How To Import from Thunderbird Desktop

Export Thunderbird Desktop settings

1. Open Thunderbird Desktop and click ≡ > Tools > Export for Mobile.
2. Tick the Email accounts you wish to export to Thunderbird for Android.

   

3. If you have accounts that are not using OAuth and you wish to export your passwords, you will see a Security section. Tick Include all accounts passwords under Security to export your passwords in the QR code.
4. Click Export. (You may be prompted for a PIN number. For Windows, that would be the Windows signin password.) A QR code will be displayed. Follow the steps below on your Android phone or tablet to scan the Thunderbird Desktop settings QR code. If you have many email accounts, multiple QR codes will be displayed when you scan from your Android device in the next step.

   

Import the Desktop settings into Thunderbird for Android

Open Thunderbird for Android on your phone or tablet and follow the steps below.

First run

After you install Thunderbird for Android and run it for the first time, here's how to import settings from Desktop:

1. Tap Get started on the initial screen.
2. Tap Import settings. Thunderbird for Android will start the camera and display Align the QR code provided from Thunderbird Desktop. Scan the QR code from Thunderbird Desktop.
   • If you have many email accounts, you will scan multiple QR codes, but only one QR code is displayed at a time by Thunderbird Desktop. After scanning the first QR code, Thunderbird for Android will display a confirmation of the form: Scanned X of Y where X is the count of QR codes you have scanned so far out of a total of Y QR codes (for example Scanned 1 of 2). In Thunderbird Desktop, click Next to manually advance to the next QR code to be scanned. Repeat until all QR codes have been scanned.
3. Ensure the email accounts you want to import are all ticked. Tap Import.
4. If your account uses OAuth instead of password authentication or you have chosen not to import your passwords, you will be prompted for your passwords. Follow the prompts to complete your import.

How To Import from K-9 or other Thunderbird for Android apps

Open Thunderbird for Android on your phone or tablet and follow the steps below.

First run

After you install Thunderbird for Android and run it for the first time, here's how to import settings from K-9 or Thunderbird from Android:

1. Tap Get started on the initial screen.
2. Tap Import your account settings now > tap Import from app.
3. Tap the email app you wish to import your email account settings from (either K-9 Mail or another release of Thunderbird for Android, for example Beta).
4. Ensure the email accounts you want to import are all ticked. Tap Import.
5. If your account uses OAuth instead of password authentication or you have chosen not to import your passwords, you will be prompted for your passwords. Follow the prompts to complete your import.

Not seeing all your email accounts?

You will not be able to import some email accounts because they are configured in a way that is not supported by Thunderbird for Android.

Not supported

Email accounts with the following configurations are NOT supported (see Bug 1919786 for full details):

• GSSAPI.
• NTLM.
• TlsCertificate.
• TryStartTls. See Bug 1868517.
• Non-ASCII email addresses are not supported.
• Non SMTP outgoing servers are not supported.

Multiple outgoing servers are not exported

• Only the SMTP server for the default identity is exported for those email accounts with multiple outgoing servers.