Want to migrate AOL large email file with 2000 emails to my hard drive which is not possible with AOL internal tools.

What do you mean by "migrate" to your hard drive? Where are the messages now? On an AOL server? Where do you want them to end up? In Thunderbird by accessing the AOL server? In Thunderbird outside your AOL account? In a file on your hard drive?

All these things are possible.

Few people have a Thunderbird e-mail account. People have accounts with other e-mail service providers that they set up in Thunderbird. Who is the e-mail service provider of your account that is in Thunderbird? Is it your AOL account? Is it an IMAP or a POP account?

Not a techie, sorry. I have an AOL account. I have a subfile of 2000 emails saved that I want to export them off line to my laptop. I cannot do this from AOL internal tools. I was told Thunderbird could do it, but I have not been able to determine how.

I cannot guide you without answers to some questions. Are these messages in a folder in your AOL account now? Is your AOL account set up in Thunderbird?

Yes to both questions. Thank you.

So you can already see that folder of 2000 messages in Thunderbird?

Yes. In the AOL account within Thunderbird.

Then your task is simple.

See my screen image. Right click on the folder that holds those messages. Select the options that I selected in my example. That folder and its messages will be copied to a "local" folder on your hard drive that is not associated with your AOL account.

Then make a back-up copy of your profile. Then you can delete those messages from AOL if you want to. You can also export them to a file outside Thunderbird if you want to.