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Archiving Mails in Thunderbird - Deactivated Email Account

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  • 1 yana da wannan matsala
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  • Amsa ta ƙarshe daga AgnesRM

christoph1krueger
christoph1krueger
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Dear Community,

in the last two years I was enrolled in an MA course that provided me with my own student login-data for the social-network of my university, as well as access to research-portal and an email account.

I graduated in June this year, but my email-account was continued for a few months. Now my login has been terminated and I can't access my emails anymore. I kind of missed the right time to archive my emails, though.

I use Thunderbird as my email client and have downloaded all my mails to Thunderbird. The program asks for my login-data all the time, which I cannot provide at this point.

I would like to export the downloaded emails into an archive on my computer. Is there any way? When I click on "archive email" Thunderbird again asks me for my login-data.

I really want to have a backup of my student-life, so to speak. Is there any way to do that?

Best, Christoph

Dear Community, in the last two years I was enrolled in an MA course that provided me with my own student login-data for the social-network of my university, as well as access to research-portal and an email account. I graduated in June this year, but my email-account was continued for a few months. Now my login has been terminated and I can't access my emails anymore. I kind of missed the right time to archive my emails, though. I use Thunderbird as my email client and have downloaded all my mails to Thunderbird. The program asks for my login-data all the time, which I cannot provide at this point. I would like to export the downloaded emails into an archive on my computer. Is there any way? When I click on "archive email" Thunderbird again asks me for my login-data. I really want to have a backup of my student-life, so to speak. Is there any way to do that? Best, Christoph

All Replies (1)

AgnesRM
AgnesRM
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I was hoping someone more expert would help you out. It depends on so much! If you were using POP then all the emails you see are right there on your computer already. If you were using IMAP you might have the whole message or you might only have headers and not the content. If you ever set up 'offline' settings you might have all the emails you previously opened somewhere in offline folders. So - if you are able to open and read all the messages you downloaded, they are on your computer with complete contents. That's good. You need to put them somewhere safe (very important) before considering removing or editing the account so it doesn't prompt for password any more. Make a safe copy of the Profile (look up Thunderbird Profile for where it is and how to make a copy/transfer/backup the profile). Then make a set of folders in Local Folders part of the Thunderbird. Copy batches of the emails from your Uni account to the Local Folders section - a few hundred at a time. Take it slow, check the emails copied over and you can read a few after each batch. When you have all that you want to keep in Local Folders, make another Profile backup copy. Then check once more and then delete the account - Account settings - Account actions - Remove account. That will also delete all the emails in the account's inbox and subfolders which is why you need to copy all to the Local Folders section first. Good luck!