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Lolu chungechunge lwabekwa kunqolobane. Uyacelwa ubuze umbuzo omusha uma udinga usizo.

impossible import - failing 3 ways

  • 3 uphendule
  • 1 inale nkinga
  • 8 views
  • Igcine ukuphendulwa ngu sfhowes

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Hi there, thank you very much for any help you may provide.

Mac OS X 10.9.5 Latest version of Thunderbird.

I created a fake account in Thunderbird in order to see Local Folders on the left Panel (otherwise the application does not create Local Folders in Profiles).

I would like to import old emails, see them offline, as backup tool.

So, I tried to import emails in Local Folders in 3 different ways :

1) Right click on Local Folders, select ImportExportTools NG, import MBOX file (then tried also the other options in this popup window), so select an MBOX file (from external disk). Finder does not stop at the level of MBOX, does not allow to select that but enters subdirectories, until reaching .emlx files. So I can select only .emlx files and once OPEN, system prompts " the file ...cannot be open because corrupted or not an MBOX file"  !!!! Still the .emlx file appears in Local Folders tree on the left panel (GUI).

2) Copied manually MBOX (files/folders whatever with this extension!) into Thunderbird's Profiles' Mail 's Local Folders 's. Quit and so reopen Thunderbird. Other files are created into that Local Folder (e.g. nameof themboxfilechosen.msf) .... but when opening Thunderbird NOTHING is displayed, no messages appear there. Folders are correctly visualised on left panel, under tree Local Folder, however messages are not there.

3) Used the native IMPORT menu from Thunderbird, without using ImportExportTools NG. Tools -> Import -> Mail , so I select Apple Mail. It runs 1 sec and returns the message that no mailboxes are found in Mail.... so it does not import anything yet. Even in this case I worked offline. And Mail application was closed.

So, the import fails with all 3 methods.

Should I rename extension of MBOX files/folders !? I really do not know what else to try, and would need to see my emails here, offline. (Apple Mail download and manage as IMAP, Thunderbird kept as backup emails browsers, to be used offline only).

Thanks much for your any support!

Hi there, thank you very much for any help you may provide. Mac OS X 10.9.5 Latest version of Thunderbird. I created a fake account in Thunderbird in order to see Local Folders on the left Panel (otherwise the application does not create Local Folders in Profiles). I would like to import old emails, see them offline, as backup tool. So, I tried to import emails in Local Folders in 3 different ways : 1) Right click on Local Folders, select ImportExportTools NG, import MBOX file (then tried also the other options in this popup window), so select an MBOX file (from external disk). Finder does not stop at the level of MBOX, does not allow to select that but enters subdirectories, until reaching .emlx files. So I can select only .emlx files and once OPEN, system prompts " the file ...cannot be open because corrupted or not an MBOX file" !!!! Still the .emlx file appears in Local Folders tree on the left panel (GUI). 2) Copied manually MBOX (files/folders whatever with this extension!) into Thunderbird's Profiles' Mail 's Local Folders 's. Quit and so reopen Thunderbird. Other files are created into that Local Folder (e.g. nameof themboxfilechosen.msf) .... but when opening Thunderbird NOTHING is displayed, no messages appear there. Folders are correctly visualised on left panel, under tree Local Folder, however messages are not there. 3) Used the native IMPORT menu from Thunderbird, without using ImportExportTools NG. Tools -> Import -> Mail , so I select Apple Mail. It runs 1 sec and returns the message that no mailboxes are found in Mail.... so it does not import anything yet. Even in this case I worked offline. And Mail application was closed. So, the import fails with all 3 methods. Should I rename extension of MBOX files/folders !? I really do not know what else to try, and would need to see my emails here, offline. (Apple Mail download and manage as IMAP, Thunderbird kept as backup emails browsers, to be used offline only). Thanks much for your any support!

All Replies (3)

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Are these 'mbox' files from Apple Mail? If so, you have to extract the actual mbox file and then you can import with the add-on or manually.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=14069759#p14069759

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Hello sfhowes,

Thank you very much for your reply.

It does not work though :( I followed the method in that post, some messages are imported (and so displayed), some others not (the majority!). For instance 50 messages out of 700 are imported, for a random folder. So that doens't work, I'd need ALL messages to be displayed in TB.

I did it several time (each time uninstalling TB and deleting TB's folder in Library, manually).

For instance, last time, I copied all the mbox files (some 15 GB) in Mail's V2 folder into TB's profile folder, as you guys say. Renamed again each mbox, deleting the extension, as indicated. Open TB: all folders are displayed correctly in the left panel tree but NO message is displayed. Clicking on a folder in the tree, the plist file appears, no message shown. Also, how to import a folder named XXXIMAP.mbox full of sub-folders named SENT.mbox (with many subfolders up to .emlx files), INBOX.mbox ..... etc ? I removed .mbox extension from all files/folders but still nothing works here.

Thank you very much for any further help you can provide.

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The file exported from Mail app with an .mbox extension is not the file to import to TB.

See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1200699