By 'mailbox' do you mean a folder or folders within Thunderbird, or rather an email account where you used IMAP and want to save that mail?

I want to archive the mailbox folder within Thunderbird so I can delete it from the Thunderbird I use everyday, but could access later if I needed to. Thanks

I have been looking for such a function, and so far have not found any add-on or other process to do this. However, I am working on defining a procedure, as several other users also have made this request.

You might want to take a look at this - https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/mboximport-en.html

Thanks duggabe, let me know when you figure it out. I can also use MozBackUp to archive everything and then delete the mailbox, but use the archived backup if needed.

Short answer is drag then to the location you want in the file system and drop them. Paolos add-on will do the job as well, but it is not really necessary.

I feel also that I should update the link to the add-on as it has been available on AMO for quite a while now. so here is the updated link https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

Mail dragged from Thunderbird to the file system is converted to the EML mail format. That means that almost any mail program (Excluding Outlook) can read them as mail.

Dragging back to Thunderbird also works.

Thanks Matt!!

Hmmmm Matt I just tried dragging the mail box out of TB onto my desktop - no go???

If you would like to try the add-on, here are some detailed instructions:

http://barryduggan.info/exportMail.php

I said drag mails... I said nothing about folders. So Stewart try dragging mails. Remember that click and holding shift while you click again allows block selection. and holding Ctrl allows fine tuning. I have no idea of the mac equivalents. but I have been lambasted here before over macs now having two button mice.

Oops! Sorry thanks for the correction.

Matt - Finally getting around to this. I can drag one email at a time, but if I ctrl-a I cannot. ? Windows 7

Did you click to select an email before pressing Ctrl +A? Otherwise I guess it is a limitation of the mac OS in managing multiple files. But I would not have expected such a thing from a robust modern operating system.

this add-on provides a menu driven approach https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

Installing an add-on http://chrisramsden.vfast.co.uk/3_How_to_install_Add-ons_in_Thunderbird.html

Mac? "I said nothing" about MAC - I wrote "Windows 7" and I wrote that I used "Ctrl-A" Come on Matt. For someone with acerbic answers, I think you should at least read posts?

Seriously, who cares! I know I really do not. so I mumbled in my tea and gave you a solution that did not require what was not working for you. Ctrl +A selected the 30,000 emails in my support folder, but it took two script timeouts to do it and it would not drag to the file system.

Perhaps dragging no longer works. It was never really supported as far as I know but selecting mails and choosing File > save as from the menu does. Using the add-on also works.

Perhaps you could dust off your support hat and help answer questions and then I and the rest of the volunteers would not be so pushed for time.