Oauth and Outlook-to-Thunderbird -- apologies in advance for so many questions to follow
I've been using Outlook to send and receive email for my AOL account for about ten years. Last October, a bug occurred on the AOL site, "temporarily" removing users' ability to generate a 16-character server password. This did not create a problem for me until I changed my AOL email password a few days ago. Now I can see my old email in Outlook and I can view new email via iPhone, Thunderbird or the AOL website, but I can no longer send or receive email in Outlook. This has happened to a lot of people in the last three months, and no one at AOL seems to want to fix the problem.
I saw the following remark from someone who was in a similar situation:
"The only fix I have found is to use Thunderbird. Thunderbird allows you to manually switch the server authentication to Oauth so it can use your email password instead of an app-generated one."
That made me curious enough to download and set up Thunderbird V102.7.1 (64-bit), and it does allow me to view my recent email. My goal is have the same viewing experience as I had with Outlook; that is, an Inbox folder in the left margin for recent email that requires follow-up, and about 240 other folders where I'm storing receipts, business conversations, and anything else that I may one day need to look up.
To that end, I was hoping that the "easy" way to do that would be to:
1. Find a software product that will convert my Outlook PST files to a format that TB can import 2. Import the converted files into TB
The first problem I'm hitting with that approach is that when I select Import from Outlook in TB, I get a bright red "No profile found" message. Does that message mean that TB is looking unsuccessfully for something in my Outlook installation? Does it mean that TB is looking for one of my profile names (e.g. "Default-User") instead of Outlook? Or do I perhaps need to create another profile in TB and name it Outlook?
I haven't tried converting PST files yet, and I may wait on that until I have an answer to the import question.
OK, one other question, and it involves a very low-tech approach to solving my problem. It would go something like this:
1. In Outlook, move all email from Inbox folder to a new folder named "000 - Temp" 2. In Outlook, pick a folder, e.g., "Amazon" 3. In Outlook, drag all email from the Amazon folder to the Inbox folder 4. Wait for the Inbox folder on the TB email page to "find" and display the email that was just moved there 5. Create an Amazon folder in TB and move the messages from TB Inbox to TB Amazon 6. Repeat steps 2 thru 5 for every folder in Outlook
I already know this would be painfully slow and tedious. My question is, will the TB Inbox actually find and display messages shortly after I move them from one of my other folders?
OK, end of Part One. Thanks in advance for input, suggestions or laughter.
Solution choisie
1. If you have all your old mail already imported. what further is in outlook you might want? That is really the crux of your decision. Some contacts perhaps?
2. Your call. If your using Thunderbird for mail, I would suggest you make it the default. If you are using outlook, then it needs to be the default. After all the "default" is only something that can set you into your chosen mail application when one is required. Nothing more really.
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I'm guessing you had your AOL account setup for POP access in MS Outlook, and therefore the ~240 folders are local (offline) folders that do not exist online in your AOL account. Is that correct?
@Stans - You're correct about the older messages being local, which is why my server view in TB didn't magically refresh as I was moving messages back and forth in Outlook.
I can now see all of my older Outlook messages under Local Folders in TB. That solves my most urgent issue, which was being able to see current and older messages on the same screen. That leaves me with two questions:
1. Should I still try to import my Outlook PST files into TB? I've already converted them to MBOX format using an evaluation copy of PST Walker 7.02. Microsoft will stop supporting my 2013 version of Outlook in a few months. On the other hand, the PST files currently take up about 6 GB of disk space, and I don't know if that would slow down performance or exceed storage limits in TB.
2. Now that I can see everything from TB, should I make it my default mail application or leave that set to Outlook on my Windows 10 desktop computer?
Solution choisie
1. If you have all your old mail already imported. what further is in outlook you might want? That is really the crux of your decision. Some contacts perhaps?
2. Your call. If your using Thunderbird for mail, I would suggest you make it the default. If you are using outlook, then it needs to be the default. After all the "default" is only something that can set you into your chosen mail application when one is required. Nothing more really.