14.04emailmigrationthunderbirdwindows 7
I found this question but it is not about Mail, is just profile.
I want to migrate all my e-mail in Thunderbird and attachment from Windows 7 to my Thunderbird in my Ubuntu 14.04.
Exists a program for that? Or I have to use others ways?
Thanks very much.
First, copy the contents of C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles on your Windows 7 machine to your Linux machine. Make sure you get atleast one folder with a name consisting of a random string of characters and then a name - e.g. x90j7qn5.Default User
Then create a directory called ~/.thunderbird, and copy the files into it, and note down the name of the file. Then run thunderbird -profilemanager to open this:
Click Create Profile..., and pick the location of the file you just copied to ~/thunderbird (e.g. /home/YOUR_USERNAME/thunderbird/x90j7qn5.Default User)
Though apparently this should work cross-platform, I think you may need the same or similar versions of Thunderbird for this to work properly.
I would suggest trying to repair the folder index (.msf) file. This file may become damaged and result in such issues.
For each profile, Thunderbird stores messages from email folders in files with the same name as the folder's name and with no file extension for example (the Inbox folder's messages are saved in a file called Inbox and the Drafts folder's messages are saved in a file called Drafts and so on ... ). These files contain the complete messages of the corresponding folder and can get very large in size and a size of a few gigabytes is not uncommon. Therefore Thunderbird relies on mail summary files or .msf to avoid slow responses due to loading messages from very large files every time it starts or the user searches for emails.
Mail summary files or .msf files are used by Thunderbird to index messages in each mail folder. These files only contain messages headers. They are smaller in size and faster to load and search.
One mail summary file exists for each folder so for example (the Inbox folder will require two files: one is to store the actual full messages which will be called Inbox and the other file which will be called Inbox.msf will contain only messages summary AKA messages headers for indexing and searching purposes).
If the mail summary file gets corrupted or missing, that is not a big deal because it does not contain the real messages but rather an index or a reference to them and it can be fixed.
If, however, the messages storage file itself gets corrupted or missing, that's a different story and emails will most likely be lost forever.
To repair the folder index .msf file, please back up your original profile first then start Thunderbird and right click on the Inbox folder of the affected email account and choose Properties from the menu. Then click on the Repair Folder button like in the image below:
After the repair process completes, please restart Thunderbird and check if the problem is solved.
Workaround:
If the above method does not work for you, then I would suggest a workaround using Evolution mail client. This workaround is aimed at enabling you to list and view your old inbox messages. Please follow these steps to implement this workaround:
First: If you do not have Evolution installed, you can install it by running the following command in the terminal:
sudo apt install evolution
Second: Start Evolution and go to File menu -> Import and you will be presented with a dialogue box like in the image below:
Third: Click the Next button and choose Import a single file like in the image below and click the Next button again like in the image below:
Fourth: Click on the field next to Filename to open the file browser like in the image below:
Fifth: Brows to your email profile and find a directory named [Mail Account Name].sbd and click on it like in the image below:
Sixth: Find the messages file named AllMail or Inbox with no extension depending on your original mail folder and double click it like in the image below:
Seventh: Click the Next button like in the image below:
Eighth: Choose the destination folder and click the Next button like in the image below:
Ninth: Click the Apply button and wait for the operation to finish like in the images below:
Done: Your messages should be available in Evolution mail client in good shape in the destination local folder you chose during this process.
Best Answer
Best is to Use IMAP if you insist on POP se the alternative at the bottom.
Since you are using the POP protocol in your mail client. Mails are most probably being downloaded to your email client and removed form the server (check your email client settings to verify this)
If you were running IMAP already you would only need to to Step NR 3
1) Set up IMAP on your old mail client. Disable checking of email with the POP account but do not remove it and re add another the same email account in your windows email client, but this time with IMAP support instead of POP support.
Since IMAP will not download and remove emails from the mail server ,but simply make an cached version of your emails in your email client. Allowing you to read delete and otherwise interact with your emails from multiple devies.
2) Move emails back to server
Once that is done , drag and drop all your emails from your pop3 inbox in your mail client into the IMAP inbox you should be having. This will basically re-upload the emails onto your e-mail providers server.
3) Configure IMAP on thunderbird.
Once all email have been moved back. You can simply configure your thunderbird on linux or any email client to gain access to your emails.
In general IMAP is always preferred over POP as it has better support for handling email when using multiple email clients in multiple locations.
If you insist on continuing using POP: Since the Thunderbird file format is the same between different operating systems you can actually extract the data file manually from the install folders.
But it might be easier just to install the import export add on , export the emails with it , move that file to the new place and import it with the same add on.