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MBox format support

ephemeris.lappis
ephemeris.lappis
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Hello !

I've been looking for some ways to import GMail takeout exported mails files that use MBox format. Googling I found some extension to do it, named "ImportExportTools NG". I've tested and it seems to have some issues : for example, after importing some MBOX files, the mails counts doesn't match GMail's values. I have not spent time to diagnose it yet...

I've also tried to simply put my MBOX files in my TB local folders and it seems to work.

Please, could someone confirm that this last trivial way actually works, and thus there's no need to any extension or tool ?

Thanks for your help.

Regards.

Hello ! I've been looking for some ways to import GMail takeout exported mails files that use MBox format. Googling I found some extension to do it, named "ImportExportTools NG". I've tested and it seems to have some issues : for example, after importing some MBOX files, the mails counts doesn't match GMail's values. I have not spent time to diagnose it yet... I've also tried to simply put my MBOX files in my TB local folders and it seems to work. Please, could someone confirm that this last trivial way actually works, and thus there's no need to any extension or tool ? Thanks for your help. Regards.

Modified by ephemeris.lappis

Chosen solution

Thunderbird's native storage format is the RD variant of MBOX. I think Google use exactly the same variant, but I am not 100% on that. Apple mail used to also use it, and with the application of a zip program the native mbox files can still be extracted from when Apple mail exports and imorted the same way.

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All Replies (4)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Copying the mbox file into Mail/Local Folders in the profile, with TB closed, should work. Remove the .mbox extension if it's shown.

ephemeris.lappis
ephemeris.lappis Question owner
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Yes, this seems to work. Indeed, MBOX files and TB file seem to be very similar. I don't know if there's some exception cases. Thanks for your answer.

Matt
Matt
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

Thunderbird's native storage format is the RD variant of MBOX. I think Google use exactly the same variant, but I am not 100% on that. Apple mail used to also use it, and with the application of a zip program the native mbox files can still be extracted from when Apple mail exports and imorted the same way.

ephemeris.lappis
ephemeris.lappis Question owner
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Hello Good news ! This means that's a really simple way to import or export messages between GMail and Thunderbird. I was looking for exporting a part of different GMail accounts mails before cleaning them, and be able to store them in Thunderbird. Exporting from GMail using labels selections allows to extract limited size MBOX files that can easily be placed in on or more TB profiles folders. I'm sure that's is going to help more people too. Thanks a lot for your explanation. Regards.