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My ISP changed us to another mail provider. So I created a new version of my existing email with different server settings, then restored my email backup. I did this all offline and it was successful. All my emails and folders were there.

Next, I went online to download new email, after which all of the messages and folders from the backup were removed (overwritten). I've tried repeating the process by removing the new account and reinstalling it, but I can't get my old emails and folders back. This is a significant problem because I have over a decade of financial and legal emails in the backup. I have tried a number of the solutions posted in the Community but have not been successful in getting my emails back. I'm using Windows 10 and Thunderbird 115.10.1.

Any insights are most appreciated.

I recently (unwisely) refreshed my WIndows 10. On restarting I had to reinstal Thunderbird. I thought I'd be able to recover all my old emails by importing the old profile from Windows.old, but I've had some problems: 1) I can't identify which profile was the most recent. 2) The info from each profile has remained on my Thunderbird, although I though it would be overwritten by the next profile I imported. 3) I've tried importing them one by one, but none of the old profiles is the one I was looking for, with all my sub folders. I need the old emails for work, invoicing and tax calculation purposes. I've now been sitting in front of my computer for a couple of days in a cold sweat, the desperation building quietly. Can anybody help?

I have been trying to archive my 25 years of Yahoo mail before they delete most of it. I thought I had it done. Now I have had to start again. Did you know that setting Thunderbird to ISAM download all your emails will only get the first 10,000 of any folder with more than that in it? Yes indeed, so it seems. We have to set the yahoo download server to the 'export' server. prefix the existing name with 'export'.

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I am locked out of my yahoo accounts now. And the attempts I made earlier to delete stuff to make room have deleted stuff that never got downloaded/archived because from a folder with more than 10,000. That's how it goes. Just thought I'd warn anyone who might be as unknowing as I was. I took advice to the contrary and believed it.

I have an email address and I want to migrate those emails to a gmail address. The problem is that I have around 2300 emails. I'm copying about 200 emails to the gmail address. The problem is that is taking too long and it's not copying all of them.

What if I copy all of emails wait to sycronize it and then copy it again? It will work? Or is there another way to do that?

Hi, It worked flawlessly in the previous version. In version 153.0.2esr (64-bit), I can't drag and drop messages to a folder (e.g., Desktop). Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

So, I recently got rid of Spectrum as my internet & email provider. I have used the Archive function to archive all the emails from that account but still need to be able to access them after I remove the spectrum email account from Thunderbird. Does Archiving the emails keep them accessible or do I need to so something else. Further info, all of my emails are downloaded to thunderbird and not kept on the server, so they are physically on my computer inside thunderbird program

Hi. Please could you guide me through moving my email messages from a POP3 account on one Mac to another? I have an old iMac (late 2015, Monterey) that I am tearing down for parts, but this has been my main Thunderbird computer. It is running the latest version of Thunderbird (153.0.2), as I updated it to do the Export. I am trying to move my email accounts onto my M1 Macbook Pro. When I first installed Thunderbird on the Macbook I was delighted to see that my data and settings for the IMAP accounts had somehow miraculously (to me!) migrated. But I have a POP3 account which has only partially moved across. It seems to be receiving new emails, but all the Inbox history is missing, and other folders such as Drafts and Sent are not there either, I just have Inbox, Spam and Deleted. I have tried your Export/Import method twice, but to no avail. In the expanded profile on my USB stick I can see Mail>mail.oddplanetstudios.co.uk which looks like it might contain all the files and messages. Now I want to move them across into Thunderbird, but I don't know what the steps are to do this. I would be very grateful if you could lead me through this, if it is indeed what I need to do, or give me some directions to do it differently. Many thanks.

I backed up my Thunderbird folder on my old pc, and moved it to my new pc. When I started Thunderbird, the appearance of the Inbox, plus my Address Book, was moved to the new pc. I don't see the Local Folders (and all the messages I put into the Local Folders) from my old pc, on the new pc Thunderbird app. I checked that the "Profile Folder" under Troubleshooting / Application Basics, was selected for the profile I moved from the old PC. I can see in the profile folder all the Local Folders. Any idea on how to get Thunderbird to recognize these transferred Local Folders and contents, so I can continue to access them on my new pc running Thunderbird ? Thanks

Old PC died and will not start up. I bought a new PC and was able to recover most file in the initiating the new desktop. I installed Mozilla Thunderbird on the new PC, but when I opened it only 55 EMAILS were available with the oldest being about 2 weeks old dating back to July 16, 2026. Is there a time limit for maintaining EMAILS online? Also, all of my contacts and Calendar events are not available.

I had created several folders to save important EMAILS and none of those sub-folders are visible to me. How do I get to those folders and EMAILS? Contacts and calendar are not as important, but they were used all of the time to communicate and stay on schedule

I tried to import using the tool provided, but received the following message: Import failed unexpectedly, more information may be available in the error console.

I have lots of important information that I can't access!

Help

I have 3 computers. Two are running Windows, and one is running Linux. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Linux Mint has Thunderbird built in. I keep the two Windows computers in sync with a file compare program, "Beyond Compare" Are my local folders compatible between the two operating systems so I can sync my Linux Thunderbird local folders with the ones I have stored in Windows Thunderbird local files?

Are txt files stored the same in both NTFS and ext4 systems?

I want to get all my emails down and saved before Yahoo starts deleting them. I asked already and got directed to the tool Importexporttool.NG which I got. Installed. Tried it. It didn't work. Something wrong on that machine. Big mess. Now I am here on a new machine: linux mint, new Thunderbird. complete with the tool. I have got two accounts with yahoo. I have one set up via IMAP and it has downloaded everything. Inbox and nearly 100 custom folders. The second one is not set up yet. Next step I think is to get all these emails, custom folders and all, into 'local folders'. Then set up the other account and do the same Then I'm done. Right now I have a hitch: can't clearly see how to do this with Importexporttoolng and certainly don't see any other way. You will appreciate that with 100 folders manual on each folder is something i want to avoid if i possibly can. We only have about three days left I think. Anyone can steer me through this?

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Environment:

Thunderbird: 153.0.2esr (64-bit) Operating system: Windows Occurs with multiple email accounts Reproduced on two different computers running the same Thunderbird version

Description:

After updating Thunderbird to version 153.0.2esr, released on 4 August 2026, emails can no longer be dragged and dropped from Thunderbird to the Windows Desktop or any folder in Windows Explorer.

The problem occurs with all tested email accounts and folders. It has been reproduced independently on two different Windows computers using the same Thunderbird version.

Saving an email manually with Ctrl+S works correctly and creates the .eml file. Normal drag-and-drop between folders in Windows Explorer also works. Only dragging an email from Thunderbird to Windows Explorer fails.

The issue also appears to affect third-party applications that use Thunderbird to create or send emails automatically.

Steps to reproduce:

Open Thunderbird 153.0.2esr on Windows. Select an email in any account or folder. Drag the email to the Desktop or another folder in Windows Explorer. Release the mouse button.

Actual result:

The email is not copied or saved to the selected Windows folder.

Expected result:

Thunderbird should export the email as an .eml file in the selected folder.

Additional information:

Ctrl+S successfully saves the same email. The issue affects every tested email account. Thunderbird extensions were disabled, but the problem remained. Thunderbird Troubleshoot Mode did not resolve the issue. Restarting Thunderbird, Windows Explorer and Windows did not resolve it. Thunderbird and Windows Explorer are not running with different elevation levels. The problem was reproduced on a second computer after installing the same Thunderbird version. No relevant error is shown in Thunderbird’s Error Console when the drag-and-drop operation fails. The issue was not present before the recent Thunderbird update.

This appears to be a regression in Thunderbird 153.0.2esr affecting email export through drag-and-drop and possibly Thunderbird’s integration with external applications.

I found a bug in Thunderbird 153.0.2esr version that wasn't a problem in previous versions. When I drag an email from Thunderbird into a folder in Windows File Explorer (Windows 10 PC), when I drop the email into the folder, I get an error box titled :Error Moving File or Folder", with the contents with a large red X and text "Unspecified error".

The workaround is to right-click the selected email(s) and choose "Save As...".

Anybody else here able to reproduce this and confirm it is a bug?

I have 3 computers. Two are running Windows, and one is running Linux. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Linux Mint has Thunderbird built in. I keep the two Windows computers in sync with a file compare program, "Beyond Compare" Are my local folders compatible between the two operating systems so I can sync my Linux Thunderbird local folders with the ones I have stored in Windows Thunderbird local files?

Are txt files stored the same in both NTFS and ext4 systems?

I'm changing email servers and need the best way to automatically backup my complete(multiple domains and user accounts) emails in thunderbird to a separate drive or local machine before changing servers. I would prefer an automated way to do this so I can continue to update backup file routinely

I already back up my profile regularly to a remote drive

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

Hello - new forum user with some previous familiarity with Thunderbird. I'm looking for advice on mail import from Outlook (M365) on Mac OS. I will only be using TBird for accessing historical mails in future rather than as the main mail app going forward.

I have installed Thunderbird and looked at the Import Tool but it doesn't list Outlook as an option. I've looked through the Import Tool support pages and I can see Outlook is an import option but it only seems to appear when I filter the web page based on Windows 11 rather than Mac OS.

Am I able to use the Import Tool on Mac OS with Outlook?

I'm using Mac OS Monterey 12.7.6 and have Thunderbird 153.0.1 and Outlook for Mac 16.89 (M365) installed.

If the Import Tool isn't available, is the next best option to drag individual folders from Outlook to the Mac desktop to create MBOX folders and then drag those into Thunderbird?

Thank you in advance.