Transition is exceedingly painless for those that use IMAP. It is only a few of us that still have a dedicated local store. With IMAP you add the account and everything synchronizes. Ipso facto importers are very low priority these.

Thunderbird outlook importer last ran "well" in version 17. It was disabled because it crashed Thunderbird and at some point there are still plans to fix it. But it does not sound like that is your issue. It found stuff and crashed.

You may be onto something with the 64bit stuff. Thunderbird is generally 32bit and I have seen lots of issues with Microsoft MAPI and 64/32 bit. My understanding of the importer is it basically uses MAPI So a couple of possibilities exist. One is locate an unofficial Thunderbird 64 bit build. I just looked on a site that used to have it and the site has disappeared) But builds have been around for years. There must be one somewhere The second it install a 32bit version of outlook to see if that improves the import process. My guess is it will.

Note that trial versions of outlook are fine for importing.

I am very anti-cloud. I try to stay as far away from non-locally stored anything as I can. So Imap is out.

I might have found a 64 bit version at http://www.m64.info/index.php/thunderbird-64-bit-download.

I assume both x86 and x64 use the same mbox structure and it is not bit-sensitive? So, I can use it to convert from Outlook, then uninstall it, and install the official supported x86 version of Thunderbird?

tbh I'd rather keep all my programs x64 rather than going backwards, but the x64 TB version looks like it is not that stable and doesn't have all the features of the official version.

anyway, if the x64 version doesn't work, I'll install the x86 Outlook on a test machine, copy over the PSTs and try the x86 TB 38.1 again.

Will let you know how it goes.

There are no profile issues with 32 Vs 64 bit. I run both the nightly 32 and 64 bit versions. Issues only arise with binary add-ons like Lightning. But that is not germain to this discussion.

Note,  while windows is 32 bit.  The Linux version and OSX version are 64 bit.

Well, I seem to have made some progress.

I could not get anything to work with 64bit outlook and Thunderbird (any versions that I tried).

So on my test machine I installed outlook 2010 32 bit, Thunderbird 31.8, copied over the PST files from my production PC. Added the accounts to the 32bit Outlook, and viola! The import worked perfectly.

I then had a massive task moving emails around (Don't want this stuff on my boot drive), and found that folders with sub-folders had to be copied one by one individually. PITA.

Then upgraded to latest Thunderbird, and had to manually add all of my events, tasks and calender stuff back in and re-create all of my filters one by one.

Next step is to get Enigmail working, then move it all back to my production PC.

I must say, the Thunderbird interface is not very appealing! Are there any skins/themes to make it more pleasant to work with?

thanks Tanya

Yanta said

I might have found a 64 bit version at http://www.m64.info/index.php/thunderbird-64-bit-download.

Those are just random Nightly builds (new builds almost everyday on channel due to checkins) of Thunderbird note the a1 and not even close to being Releases. There are four main development channels and this one is the most unstable compared to Release and Beta.

There are no official Win64 Release builds of Thunderbird.

James said

There are no official Win64 Release builds of Thunderbird.

I discovered that after installing one of those versions. Hence why I had to go back to all 32 bit applications to get anything to work.

thanks

I think you need to read this. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

The hybrid you have created will probably cause you trouble when you change machines again. Think of the Thunderbird profile as the outlook PST file and you will be on the right track.

Success!

I had no problems migrating this "hybrid" Thunderbird from one PC to another.

I've got all the accounts set up, mail going to all the right folders, contacts, calendar and tasks... everything seems to be working fine.

So after all, the problem was the the Bitness of thunderbird versus outlook that was the problem. When I used Outlook x86 with thunderbird everything worked.

Thanks for all your support and assistance.