How do I move messages to a new imap server?
I just got a new hosting account and need to migrate messages from my thunderbird local profile to the new imap server. Luckily I do have backups of my profile in case of problems, and i already have one: I was in Thunderbird, connected to the old server which had just been turned off. I still see all my inbox and saved folders. I edited the incoming and outgoing server settings for the new email host, and all my inbox and saved folders disappeared. I can see that they're still in the profile, but they're invisible.
1) how do I even SEE the local email messages?
2) if they're sort of gone, I can use a backup of my old thunderbird profile, but still I wonder how to make the messages visible,
3) Once I get the darned things visible, how do I make them copy up to the new imap server?
All Replies (6)
Shame you didn't ask before you jumped in.
Can you reinstate the old account?
What you need to do is set up the new account as a new account, alongside the old account. Then you just move messages from one to the other, in Thunderbird.
You may, or may not, have local copies of the messages in the old account. But it would be much easier to work between two live accounts.
Well, what really happened is I wanted to keep the same domain name but had to create a new hosting account with BlueHost in order to get the introductory, cheap hosting rate. I wished they would just have given me a decent rate for hosting, but they wouldn't. So to transfer to the new account I had to first cancel the old one, then move the domain to the new one. I COULD have copied the files directly from their server to a local drive, but didn't think of that either. So now I'm stuck with just the local thunderbird profile backup. I never imagined it would be so difficult.
Modified by sdsteve
I was able to use the import/export plugin to load my old profile. Left it in offline mode. It still has the settings for the old email server. I CAN, though, see the old emails.
I think I was at this exact same place before, and as soon as I input the settings for the new server, it threw away the old emails. You can see them in the file - I mean, the inbox file is giant, so they must be in there, but they don't display.
sdsteve said
I was able to use the import/export plugin to load my old profile. Left it in offline mode. It still has the settings for the old email server. I CAN, though, see the old emails. I think I was at this exact same place before, and as soon as I input the settings for the new server, it threw away the old emails. You can see them in the file - I mean, the inbox file is giant, so they must be in there, but they don't display.
The ImportEXportTools add-on should let you import the contents of the mbox files from the old account folders into the new installation. Those are the big files with no extension, e.g. Inbox, Sent. But they may not give you a complete copy of your entire store of correspondence.
Changing hosts whilst preserving the email address is one of the trickier changeovers to attempt, since by definition you can't have the account open in both places simultaneously.
It's painful, but I would have downloaded all the messages to Local Folders before losing access to the old account. Then set up the new account, and populate it with whichever messages would be useful. Most of them could be left in Local Folders.
Modified by Zenos
I HAD the messages showing. Closed thunderbird and reopened and they're gone. So is the add-in. I don't know how to get them back without reinstalling the add-in. This is way harder than it should be. Jeez. What is so difficult about displaying emails and letting you open multiple profiles ... Outlook pst files were easy to open multiple copies of.
I'm wondering if I should try to find some other open source email client that will import from the thunderbird profile, and then see if that will synch with the imap server.