This tutorial is for people who tried Mozilla's Thunderbird 2 email client and decided they changed their minds about it and want to go back to Outlook.
This Thunderbird 2 email transfer guide works for Outlook Express, Outlook 2000, Outlook 2003, and Outlook 2007.
On to the steps to export emails from Thunderbird to Outlook.
First, go to your Thunderbird 2 application folder and copy out your database files. They are in unix format can be found at
for Windows XP users - (C:\ ... )
for Windows Vista users - C:\Users\***your windows username***\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\
Copy all the folders in this location to another place so that you can work on the copies and not the originals just in case something gets damaged or corrupted. For the purpose of this demo, we'll copy them to the desktop.
The tell-tale sign is that they are named after the email folders in your Mozilla Thunderbird 2 application.
Now, go FIle > show file extensions, and then rename the extension of all your emails to .mbox
Next, download IMAPSize - from http://www.broobles.com/imapsize/
Install the program after you're done downloading it and open it up.
Open IMAPSize, and click on Tools > mbox2eml and use the tool to convert your .mbox to regular format. You can choose your desktop as the save location.
Now go into the newly created folders on your desktop and drag the individual emails into Outlook Express if you're using Windows XP and Windows Mail if you're using Windows Vista. From here.... EXPORT your emails to Outlook.
Voila, you're finally done!
Comments
written by KS, January 04, 2008
And if I dont have outlook express?
written by Agent Rado, January 04, 2008
Hi KS,
Every windows XP should have outlook express. If you the windows mail from Vista, that should work too. You could also try transporting the converted emails to a computer that DOES have outlook express.
written by vi, February 19, 2009
I tried this and I lose the "recieved by date" in my e-mails. Outlook is sorting by the date I coped (transfered) the files. Any fix for this?
written by Dale, February 21, 2009
what do I do if there is nothing in profiles?
written by Vishara, November 14, 2009
Before you copy your Thunderbird mail folders, run Thunderbird and compact all of your folders. Otherwise, you may not get the results you were hoping for. Otherwise, I just tried out this process, and it appears to have worked successfully, though the process is tedious if you have multiple sub-folders.
written by Steve, March 08, 2010
I've come accross this after long and hard searching on net, MAILSTORE. It's a back up utility currently free that'll back up your thunderbird mail and sort the duplicates out, then you can export the backup back into outlook. It really is that simple!!!
Steve
written by jimmy, June 19, 2010
If you have sub folders, Be Sure to move your emails that may still be in the main folder into each of the sub folders first, or create a subfolder called misc -In, misc -sent, etc. Compact them, then back them up to a convenient location for conversion. its the sub-folders that you will rename as .mbox
