How to select which accounts to retrieve mail from in Thunderbird
I have many email accounts. I am migrating from Outlook Express on XP to Thunderbird on Windows 10. In Outlook Express I can choose which accounts to retrieve email from. How can I do this in Thunderbird?
Thanks for any help
- Roger
தீர்வு தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்டது
You can transfer your entire TB data from the XP computer to the W10 computer by copying the Thunderbird folder, i.e. replace the C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird folder in W10 with the {user}\Application Data\Thunderbird folder in XP.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer
If you just want to transfer mail from TB on XP to TB on W10, use ImportExportTools if there is a complex folder structure, or if there's a relatively small number of messages, save them as eml files (Ctrl+S) and add them to TB by drag and drop from File Explorer to a subfolder of Local Folders in TB.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders
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File/Get New messages for/All accounts (Shift+F5) or Current Account (F5) are built-in defaults, plus the same menu allows fetching for a specific account. Further customization is possible with the Get Selected Mails add-on.
sfhowes said
File/Get New messages for/All accounts (Shift+F5) or Current Account (F5) are built-in defaults, plus the same menu allows fetching for a specific account. Further customization is possible with the Get Selected Mails add-on.
Thank you very much for this information. I am a "newbie" to Thunderbird and am getting acquainted with it.
I just managed to get my main Hotmail.com account emails to download - all 14,435 of them - which took about 50 minutes.
However, I wanted only the latest "Test" email that I sent from my mobile phone's Gmail account as I already have the majority of those 14,435 emails after importing them from my Outlook Express message store.
So I was surprised when every message on the server started coming down. I didn't interrupt the download as I didn't want to cause any problems.
When I download emails using Outlook Express, I get only the new ones. Is there a server setting that I must change to get just the new emails? Or does Thunderbird "learn" which are new? Obviously, I don't want all of them again!
By the way, I am probably on the other side of the planet from you - GMT+7 - so couldn't reply to your message immediately as I had shutdown my PC, but thanks for your quick response.
Also, should I start a new thread for each question I have, or should I continue asking for help in this thread?
Thanks again for your help.
- Roger
TB won't download or sync messages more than once unless you 'repair' a folder. The mass download could have been avoided by moving the messages to another folder and then not subscribing to that folder, or setting up the account to not keep message bodies on the local computer, i.e. download headers only.
You will probably get more replies to your questions by starting a new thread, especially if they are not directly related.
sfhowes said
TB won't download or sync messages more than once unless you 'repair' a folder. The mass download could have been avoided by moving the messages to another folder and then not subscribing to that folder, or setting up the account to not keep message bodies on the local computer, i.e. download headers only. You will probably get more replies to your questions by starting a new thread, especially if they are not directly related.
Once again, thank you for your help.
One final question before I try accessing my other, less used emails, such as Yahoo...
When I send an email to my Gmail account from my Hotmail account (using my mobile phone), I can retrieve it using Thunderbird on my PC. Once that is done, I cannot retrieve it using Outlook Express.
The reverse is also true: if I retrieve my Gmail message using Outlook Express, I cannot then retrieve it using Thunderbird.
Do you know if there is a setting that allows both email clients to retrieve the same message? Is there a setting on the Gmail server to allow this?
Regards,
Roger
Gmail POP accounts can only be downloaded by one email program unless you enable 'recent mode'. See the 4th paragraph here. IMAP is recommended for accounts that are accessed by multiple programs or devices.
Thanks again very much. I did what you said and enabled "recent mode". Then I sent one message from my mobile phone's Hotmail account to my Gmail account and collected my Gmail account mail using Thunderbird, but it downloaded 808 emails from the last month!
So I think I'm trying to do the near impossible - going from POP Outlook Express on XP to Thunderbird on XP, while keeping them both working nicely.
Because there is no Outlook Express on Windows 10, I know that I can't import from Outlook Express on Windows 10 to Thunderbird 60.7.1 on Windows 10. This is why I did the import to Thunderbird 52.9.1 running on XP.
Then I am hoping that I can copy my Thunderbird (v 52.9.1) emails from my Windows XP profile ({user}\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\Mail\Local Folders\Outlook Express Import.sbd\) to my Thunderbird (v 60.7.1) on Windows 10.
Provided that copying is possible, all I need to do now is make sure I can access my email accounts using Thunderbird and discard all the imported mail that I have done so far.
Then on the day I switch from XP to Windows 10, I shall re-import my Outlook Express emails to Thunderbird on XP, and then do whatever is necessary to copy those emails to Windows 10.
Please, if you could confirm that copying emails from my XP Thunderbird to Windows 10 Thunderbird is possible, I think we can close off this thread.
I do appreciate very much all the help you have given.
Regards,
Roger
தீர்வு தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்டது
You can transfer your entire TB data from the XP computer to the W10 computer by copying the Thunderbird folder, i.e. replace the C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird folder in W10 with the {user}\Application Data\Thunderbird folder in XP.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer
If you just want to transfer mail from TB on XP to TB on W10, use ImportExportTools if there is a complex folder structure, or if there's a relatively small number of messages, save them as eml files (Ctrl+S) and add them to TB by drag and drop from File Explorer to a subfolder of Local Folders in TB.
Once again, thank you very much.
I shall read up on those procedures and give them a go on my XP and Windows 10 machines.
I will now click the "Solved" button and will start a new thread if I hit any more problems. It's well past 1 am over here, so I'll start that tomorrow.
Best regards,
Roger.