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download IMAP mail from Thunderbird

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by Matt

michael.van.laake
michael.van.laake
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Hi all, Environment: PC running Windows 10 pro. I use Thunderbird to manage an IMAP email account. The account is going to expire at the end of March 2021. I have deleted the old messages I am no longer interested in, and I want to download/backup all the others. I have found synchronization instructions on https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization. Followed the instructions. I have located the AppData/Thunderbird/Profiles folder on my PC. In there is a default profile folder but it is empty.

I think I have everything set up correctly - so the questions are ---Am I looking in the right place on my PC for the download? ---How do I get Thunderbird to actually perform the download? Something like a "start" or "download now" command.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Hi all, Environment: PC running Windows 10 pro. I use Thunderbird to manage an IMAP email account. The account is going to expire at the end of March 2021. I have deleted the old messages I am no longer interested in, and I want to download/backup all the others. I have found synchronization instructions on https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization. Followed the instructions. I have located the AppData/Thunderbird/Profiles folder on my PC. In there is a default profile folder but it is empty. I think I have everything set up correctly - so the questions are ---Am I looking in the right place on my PC for the download? ---How do I get Thunderbird to actually perform the download? Something like a "start" or "download now" command. Any help greatly appreciated.

All Replies (4)

Matt
Matt
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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use the import export tool to export the mail from Thunderbird into mbox files (one file per folder.) or EML files (one file per email)

Both types can be re-imported to Thunderbird using the same tools but EML files can be double clicked in the file system to open in Thunderbird.

https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools-ng/?src=ss

Due to issues with IMAP synchronization the process will be fairly slow as each email is checked for being the current version on the server and downloaded if it is not. But it is a surer method that just trying to grab the mbox files from the profile folder. IMAP account folders can never really be regarded a canonical so some of what you get just grabbing the files may not be a complete email.

michael.van.laake
michael.van.laake Question owner
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Hi Matt, Thanks for your reply. This is just an in-between message to let you know I'm on it. I have managed to get the extension, and tonight I will see if I can get it to do the job (very busy now with work). I will let you know how things go.

Michael

michael.van.laake
michael.van.laake Question owner
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Hi Matt, Here I am again. I have managed to do the download. I can see all the messages, but there is also a lot of code, so I guess I will have to find a proper way of visualising it all. So far I've only tried Firefox. At least all the messages I needed are safe now, so I will mark the query as "solved".

Thanks again for your help. Michael

Matt
Matt
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Codes? Could we be talking about the normally hidden message headers.... they appear in all formats except EML as Thunderbird and other mail clients will hide them for you.

Did you export an EML? (export all the messages in the folder> EML) . Double clicking those will open the document in Thunderbird per normal. All other formats will be a text representation of the entire email including the headers.

Choosing the top level to export a folder or export folders with subfolders (structure) will generate mbox files and from a user perspective they are really only useful as an archive to be re-imported to Thunderbird using the import export tools.