Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Hierdie gesprek is in die argief. Vra asseblief 'n nuwe vraag as jy hulp nodig het.

Thunderbird -- moving old email, different drive, was POP now IMAP

more options

I have two variables with this one, so I want to make sure I get advice on the solution that covers both issues.

I recently switched my wife's email from POP to IMAP. Very soon after doing that, her drive went bad (I can use it as a secondary drive -- I just can't boot from it). So I got a new drive and am re-installing the system on the new drive, with the old drive mounted as a secondary drive.

I installed Thunderbird (and configured her account as IMAP) and want to import all of her old POP messages. I'm hesitant to just copy over all the messages from her old profile, since it was POP and it's now IMAP. What's the best solution?

(If this was MS Outlook I'd want to create an archive file with all her old messages -- does that option exist in Thunderbird?)

Thanks for any help.

I have two variables with this one, so I want to make sure I get advice on the solution that covers both issues. I recently switched my wife's email from POP to IMAP. Very soon after doing that, her drive went bad (I can use it as a secondary drive -- I just can't boot from it). So I got a new drive and am re-installing the system on the new drive, with the old drive mounted as a secondary drive. I installed Thunderbird (and configured her account as IMAP) and want to import all of her old POP messages. I'm hesitant to just copy over all the messages from her old profile, since it was POP and it's now IMAP. What's the best solution? (If this was MS Outlook I'd want to create an archive file with all her old messages -- does that option exist in Thunderbird?) Thanks for any help.

Gekose oplossing

Oh, then you'd need to copy all email to local folders and then manually copy the appropriate directory. I lack the time to properly detail + test this.

If it's not urgent I can get to it this evening (EST).

This document about Local Folders has details on how they are stored, if you try doing this by yourself please do backups before. Oh, and make backups. Did I mention backups?

And of course, make a backup.

Lees dié antwoord in konteks 👍 1

All Replies (7)

more options

You can move the emails directly from the POP folders to IMAP folders. POP email resides locally on your hard driver, IMAP email is stored on the server.

If you do this using the older profile, the changes will be visible in the new profile when you use it next time.

more options

Fabian -- thanks for the reply. Can you clarify a little? Am I copying the entire old profile directory over the new profile directory? Seems on first blush like that'd copy over a lot of stuff I don't want to copy.

Also, related to that question -- the old messages I want to preserve are in a subfolder of the profile directory under Mail\pop.west.cox.net. Will it even see that folder since it's named after the POP server?

Thanks -- just being cautious here.

more options

No, I am not advising to copy anything over anything else :) Apologies if the above wasn't clear/complete. Don't hesitate to ask more details.

I am just saying, configure your setup to use the old profile, so you can copy your emails from your POP folders to the IMAP folders. You can create the very same account that was using POP as a new one using IMAP on the same profile without conflicts, just make sure it uses another name (add [IMAP] to it for example).

Having both accounts configured in the old profile copy/move only what you need (this will take time as IMAP content resides on the server), then archive that profile somewhere else.

Now you can create/use a new profile with only IMAP and it will reflect your previous transfers once properly synchronized.

Gewysig op deur Fabián Rodríguez

more options

Thanks again for the quick response. Again, just clarifying -- does your method copy the old mail to the IMAP server? If so, then that's not my preferred solution, just due to the massive number of old emails my wife has.

What I'd prefer to do is end up with a local folder that has all her old POP email (hence my reference to an Outlook archive in my original post). Sorry I wasn't more specific about that earlier. Is there a quicker path to that solution (or am I not understanding the way your solution works)?

more options

Gekose oplossing

Oh, then you'd need to copy all email to local folders and then manually copy the appropriate directory. I lack the time to properly detail + test this.

If it's not urgent I can get to it this evening (EST).

This document about Local Folders has details on how they are stored, if you try doing this by yourself please do backups before. Oh, and make backups. Did I mention backups?

And of course, make a backup.

Gewysig op deur Fabián Rodríguez

more options

Finally got a chance to finish it up this weekend. Found that creating a local folder with the same name as the old POP folder, and then copying the old folder from the old profile over the new local folder would do the job. I now have everything back the way I want it. Thanks again.

more options

Hi, sorry I couldn't test this for you beforehand. I am glad you could find your way through documentation + work.

Thanks for selecting the answer that solved the problem, this helps other users with similar problems find the solutions more easily.

Thank you for contacting Mozilla Support!