Thunderbird mail moving to Mac

[DaBigKahuna]

I expect to move to a Mac very soon. I didn't see anything about a mac version to download, but even if there is one, I'm thinking maybe I should use what comes with a Mac since it will sync up better with my iPhone.

So, how do I transfer settings to the Mac mail software, or do I have to do it by hand, one account at a time?

Also, how do I transfer the mail I've saved to the Mac?

[DanRaisch]

See this link -- Thunderbird for OS X

See this for information on moving your old profile to the Mac -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder
and perhaps this -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_ ... hunderbird

[DaBigKahuna]

See this link -- Thunderbird for OS X

See this for information on moving your old profile to the Mac -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder
and perhaps this -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_ ... hunderbird

Thanks again, but it looked to me like this was about transferring to another Thunderbird. Since I don't think the iPhone will sync address stuff with the iPhone, I don't expect to use Thunderbird on the Mac. Firefox I will use, but probably not Thunderbird - at least not unless I come across some real problems using the Mac Mail stuff.

[DanRaisch]

OK, but it sounded in your first post as though you were asking about transferring Thunderbird data from a PC to a Mac. Wasn't that the question?

[DaBigKahuna]

OK, but it sounded in your first post as though you were asking about transferring Thunderbird data from a PC to a Mac. Wasn't that the question?

With mail, I want to transfer to the mail program that Mac has as standard so I can keep things synced with my iPhone. My question in the other forum for Firefox would be transferring from Firefox on a PC to Firefox on a Mac - probably much simpler that switching from Thunderbird on a PC to mac's mail on a Mac, but maybe I'm wrong.

[DanRaisch]

OK, then this link should be what you want -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Export_mail_i ... Apple_Mail

[DaBigKahuna]

Thanks. Looks like a hassle, but doable. You'd think there would be little programs people would have written specifically for things like this, but I guess not.

[DanRaisch]

You're welcome. Please note that it is generally considered the responsibility of the "receiving" program to provide the tools for importing from a previous used application. In this case, Apple does not provide that convenient tool for conversion.

[DaBigKahuna]

Well, I got my Mac yesterday and was, frankly, kinda put off by the instructions I found at site after site for moving from a PC with thunderbird to a mac with Apple mail.

And then, today, I found something that is just extremely simple. The link is:

http://forums.mactalk.com.au/16/40924-h ... -mail.html

In short, you compact your mail folders on your PC with thunderbird.

Shutdown thunderbird.

Find your profile folder: xxxxxx.default
where xxxxxx are random letters apparently.

Simply copy that to a thumb drive.

Plug the thumb drive into the mac.

In mac mail, go to File/Import Mailboxes

Select Thunderbird then press continue to locate the profile directory on the thumb drive.

Apple mail will do the rest. The mail will appear as "Imported mail"

Goto "Mailbox" on the menu and select "Rebuild" to ensure no corruption. You have to select each mail folder to be able to rebuild it.

Quit Mail and restart. Everything should be there, though not marked as "read" anymore.

It's amazingly easy - more trouble to type the instructions than to just do it, but check the link in case I said something wrong!

[allenupl]

TO: DaBigKahuna

I know this is almost one year later but we will be doing the same thing that you did - transferring Thunderbird e-mail files on a PC to a new MAC. However, the link you posted did not work. Can you reply with the correct link (if you can still find it)?
Thanks a lot.

[DaBigKahuna]

Hmmm, I don't know what the problem is, but I can't find it. I guess you can just follow what I listed and hope I actually wrote it accurately!