Download entire aol message archive to local drive?
I am trying to help two computer illiterate friends who both use PCs (I'm a Mac user) who still use Aol mail and want to migrate away from it. They want to keep all their past mail in a local searchable archive but AOL are being really unhelpful saying it can't be done. I have read that in the past, one could use an email client like Thunderbird to access aol mail - if the aol account was configured to use imap then in theory you could make a local full copy of all the stuff on aol's servers. Does anyone know if this works now in 2018- all the references I can find to this are from about 2011 and as I haven't used aol myself in maybe 20 years I have no means of testing it. Aol is sort of like Hotel California- you can check out, but you can never take your luggage.
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Are your friends currently using webmail via a browser to access aol emails stored on server?
If yes, then they have two options: I'll discuss POP first. POP mail accounts can only access and download from the server Inbox to pop mail account Inbox. These emails are downloaded fully and stored in Thunderbird profile.
If using POP, there is a way around getting all the emails downloaded.
- create pop mail account in Thunderbird
- Make sure Account Settings >Server Settings select 'Leave messages on server' if you do not want to delete them just yet.
- click on 'Get Messages' to download all emails from server Inbox.
- In Thunderbird, create new folders.
- Move emails from Inbox into those new folders for organising.
- Access webmail.
- Select another folder eg: 'Sent'
- Move all 'Sent' emails into 'Inbox'
In Thunderbird
- Click on 'get Messages'
- All of those 'Sent' emails will get downloaded to pop mail account Inbox.
- Create a new folder called 'OldSent'
- Move all of those 'Sent' emails currently in Inbox into the 'OldSent' folder.
When Inbox is empty..
Repeat same process of moving webmail emails into Inbox and then downloading to pop Inbox and moving to appropriate folders.
This gets all emails into Thunderbird. You can then access the pop mail account settings and stop the options for checking for new mail. So you still have the account but it is just showing emails not actually able to download any more. OR You can also choose to Move those emails into 'Local Folders' mail account, after which you can remove the pop mail account. 'Local Folders' mail account is a special mail account. It is not connected with any server. It can be used like an archive. As all emails are now in Thunderbird. It would be wise to backup the Profile Folder name.
The other option is IMAP. IMAP mail accounts see a remote view of the server folders. Emails are stored on server and the fodlers are constantly synchronising, so basically the folders in webmail/server and those in Thunderbird are one and the same.
You need to create an IMAP mail account. Then subscribe to see folders on the server. Folders synchronise with server to show contents of folder. Usually only headers are downloaded and when you click on email, a copy is downloaded to a temporary file to facilitate viewing. The email is not actually stored in Thunderbird. To get around this, you need to synchronise folders for offline use. access Account Settings > Synchronisation & Storage
Then when this is done, in 'Offline' mode: Offline mode stops any further synchronisation, so the mail account folders do not sync whilst you are getting copies stored in thunderbirds 'Local Folders' mail account. create folders in 'Local Folders' mail account then highlight emails, use right click 'Copy to' and select the folder in 'Local Folders' mail account.
Check you can see and read emails.
Either method gets emails into 'Local Folders'. This is then the viewable archive for those emails.
They can then add further mail accounts to view/download emails from any other email address. This means they have everything in one easy place for emails.
Useful links: Download Thunderbird link: Choose prefered language and the download for the OS https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/all/ Install Thunderbird and run first time to create a default Profile fodler. Thunderbird will then ask you to create a mail account. Or 'Menu icon' > 'New Message ' >'Existing mail account' Or more info here... https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/manual-account-configuration https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization
Usually Thunderbird will auto locate server settings. User Name = full email address Password is exactly the same as used to access webmail account.
https://help.aol.com/articles/how-do-i-use-other-email-applications-to-send-and-receive-my-aol-mail click on 'Update server settings' to see aol server settings.
not sure if they were verizon but moved to aol : https://help.aol.com/articles/how-do-i-set-up-other-email-applications-to-send-and-receive-my-verizon-net-mail
Toad-Hall said
Are your friends currently using webmail via a browser to access aol emails stored on server? If yes, then they have two options: I'll discuss POP first. POP mail accounts can only access and download from the server Inbox to pop mail account Inbox. These emails are downloaded fully and stored in Thunderbird profile. If using POP, there is a way around getting all the emails downloaded.
- create pop mail account in Thunderbird
- Make sure Account Settings >Server Settings select 'Leave messages on server' if you do not want to delete them just yet.
- click on 'Get Messages' to download all emails from server Inbox.
- In Thunderbird, create new folders.
- Move emails from Inbox into those new folders for organising.
In Thunderbird
- Access webmail.
- Select another folder eg: 'Sent'
- Move all 'Sent' emails into 'Inbox'
When Inbox is empty.. Repeat same process of moving webmail emails into Inbox and then downloading to pop Inbox and moving to appropriate folders. This gets all emails into Thunderbird. You can then access the pop mail account settings and stop the options for checking for new mail. So you still have the account but it is just showing emails not actually able to download any more. OR You can also choose to Move those emails into 'Local Folders' mail account, after which you can remove the pop mail account. 'Local Folders' mail account is a special mail account. It is not connected with any server. It can be used like an archive. As all emails are now in Thunderbird. It would be wise to backup the Profile Folder name.
- Click on 'get Messages'
- All of those 'Sent' emails will get downloaded to pop mail account Inbox.
- Create a new folder called 'OldSent'
- Move all of those 'Sent' emails currently in Inbox into the 'OldSent' folder.
The other option is IMAP. IMAP mail accounts see a remote view of the server folders. Emails are stored on server and the fodlers are constantly synchronising, so basically the folders in webmail/server and those in Thunderbird are one and the same.
You need to create an IMAP mail account. Then subscribe to see folders on the server. Folders synchronise with server to show contents of folder. Usually only headers are downloaded and when you click on email, a copy is downloaded to a temporary file to facilitate viewing. The email is not actually stored in Thunderbird. To get around this, you need to synchronise folders for offline use. access Account Settings > Synchronisation & Storage
Then when this is done, in 'Offline' mode: Offline mode stops any further synchronisation, so the mail account folders do not sync whilst you are getting copies stored in thunderbirds 'Local Folders' mail account. create folders in 'Local Folders' mail account then highlight emails, use right click 'Copy to' and select the folder in 'Local Folders' mail account.
Check you can see and read emails.
Either method gets emails into 'Local Folders'. This is then the viewable archive for those emails.
They can then add further mail accounts to view/download emails from any other email address. This means they have everything in one easy place for emails.
Thank you for your very complete response! One clarification please: My friend has her historic emails in various subject based folders on the AOL server, not just in the inbox (Not having seen her view on screen I am basing this on her description). Can these historic emails be pulled over in these folders in the same way? I think you are saying that she can but not 100% sure. She accesses her email via web browser so I'm not sure if it is a pop or IMAP account. It sounds to me that IMAP would make the process much smoother and less prone to operator error so I will see if the account is currently pop if it can be turned into an imap account. In any case as what you are suggesting is in the initial phase non destructive in that the AOL files are not dismantled, then I will certainly encourage her to try this. I think it will become clear when sitting in front of the interface.
Many thanks!
re :She accesses her email via web browser so I'm not sure if it is a pop or IMAP account. POP and IMAP are protocols used by email clients like Thunderbird to access mail held on servers.
There may be an option to select either pop or imap within the webmail account. Mostly these options are selected by default, but there are occasions when they need to be selected to allow connection via those methods.
re : Can these historic emails be pulled over in these folders in the same way? Any folder she views in webmail can be subscribed to be seen via an IMAP mail account in Thunderbird. So all folders and their contents are visible. You would just need to synchronise for offline use to get a full downloaded copy into Thunderbird.
In webmail account, any email can be moved to any folder, so if she chooses to POP in Thunderbird, then any email can be moved back into webmail Inbox in order to be downloaded. But this is only required if using POP.
A good start would be to install Thunderbird Then create an IMAP mail account. Make sure Account Settings are set up to synchronise for offline use - keep messages for the account on the computer Subscribe to see folders Allow folders to sync with server. Go into offline mode - Menu icon > File > Offline > download/Sync now In offline mode move copies of emails to 'Local Folders' mail account
POP suits some people, but it does mean quite a bit of moving of emails to get the initial download.