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Where are my imported mail messages?

  • 6 respostas
  • 0 have this problem
  • Last reply by Mapenzi

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I just installed Thunderbird, linked it to my primary email account (ok!) and then tried to import one year's worth of email messages exported from my Apple Mail client as .mbox folders with an underlying folder structure (1 per month). Thunderbird went away for about 2 hours "downloading" and importing ( ... looking good!), but at the end my "Local Folder: Apple Mail Import" still shows no messages. Where are they and how can I access them in the Thunderbolt client?

I just installed Thunderbird, linked it to my primary email account (ok!) and then tried to import one year's worth of email messages exported from my Apple Mail client as .mbox folders with an underlying folder structure (1 per month). Thunderbird went away for about 2 hours "downloading" and importing ( ... looking good!), but at the end my "Local Folder: Apple Mail Import" still shows no messages. Where are they and how can I access them in the Thunderbolt client?

All Replies (6)

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Did you use Thunderbird's native import feature or the add-on ImportExportTools? The native feature needs much improvement! If you have exported messages from a Apple Mail folder in thee mbox format you can manually import the mbox file via drag & drop into Local Folders in the Thunderbird profile folder. See also https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1483219

Mapenzi modificouno o

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Drag& drop does not work for me - the folder just floats back to the Finder window. I installed the ImportExportTools extension. To be honest, I am confused about what is what - the native Import vs the I-E-T-Extension. I think I have tried both with always the same result - I can see the imported folder structure (1 folder per month ...) in the Local Folders section, but no messages. Then I created a mbox zip file - 1.94 GB (just under the limit) and the same thing happened ... Then I used the I-E-T-Extension Folder Context menu to import "All EML Messages from a Directory + Subdirectories" - this replicates the Apple Mail subfolder structure in the .../V10 folder - not very useful, but at least the messages are there, "All EML Messages from a Directory" or "Individual Messages" just report 0 files imported instantly. Repeating the same process on 2 additional years' worth of messages lead to the same result that I described in the original question - importing happens (Finder reports 2 lots of 10,000+ items being added to the Profiles folderstructure, but the disk space used only creeps up minimally) - the folder structure in the mbox files gets imported but the messages don't. So, I have now imported 3 years worth of Apple Mail .mbox export folders into the Local Folders of Thunderbird. 2 of these years' messages I can see and on the other 2 ( = the same year repeated twice into a different local folder) there are just the Apple Mail folders visible, but no messages.  ???? I am thoroughly confused !!! Eventually the process hangs with 174 of 12246 EML files imported, none nof them visible. Is there a way that I can make all messages in a folder tree "Unread", which would make them easier to spot in the sidebar?

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kjahn1 said

Drag& drop does not work for me - the folder just floats back to the Finder window.

You have misunderstood my directives, just like the other person in question 1483219. You should not drag & drop the exported Apple mbox file in Local Folders in the Folder Pane but in Local Folders in the Thunderbird profile folder !!

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Thanks for your response, Mapenzi - I should have read this more carefully. With my total attention on the Thunderbird client and what it can or can't do this escaped my attention.

Now, with the correct drag & drop location I am still having the same problem: the Mac Mail folder structure gets imported instantly, but there are still no messages. Is the problem that they are in .emlx format rather than .eml? I have converted a few of them to .eml using on online converter and they go in without problems. (not shown below) Note that in the attached screencopy the 2022-Archive-mbox.sbd is empty (except for the empty subfolders), but the 2020-Archive-mbox.sbd holds the messages that are showing up.

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kjahn1 said

Is the problem that they are in .emlx format rather than .eml?

I don't understand this question. Where did you get those .emlx files from? Apple Mail stores its messages in the .emlx format. But when you open Mail, select the folder "Sent", go to menu Mailboxes and click "Export Mailbox" you'll get a folder called Sent.mbox which contains a file named named mbox and another named table of contents. The mbox file contains the exported sent messages. If you rename it in "Sent" you can drag it in a Finder window to ..../Mail/Local Folders/. On TB restart you should see a folder Sent in Local Folders containing the messages exported from Apple Mail.

In my test, even if I drag the folder Sent.mbox such as to ..../Mail/Local Folders/ I will see the imported messages after restart (see screen shot)

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I just tested another export-import method from Apple Mail to Thunderbird. Maybe you find it easier to perform: create a new folder on your Desktop, give it any name. In Mail.app open a folder, e.g. Inbox, select all messages it contains and drag&drop them on your new folder. The exported messages in the new folder have the *.eml format! So now you can drag & drop them in any folder in Thunderbird.

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