

I have attached 2 pics showing the accounts and beginning of the folders I have.

How do I copy/move/transfer everything?

I've been a longtime Thunderbird user on my desktop (laptop actually). I'm wanting to start using Thunderbird on my Android phone.

What I understand so far is that both the desktop and mobile have to have the same settings if I want to be able to send/receive (and have records) on both setups. I also understand that I need use IMAP settings.

In my situation, I believe I set up my desktop to be POP but to leave messages on server until I deleted.

So, my questions are these: Do I need to delete my POP accounts on my desktop first before adding the IMAP version of the account? If not, I can simply add the new account along side and then delete the old account. If I do need to delete the account, does deleting the account delete the emails as well? And how do I transfer any emails or sent emails from the POP to the IMAP?

In as much as I have several accounts to transfer, I want to make sure my step-by-step works well for one then I can proceed to all the rest.

Thx BobbyG:)

I am trying to move emails from account "hasche@bigpond.net.au" to account hoedkaas@gmail.com. I was able to do this in a earlier version of Thunderbird. What has changed.