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import from Postbox

  • 25 replies
  • 4 have this problem
  • Last reply by david

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I understand that Postbox, based on Thunderbird, will never be updated to become compatible with Apple silicon chips. Therefore Postbox will cease to work when Rosetta will be deprecated on macs. Consequently my question is where can I find directions to import messages, filters, and preferences from Postbox to Thunderbird?

I understand that Postbox, based on Thunderbird, will never be updated to become compatible with Apple silicon chips. Therefore Postbox will cease to work when Rosetta will be deprecated on macs. Consequently my question is where can I find directions to import messages, filters, and preferences from Postbox to Thunderbird?

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I suggest setting up thunderbird and using the tools>import>importfromanotherthunderbird and then locate and seect the postbox profile. no guarantees, but i have been successful in sharing profiles between the two apps.

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Chosen Solution

I suggest setting up thunderbird and using the tools>import>importfromanotherthunderbird and then locate and seect the postbox profile. no guarantees, but i have been successful in sharing profiles between the two apps.

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Many thanks indeed. It's really a pity that Postbox seems to give up mac support. Regards

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Thanks for that info. I'm surprised, as Macs seemed to be their primary customer group. I do know they have done no updates in past 18 months, other than a quick fix to address the MS Oauh2 requirement last month.

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david قال

I suggest setting up thunderbird and using the tools>import>importfromanotherthunderbird and then locate and seect the postbox profile. no guarantees, but i have been successful in sharing profiles between the two apps.

I tried exactly this and it imported mail folders with the message headers just fine but then I saw all the .

messages were empty. So it had only imported the message headers. What could have gone wrong

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I suggested that approach because I don't know Macs and it's supposed to work. Ideally, you would access the profile with Thunderbird not running and copy with the OS's file manager to your profile or wherever you wish, and then click help>troubleshootinginformation, scroll down to 'profiles', click 'about:profiles, click 'create profile' in upper left, click next, enter a short nickname for the profile and then click the browse button to locate and select the copied profile. That process gives you a pure copy.

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It's an urgent actually question! Postbox stop the application development and recommend eM Client. Now I tested eM Client and imported all of my Postbox Profiles.

A reliable import tool for Thunderbird that can import EVERYTHING completely from Postbox is urgently needed!

My current experience: In eM Client there are no Profiles, all Postbox Profiles are in one directory now. I had several profiles in Postbox - including a main profile (mostly POP3) with sophisticated rules that moved important mails to a local file structure. eM Client copied all of them into a structure AND UNAUTHORISEDLY switched POP3 to delete after 2 days after download - a no-go! eM Client copy all different profiles into one, a second no-go for me. All old rules don’t work now.

It would probably have been better at the time if I had started migrating to Thunderbird right after the end of the old Mac with Office 2011 for Mac and Outlook. My main mail client on the Mac is Apple’s Mail.app anyway Entourage, Outlook 2011, eMail is used to manage additional mailboxes and as a mail archive. Thunderbird (+ Betterbird test) is also installed, but serves other purposes.

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Postbox, Inc has been acquired, and the Postbox product is being abandoned:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41930523 https://support.postbox-inc.com/hc/en-us/articles/26988085310103-Postbox-has-been-acquired-by-eM-Client

So, more info about transitioning to Thunderbird would be helpful. (I haven't tried the recommendation yet... if there's no info, will try soon.)

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The simplest way is this:

  1. install and start thunderbird and be sure that Postbox is NOT running,
  2. click tools>import>import from another thunderbird installation and then click to import profile and select the Postbox profile.

A 'purer' approach, assuming familiarity with windows file manager, would be this:

  1. install thunderbird and then exit
  2. be sure postbox is not running
  3. copy the postbox profile to c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles
  4. start thunderbird, click help>troubleshootinginformtion
  5. scroll down to 'profiles' and click 'about:profiles
  6. if you see your profile, just launch it. if not, then
    • click 'create profile' button in upper left
    • click next
    • enter a short name for profile, such as PROFILE, and then click the 'choose' button to locate and select your proflle.
    • click finish and launch

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Just a followup: I just imported a Postbox profile using the 'purer' approach from prior post and it worked immediately, prompting only for passwords to be reentered,

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Ok, one more example:

This is easy and I just did it myself to ensure I wasn't misleading anyone: install thunderbird and when it starts, click the ALT key to show menu bar Next, click tools>import>import from a thunderbird installation Next, click 'choose a profile folder At that point, locate and click your Postbox profile (Postbox must NOT be running) Thunderbird will then import the profile and prompt for passwords That's it.

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I followed all the prescription (however on macOS) and it did not import filters. I have 320 of them.

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I confirm that the "purer" approach essentially works on mac, but fails to import filters and tags. This is actually very bad news for my installation.

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david said

The simplest way is this:
  1. install and start thunderbird and be sure that Postbox is NOT running,
  2. click tools>import>import from another thunderbird installation and then click to import profile and select the Postbox profile.
.....
    • enter a short name for profile, such as PROFILE, and then click the 'choose' button to locate and select your proflle.
    • click finish and launch

But needed to correct the path in some setting-files prefs, extensions, msgfti2.sqlite, panacea, secmod.db, ....

Mail Passwords don't migrate. Must must be re-entered.

On Mac EasyFind & Find Any Files could help!

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Next problem, don't save mailbox passwords!

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Now I import one of my Postbox profiles, importing incorrect if german umlauts (äöü) in postbox profile names. Now my IMAP profile works, only one postbox have problems. Passwords were not imported, could be that I protect them in Postbox with a general password.

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Another problem. All fonts (directory, account names, mail headers, other Thunderbird system fonts) are very small. How (with which syntax) can these be enlarged?

I only know that it works in /chrome with the files userChrome.css & userContent.css.

my userChrome.css only works partially in the middle raw, the mail subject are very small fonts


CSS /* ---Ordnerbaum anpassen--- */ .container { font-size: 14px !important; }

/* Schriftfarbe wie "Betreff" in Headerpane anpassen */ .headerName {

   font-size: 14pt !important;

}

/* Schrift Konten-Ordner-Liste */

  1. folderTree {

font-size: 14px !important; }

/* Optimierung Nachrichten-Liste */ tr[is="thread-row"] { font-size: 14px !important; }

  1. threadTree treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text {

font-size: 14px !important; }


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I suggest first try clicking the hamburger menu in upper right and clicking 'font size and adjusting there. That may resize the desired font sizes.

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It is specifically about the font size of: Thunderbird / view / window layout / 3-column view / centre column with list of all mails; sender + subject

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Since this thread has already been marked as solved, I suggest you open a new thread with a title indicating a desire to change font on message list pane. There are several CSS experts and one of them may respond.

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Now I compare filters from Postoffice with Thunderbird. Postoffice use the entry global="yes" If remove global="yes" in Thunderbird import from Postoffice msgFilterRules.dat filter works. Tag Values or Folder-names (for move) must be the same.

What a pity that Thunderbird does not support global filters - or is there an add-on for this? Postbox solves this with global filters by copying the msgFilterRules.dat file to all mailbox directories when a global filter is specified.

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