Exporting Email From Thunderbird

mac57 · 2006-02-06 02:02:56

When I made the full time transition from Windows to Linux, I selected Thunderbird as my email again, and imported all my Outlook Express mailboxes (and I have a lot of them) into Thunderbird. Thunderbird is a good mail agent, but I am getting worried about being locked into one mail agent again, much as I was with Windows.

Are there any programs out there that can EXPORT email from Thunderbird into some neutral format like HTML or XML or some such?

Ultimately, I would like to start using Sylpheed, but I can't see any way to get my email from Thunderbird to Sylpheed.

Any ideas anyone?

viniosity · 2006-02-06 03:46:04

The way I've moved lots of mail from one client to the other is by setting up an IMAP server (even locally). The drag/drop your thunderbird mails to your IMAP server and back down to whatever client you want to use. I think you can even use a script to move those mailboxes with IMAP so you don't have to manually drag/drop.

I'm sure there are better ways to do it but I use IMAP anyway so this is what I've done in the past when switching servers.

mac57 · 2006-02-06 15:43:22

Great, this sounds promising. Is there any documentation on this? Which IMAP server have you used? While this path might sound convoluted to some, it seems like a good idea to me - I would like to try it.

Once I have an IMAP server set up, do I literally drag n drop the Thunderbird .msf files onto it somehow? This suggests that .msf is a standard format that any good IMAP server would know about?

viniosity · 2006-02-06 18:10:01

The beauty of this method is that you do it all from the client itself. You would launch thunderbird as you normally do and set up a second account. That second account should be an IMAP server. Which IMAP server you use and where it is located is up to you. If you have an ISP that provides IMAP mail that would be easiest otherwise you could set up your own somewhere.

(on a side note, since I am not an IMAP expert I would recommend downloading a trial version of Communigate Pro from stalker.com since it will install and work quickly for your purposes)

Once you have both accounts active and working in the client just drag the emails from the folder on one account to a folder on the other. Thunderbird will automatically transfer the mails to the other server for you.

I should also point out that this isn't a thunderbird specific feature -- even outlook express will do this.

Good luck!

murkus · 2006-02-06 19:08:36

mac57 wrote:

Are there any programs out there that can EXPORT email from Thunderbird into some neutral format like HTML or XML or some such?
Any ideas anyone?

The thunderbird mail is in standard Berkeley mailbox (mbox) format. All you need to do is copy the mail folder from your

~/.thunderbird/2fgg5g6b.default/Mail/

Note that 2fgg5g6b.default is variable name depending on unique instance of install. Yours is named differently.

Pretty much every decent mail app should recognise the file.

HTH,

murkus

mac57 · 2006-02-08 04:02:24

Would you happen to know if Sylpheed would qualify under your description of "any decent mail app"?

scottro · 2006-02-08 04:35:19

Sylpheed can import mbox format. I frequently use it for this. I have mutt as my usual email client, but every so often, url_view has trouble with long urls. So, I'll open sylpheed, go to file=>import Mbox or whatever the menu item is--it opens my home directory, I go to Mail and import whichever mailbox has the message I want.

I haven't used Thunderbird in awhile, but if your mail is kept in a directory called Mail, when sylpheed asks if it should use Mail as the default directory, just to be safe, I would first rename the Mail directory that you're using with thunderbird. Otherwise (I've never tested this, but it seems a possibility) any mailboxes in the Mail directory you've used with thunderbird that sylpheed creates by default might get overwritten.

murkus · 2006-02-08 10:53:57

mac57 wrote:

Would you happen to know if Sylpheed would qualify under your description of "any decent mail app"?

Here's Sylpheed FAQ about it.

.murkus

mac57 · 2006-02-09 20:48:31

Thanks all, this is even simpler than the IMAP route. I will give it a whirl. Thanks again.

mac57 · 2006-02-10 02:05:05

I've tried the Sylpheed route with no luck. I selected its "Import Mbox" entry from the File menu and pointed it at one my Thunderbird .msf files - these are the big ones, which I am guessing is where the actual mailbox content is kept. Sylpheed doesn't give me any errors, but nothing gets imported. Is there some thing that I am missing here? Thanks.

mac57 · 2006-02-10 03:54:34

Well, the plot thickens. I checked the Arch repos, and sure enough, we had an IMAP daemon right there - imap-2004g-1. So I installed it, and then started hunting around for any information on it. It looks like it is the University of Washington IMAP server, but I can't find any information on how to administer it - set up users, mailboxes, passwords, etc. Does anyone have any experience with this server? Thanks.

mac57 · 2006-02-10 04:24:09

Hopefully a final post in this thread. Thanks to all the good advice received here, I kept at it, and finally did get sylpheed to import Thunderbird mailboxes. I had been pointing it at the wrong files - the .msf files are not the ones to use, but rather the ones with no extensions. Thanks again everyone!

Arch Linux

#1 2006-02-06 02:02:56

Exporting Email From Thunderbird

#2 2006-02-06 03:46:04

Re: Exporting Email From Thunderbird

#3 2006-02-06 15:43:22

Re: Exporting Email From Thunderbird

#4 2006-02-06 18:10:01

Re: Exporting Email From Thunderbird

#5 2006-02-06 19:08:36

Re: Exporting Email From Thunderbird

#6 2006-02-08 04:02:24

Re: Exporting Email From Thunderbird

#7 2006-02-08 04:35:19

Re: Exporting Email From Thunderbird

#8 2006-02-08 10:53:57

Re: Exporting Email From Thunderbird

#9 2006-02-09 20:48:31

Re: Exporting Email From Thunderbird

#10 2006-02-10 02:05:05

Re: Exporting Email From Thunderbird

#11 2006-02-10 03:54:34

Re: Exporting Email From Thunderbird

#12 2006-02-10 04:24:09

Re: Exporting Email From Thunderbird

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