mbox encoding problem
I have created a backup of my gmail messages using the Google Takeout service. I have successfully opened the resulting .mbox file in Thunderbird, but when browsing the messages, I noticed that in certain messages the national characters were displayed incorrectly. (E.g. 'ďż˝' instead of 'í'.) Changing the encoding through menu (View / Character Encoding) to various possible values did not help. If I had a look at the same message using Thunderbird's Gmail IMAP account, the characters are displayed correctly.
Is there a way how to display such messages correctly from the .mbox file?
The behaviour was the same under two tested configurations: Thunderbird 31.2.0, Linux Mint 17.1 Thunderbird 45.8.0, Ubuntu 16.10
Thanks for your help.
Vsi odgovori (7)
try using the release version of Thunderbird.
Sorry, what do you mean by "the release version"? Thanks
I tried with the latest Thunderbird 52.6.0 and it is still the same.
Have you tried creating your own backup not using Google Takeout ?
Synchronise folders for offline use to get download of emails in profile. In offline mode, can you read emails, if yes, then all is correctly downloaded. Stay in offline mode to stop further synchronisation whilst moving a load of emails. Create suitable folders in 'Local Folders' mail account. Right click on highlighted emails and select 'Copy to' and select the new folder in 'Local Folders'.
Check you can read ok in Local Folders. These emails are now stored in mbox file viewable via Local Folders. You can backup Local Folders or the entire profile name folder. Then go back to online mode.
Toad-Hall: Yes, I am aware of the possibility to make the backup using the Sychronization & Local Folders. It has its pros and cons. I personally do not prefer this way, because my mailbox is quite large and contains lots of subfolders (gmail labels), so it could easily happen I would make an error when copying the mail.
Also one of the problems with this method is that I am never sure if the folders are really fully synchronized and I don't know how to check it easily. But this is off-topic here. Maybe I post another question in regard with that.
The news is that the encoding problem probably lies in the mbox file itself. I made a couple of tests with other e-mail clients as well (Evolution, Sylpheed) and the problem was exactly the same there. So the problem probably occurs during the generation of the mbox file by Google Takeout service, and I should rather post this question at a Google forum.
Thanks for help, anyway.
Open the file in notepad and save as from the file menu and select the text type Unicode or UTF-8. I would guess it is a windows text file using 7bit text (ANSI)
Matt: I have tried to change the encoding in a text editor as well, with no success. In the example I gave above, national characters are shown as a sequence of three chars (bytes). That does not look like 7-bit Windows encoding. (Btw if it is 7-bit encoding, then it is not Windows, is it?)
Anyway, even if it would work, it would not solve my problem, because the mail would not be searchable in Thunderbird...