moving from pc to MAC

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Rayleigh458
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Joined: December 11th, 2017, 12:29 am

moving from pc to MAC

Post by Rayleigh458 »

hello everyone.
i have been using thunderbird in windows. due to some official needs now i need to transfer all my thunderbird mails to MAC mail. haven't used mac before. does mac mail import thunderbird eml files or do i have to use some other tricks?
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DanRaisch
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Re: moving from pc to MAC

Post by DanRaisch »

Thunderbird doesn't store messages in .eml files but in mbox format files.

How is/was the account set up on the Windows system? If it's an IMAP account, the messages in the account proper would still be on the server and would not need to be imported. If it was a POP type account, this extension ( https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/mboximport-en.html ) can be used to export messages to .eml format files. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Export_mail_i ... Apple_Mail
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tanstaafl
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Re: moving from pc to MAC

Post by tanstaafl »

See https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22318?locale=en_US . Apple Mail knows how to import mbox files, what Thunderbird uses by default. So you could offer your profile as a file share on the Windows PC (using windows explorer), have the Mac connect to that file share, and then have Apple mail import the mbox files. However, its not clear whether or not you need to rename the mbox files to use a .mbox file extension beforehand. "inbox." is the mbox file for the inbox folder.

The main thing you need to be careful about when importing mail (whether this way or the way DanRaisch suggests) is to make certain the old folder hierarchy is preserved.
Rayleigh458
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Re: moving from pc to MAC

Post by Rayleigh458 »

the problem is i am unable to export the mails from thunderbird. importexporttools is not coping up after thunderbird update. i don't know if thats eml or mbox. i just dragged few files and found they were stored as eml. later did i know that i have to export them using an add on. any idea how to do it on urgent basis?
PotterLily
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Re: moving from pc to MAC

Post by PotterLily »

In that case you might have to wait for a couple of days. importing and exporting mails in thunderbird is totally dependent on the addon importexporttools. I believe firefox team might be working on it and soon will fix it out. there's no way you can extract your mails from thunderbird. only importexporttools addon is going to help.
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tanstaafl
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Re: moving from pc to MAC

Post by tanstaafl »

version 3.2.5 of the add-on is only available at the authors web site, its not on Mozilla add-ons yet. tools -> importexporttools -> export -> mbox file works with my copy of Thunderbird 52.5.0 under Windows 10 if you select an existing directory as the destination (rather than type in the name of a new one) when exporting the folder. I was able to also import that exported mbox file into Local Folders , its fine. I also exported all of the messages in a folder as .eml. They also look fine. I can double click on each .eml file in File Explorer (windows 10 version of Windows Explorer) and have it display the message using Thunderbird or "em client".
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DanRaisch
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Re: moving from pc to MAC

Post by DanRaisch »

there's no way you can extract your mails from thunderbird. only importexporttools addon is going to help.
That's not completely true. You can use Thunderbird's own menu path File->Save as->File->Select "Save as type"="Mail file (EML). But that saves one message at a time, so while it is possible to export messages without using the ImportExportTools it's not convenient for any large numbers of messages.

Rayleigh458, I'm not sure what you mean when you post that ImportExportTools "is not coping up after Thunderbird update". The extension works in version 52.5.0 of Thunderbird, the latest release version. What, specifically, happened when you tried using the extension?
Rayleigh458
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Joined: December 11th, 2017, 12:29 am

Re: moving from pc to MAC

Post by Rayleigh458 »

tanstaafl wrote:version 3.2.5 of the add-on is only available at the authors web site, its not on Mozilla add-ons yet. tools -> importexporttools -> export -> mbox file works with my copy of Thunderbird 52.5.0 under Windows 10 if you select an existing directory as the destination (rather than type in the name of a new one) when exporting the folder.
agrreing to your point. but my thunderbird says it is 58.0b2
i had run an update few days back. man. how am i going to do this now? is it possible to degrade thunderbird back to 52.5? without killing my mails?
Rayleigh458
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Re: moving from pc to MAC

Post by Rayleigh458 »

or is there any way i can feed my pop mails back to mail account inbox on server?
Rayleigh458
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Joined: December 11th, 2017, 12:29 am

Re: moving from pc to MAC

Post by Rayleigh458 »

PotterLily wrote:In that case you might have to wait for a couple of days. importing and exporting mails in thunderbird is totally dependent on the add on importexporttools. I believe Firefox team might be working on it and soon will fix it out. there's no way you can extract your mails from Thunderbird. only importexporttools add on is going to help.
no question in this regard cause i found import export tools 3.2.5 released back in 2015. they haven't updated themselves thereafter. Thunderbird has come from 52 to 58 now. most add ons seem unusable.
Rayleigh458
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Re: moving from pc to MAC

Post by Rayleigh458 »

DanRaisch wrote:
The extension works in version 52.5.0 of Thunderbird, the latest release version. What, specifically, happened when you tried using the extension?
probably because you are using MAC. on windows the latest update is 58.0b2
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DanRaisch
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Re: moving from pc to MAC

Post by DanRaisch »

If you are running version 58.x of Thunderbird you are running a pre-release, beta version of the software. Is there some particular reason for your doing that? Beta versions may be more likely to include regressions, bugs, etc as they have not yet been released for general use. The latest release version of Thunderbird for any platform is 52.5.0.
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tanstaafl
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Re: moving from pc to MAC

Post by tanstaafl »

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Go_back_to_an ... hunderbird

I suggest you uninstall the beta and download and install the production version. It should automatically reuse your existing profile, which has your add-ons , mail, settings, address books etc. APIs are being dropped in non-production versions of Thunderbird due to changes in the mozilla toolkit (driven by Firefox/Mozilla). Its going to take time for add-on authors to deal with the situation. Some authors are sitting things out until it becomes clear what the future plans are for APIs.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Add-ons_Guide_57
PotterLily
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Re: moving from pc to MAC

Post by PotterLily »

even i would recommend what tanstaafl said- download 52.5 and replace it against the 58.x version.
wish you luck.
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