Hi Brett,

How are trying to do it? What happens when you try?

The best way is to use the add-on ImportExportToolsNG.

Another way is to put the mbox file in the "Local folders" folder in your profile in the file system and re-start Thunderbird.

I'm trying to choose the file from my desktop, see attachment. The file size is 1.72 GB.

Thunderbird wont let me choose the file from my desktop.

That option is for importing data from a profile. Is that what you want to do?

Please let me know how it goes with my suggested approaches.

Thunderbird stops responding when I try to import the zip file, see attachments.

You asked about importing an mbox file. But you are trying to import a profile. What exactly do you want to do?

How was that takeout file created?

Not sure. Your the expert. I download all of my email files through Google Takeout. The download came in the form of a zip file. I need to import that file into Thunderbird. What is the best way to do that?

I suggest unzipping and then posting a screenshot of the content as it appears in windows file explorer. You indicated it is a mbox and we know how to handle that, and also profiles. But we need the facts on what you have. Thank you.

No one here knows anything about what you want to do until you say it. You are the only expert on what you want to do.

So you don't want either to import an mbox file as your topic says or to import data from a Thunderbird profile, which is what you have been trying to do. You want to import data from Google, but you may not even need to do that.

So please say more about what you are trying to accomplish. Do you want to access your gmail from Thunderbird? Do you want to stop using Google for e-mail and use a different e-mail service provider? Have you already set up your gmail account in Thunderbird and you want to move archived messages into Thunderbird? Something else?

This article may help: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-gmail

Extract the mbox from the zip file; it might have a .mbox extension. Remove the extension. In TB, Help/Troubleshooting Info, Profile Folder, Open Folder, close TB, copy the mbox file into Mail/Local Folders in the profile. Restart TB, find a folder with the name of the mbox under Local Folders in the Folder Pane.

I want my emails in Thunderbird. I have a zip file. How do I get that zip file into Thunderbrid, so that all the emails that are in that zip file show up in Thunderbird?

You cannot get that zipped file into Thunderbird. You put individual mbox files from it into Thunderbird as described earlier.

If you shared more information, we could make this easier for you.

Do you want to continue using your gmail account? Is your gmail account set up in Thunderbird? Are most of your messages in IMAP folders or local folders?

I want to use gmail and Thunderbird both. Yes, my gmail account is set up in Thunderbird. I'm not sure if most of the meses are in IMAP folders or local folders. Attached is a picture of the mbox file that I have it's 1.72 GB.

That picture tells nothing. As has been suggested (more than once) you need to unzip the file and then post screenshot of the contents in order to get useful feedback.

In Thunderbird, note which folders already have your gmail messages in them. Those are IMAP (server) folders. You do not need to deal with them.

Follow sfhowes’ directions for copying the rest of the message folders from your unzipped file into your Thunderbird profile. Those are local folders.

My guidance is general. I do not use gmail. You might wait for others to respond before proceeding.

Sorry that you have had to tell me more than once. I'm a slow learner and have a disability. Please try to be patient with me. Nothing happens when I try to double click on the mbox file.

So you actually have an mbox file and a take-out file. The one to double click is the take-out file. Did you already do that and you got the mbox file out of it? Then follow sfhowes’ directions to copy into your Thunderbird profile.

I expected more mbox files than this one.

David and sfhowes, does Google put all messages into one mbox file during take-out?!

Yes, I double clicked on the takout folder, it went to mail, I doubled clicked on mail, then the mbox file was there. Google put all the files on 1 mbox file.

I do not know how you will work with inbox, spam, trash, et cet. all in one folder after you import that mbox file into Thunderbird. It does not seem useful to me, especially when you must already have inbox, spam, trash, et cet. in Thunderbird.

Apparently, when you got the data from Google, you had an option to put messages with different labels into different mbox files. See here: https://jpc-design.com/2022/02/15/how-to-download-export-emails-with-google-takeout/

I would think that taking that step would make the imported messages much more useful to you and leave you less work to do after importing the messages. You may want to use the take-out process again and see if you can get mail separated into more folders.

I remain curious: If your gmail account is already set up in Thunderbird, do you already have all your gmail messages in Thunderbird? Are you going to import duplicates?

I repeat: I don't use gmail.

Until you unzip the file and show screenshot of contents, it is difficult to provide any advice.