Can Thunderbird replace my Outlook scenario?
I'm looking for an email solution for my husband and Thunderbird looks promising. However I'd really appreciate input from this community regarding our specific scenario before I make a move. I have a programming background but I fumble blindly trying to be his email admin.
The problem we are trying to solve is his current email setup chokes on send/receive almost daily, after which he has to use Task Manager to kill a hanging Outlook.exe process. After years of tinkering I'm about to give up on Outlook completely. I think the main issue is how Outlook interacts with his Archive. His Archive.pst file is 4GB and Outlook saves it as one big file even though it has many subfolders which are essentially his filing system. Outlook is configured to save everything directly to a local laptop which is backed up regularly and we want to retain this local feature. Thunderbird is attractive because: 1. it supports the local drive storage 2. it appears to have options for transferring his Outlook archive and other folders over in such a way that he can continue to search and access them as needed. He would also like to be able to: 1. move new emails received in Thunderbird into the same (transferred) archive subfolders he has now 2. send and receive new emails without the program choking 3. view and send new emails from his Android phone (without accessing the archive) 4. transfer his email contacts from Outlook and manage them in Thunderbird Can anyone see red flags with this in Thunderbird? He does NOT use:
- Outlook Calendar (we synch our phone calendars to Google calendar online) - Outlook Tasks
Technical Details (in case it matters):
- HP Pavilion 2021 laptop running Windows 10 with 1TB storage (200+ GB free) and 16GB RAM - Likely to upgrade to a newer bigger laptop with Windows 11 this year - Outlook is running from a Microsoft 365 subscription - His actual email account is from gmail but is named per a domain name I purchased - His Outlook account is setup using IMAP - We use ESET for virus protection and NordVPN for WIFI security
Any comments or advice are greatly appreciated!
All Replies (4)
BoulderRidge said
- We use ESET for virus protection and NordVPN for WIFI security Any comments or advice are greatly appreciated!
I think you might be best served before you consider moving further to disable those two software packages and see if Outlook dies as it has been doing. Most email issues stem from security software. This is especially so with Google who appear to me to look at the location of the IP address used to connect to the server and the one allocated to your mobile phone and then start ringing alarm bells because often they are on different continents.
GMail does have hard limits of the volume of email you can send in a day and the amount of bandwidth that is made available via any single account. Could you husband be exceeding these limits and having Google simply disable further use of the account until the 24hour limit clocks over again. Note that when a provider says you are limited to X number of email per day. A single email addressed to a correspondent and CC'ed to yourself counts as two. A mailing list of 20 or 50 contacts is that many emails, it is the recipients that are counted, not the number of clicks on send.
Likewise sending invoices from accounting packages often also counts to the days total.
Sure Thunderbird is largely feature comparable with Outlook, and simply installing the software and setting the account will allow you to become familiar with Thunderbird. As IMAP is syncronised, the Thunderbird and outlook views of the mail account should be the same, just be aware Outlook has a nasty habit of changing the default mailing program to itself each time it is launched. You can set Thunderbird to check when it is Launched and I strongly suggest you set that up.
Another thing you probably need to be aware of is Thunderbird has native sync of Google contacts and calendars. While you can continue to sync your phones as you do now, Thunderbird can join that synchronized group and also have the same data available. The only thing not synced natively is Tasks, and you say you do not use those anyway. If you do decide to use them, they can be synced with an addon.
It's known that many servers, gmail included do not like VPN because it looks like you are a hacker so they can simply just block access. So if you really want to use VPN then create a slpit tunnelling and set up email client - whether Outlook or Thunderbird to use it.
Gmail limits: https://support.google.com/a/answer/166852?hl=en
Thunderbird is a good replacement, but VPN will be an issue - not because it's Thunderbird but because gmail does not like it.
I have access to gmail emails, contacts, Tasks and Calendar with no issues.
Limits applied by Gmail effect everyone no matter what email client.
Emails that are fully downloaded and kept in various 'folders' eg: Inbox, Sent, or any you create such as Family, Friends, Clients etc - these folders are in reality mbox text files. Each is a separate file. Please note - Imap accounts can only display whatever is on server, meaning they synchronise so you cannot really regard any imap account folders as independent copies. However, they can be used to create a backup that is independent of the server and Thunderbird also offers a 'Local Folders' account and any email copied into that account is independent of server. Perfect for important emails or in the event you need to reduce number of emails on server to increase quota, but need to store and still have access to email.
Regarding any Anti-Virus. If you allow Anti-Virus to scan incoming or outgoing mail it can cause a delay. If you allow it to scan any file that is opened it can cause a temporary not responding. Thunderbird does not allow Remote Content to be displayed by default, so opening an email is not going to cause a problem. Clicking willy nilly on links you have not checked what the true link is OR opening unexpected attachments because you are curious is asking for trouble. But these are actions by the user. Opening an email in itself is not going to cause a problem. If you do want Anti-Virus to be allowed to scan everything then please do not allow it to auto fix anything as Anti-Virus products have no concept that a single file is not necessarilly a single email. If allowed to fix then you stand a chance of it nuking the entire file and loss of email in entire folder - not a happy situation especially if you use Imap as it's likely to delete emails in that specific folder on server. That's just general info and applies regardless of email client. Anti-Virus is a great idea but be wary when it comes to email clients.
Thanks much for the detailed responses. A couple clarifications: - NordVPN is set to view my home WIFI as trusted, so I don't believe it is active during most send/receive cycles. (We need it for when we travel and use public networks. ) - Email volume is unlikely to be an issue. He maybe sends 5-10 emails on a busy day, very few having more than 1-2 recipients. Incoming email volume is maybe 30/day. No mass business related mailings involved.
I will see if I can temporarily disable ESET from scanning emails for a week to observe the impact it may be having. Stay tuned :)