See switching to Thunderbird and installing Lightning.

E-mail migration is easy when using IMAP because your e-mail will remain on the server. When using POP, you will need to migrate the messages because they are stored on your computer only.

Hope this helps, bellist.

My messages and calendar are on my computer. I did see the info about switching to Thunderbird, but I don't see anything about transferring from an Outlook calendar to Lightning. I was also concerned about mail data coming from Outlook Express and calendar data coming from Outlook.

install Thunderbird on your current machine.

The import wizard will handle imports, for the default mail client. so change from outlook express to outlook and run the import wizard a second time. It is on the hidden tools menu. Right click on and toolbar and select menu bar from the menu to see it, or Alt+T

Once your settled then you can do the move to a new machine. Even attempting that after the move is almost impossible.

Thunderbird now installed. The import function for mail from Outlook Express worked amazingly fast and came up empty. I went back to Outlook Express and reset it as default -- which T'bird had changed. I started T'bird again, this time not setting itself as default, then ran import again. Still empty.

This forum is getting a bit frustrating. My previous update didn't get a response. Did I miss clicking on something to notify someone my situation isn't resolved? Is there a way to attract attention? I tried searching through the forum. Even though I specifically used terms "thunderbird" "outlook express" "import" I got a thousand replies and very few on the first page were for Thunderbird or Outlook Express. I guess I go click on some of the "was this helpful" buttons, even though the response was helpful (it got me a step further), just not to where the problem is solved.

It did not get a response because I don't have one.

So your saying you don't have a folder called outlook express import and email or folders in it, that you have no accounts configured, your address book is empty and no mail ever arrives. Is that correct? After all the import is in multiple parts and I have no idea which if any worked.

BTW, I have a day job that consumes 12-14 hours of each day. So if you have to wait, I can not help that.

To answer your direct questions:

I do get a folder called outlook express inside T'bird (I used to work for Ford). There is nothing in it. My accounts are configured (I didn't know to check, though saw the accounts once I was poking around trying to find if import could be configured). I didn't ask for a send/receive or leave T'bird running long enough to find out if mail ever arrives. I didn't check for the address book, so just now started T'bird. It decided it needed to start in safe mode and asked me if I wanted to disable add-ons. I exited rather than go past that question.

So, yes, you do have a response, a request for clarification of what I meant by the import process "came up empty." Forgive me if this sounds snarky.

In poking through the forum (or doing a search and seeing all kinds of stuff appear) I saw some messages that say all that needs to happen for a successful import is make sure Outlook Express is the default mail server, then go into Thunderbird and click on import. A couple clicks later and all is done.

I also saw some messages that say T'bird doesn't know anything about Outlook Express files and the user needs to download some tool (supplied elsewhere) to convert all OE mail files to some industry standard format which T'bird can then read. I don't remember the details to know if I've described all the steps.

Which is it? Does the T know about OE file formats or not? Is that my problem?

I've been a fan of Firefox for as long as I've had my current computer (8 years) and likely with the computer before then (though there was a situation many years ago in which Firefox would hang in really creative ways -- it baffled whoever was doing tech support at the time). I'm hoping to be a fan of your mail and calendar programs as well.

Back in 2001 I was in the market for a new music program. There were two major ones at the time. I asked both of them how to migrate from my former music program. I chose the program whose tech team responded, even though their answer was essentially we don't know.

Now I'm in the market for a new mail program. Mozilla offers one. It looks to be a fine system and open-source development has a great reputation behind it. But an issue has appeared. I would think Mozilla as a corporation or a community would want their product to be used. That means devoting some resources to help users when a problem appears.

I’m aware a community such as Mozilla probably doesn't have the resources to deal with every user issue. However, I would think an OE to T'bird migration would be a common enough issue (one to be encouraged!) that instructions along with a bit of trouble-shooting guidance would be a part of your online manual.

I certainly hope that you spend 12-14 hours a day working for Mozilla because every hour is a delight and you can't think of anything better to do. If that's your love, go for it. I also hope you are answering questions on the forum because you love doing that too.

Thank you for all the assistance you've provided so far.

Thunderbird can't read Outlook/OE files itself, so it needs assistance. Either you run Thunderbird alongside Outlook/OE and TB negotiates with Outlook/OE for the data, or you use a 3rd party tool to convert the Outlook/OE files to a format that Thunderbird can use. The .eml format is commonly used, but it cannot, of itself, preserve folder hierarchies.

Setting up an email client from scratch is usually easy. Setting one up and importing data from another is unfortunately less easy and tends to be more problematic. Maybe you should try TB standalone for a while to see if you like it, then consider moving old messages into it if you decide you want to stay with it.

Unfortunately, there is no absolute industry-wide format for email content. .eml is close, but each file is an individual message and folders are lost. In common with some other email clients, TB uses another almost-standard, mbox files. The culprit here, it could be argued, is Microsoft, the authors of Outlook and OE, who decline to work with either of these two standard formats. Maybe it would be useful to see if either of these programs offer export to a useful intermediate format. Another alternative is IMAP; park your messages on a server and there's no need to export and import between clients.

Matt is here, as I am, as a volunteer, offering up his own time for free. The other 12 hours are with his paying day job.

I'm not sure what you mean by: Either you run Thunderbird alongside Outlook/OE and TB negotiates with Outlook/OE for the data

And by this: The .eml format is commonly used, but it cannot, of itself, preserve folder hierarchies. Do you mean I'll have to figure out which of 3000 messages go into which folders I construct in TB?

I had to import Outlook Express email into Outlook email on the original PC and then re-migrate / import into Thunderbird on the original PC. Then move the files into a mail directory on the new windows 8.1 PC running TB.

Good luck.

The status at the moment:

I downloaded the undbx tool and ran it. I now have a folder under My Documents that contains about 50 folders with some 6000 .eml files. Windows declares them to be Thunderbird files. This appears to be successful.

I downloaded and installed the Import/Export Tools add-on into TB and ran it. The Import/Export Tool menu leaves the "Import Messages" and "Import all messages from a directory" options grayed out. The only import option available is for MBOX files. I still don't have all my messages withing TB. Perhaps these 6000 messages are in the wrong place?

I went back to Outlook Express and exported the address book. I thought TB wouldn't know the native Microsoft format, so exported again, this time into a CSV file. I went into TB and opened the address book. Before I could figure out how to import I see I now have three entries in the address book for each person. Perhaps all those duplicates came from attempts to import straight from OE and not what I did today. What to do now?

For the moment I'm back in OE.

Alas, it appears Thunderbird is not right for me. It seems I need more in documentation and faster response to my queries (the last one was three days ago) than I'm getting.

I did some poking around in Thunderbird today. I found that my account settings listed the local folder where TB put things. I moved all the folders undbx created into that local folder. TB didn't recognize them. I don't know what else to do.

Such silence and lack of documentation seems strange for a community that has a product it would like others to use.

@Bellist, If you want to pay my wages, your welcome to complain about how long it takes me to respond. Until then I would appreciate it is you keep your comments to yourself. I have just come off my 80 hour work week, it is 4:00am and am in no mood for pontification about how your not getting all you deserve, perhaps you could give a little of yourself instead of complaining.

If you want timely, I suggest you get your wallet out and pay a technician to fix your problem as it would appear that you are in over your head.

undbx creates EML files. Thunderbird can do nothing with them, unless you import them using this add-on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/ or drag and drop them from the files system into the location you want them in Thunderbird.

Oh, and you have to highlight a destination that the import export tools can import to, so select your local folders, preferably create a new folder in local folder and import to that. You can move mail around after the import.