Neowin Forums > Thunderbird --> Mail?

rustyPixel

May 6 2005, 03:49

I've done a bunch of searching but have not found a definitive answer...I was wondering if the new Mail (found in Tiger) can import my mail from Thunderbird.

I'm getting my Mac on Tuesday so I haven't been able to play with it myself to find out...but I'm hoping someone can give me some insight.

Thanks!

rustyPixel

May 6 2005, 03:58

Okay, one website says that the Mozilla/Netscape eMail import wizard will work...another says that extra steps are required.

Just wondering if anyone has done this before with success.

PureEdit

May 6 2005, 05:19

Last I checked thunderbird used the mbox format, which Mail will import fine.

tariq

May 6 2005, 05:23

I did it recently and it was successful. I followed these directions:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Export_to_Mail.app

Tip: Before importing each mbox, Mail may display a dialog box of which messages/folders you wanted imported. If you get that dialog box, deselect everything except the first main mbox entry.

rustyPixel

May 11 2005, 23:53

I followed those directions, but it seems as though Mail only imports about 90% of the messages in any given folder.

Interestingly, the Inbox folder which I imported had 0 eMails, but Mail found about 500 of 'em (eMails from years and years ago! *gasp*).

Any ideas/thoughts? I really can't lose any of these old eMails.

tariq

May 12 2005, 17:05

Maybe try not deselecting anything if you did, I didn't have that problem so I can't help you there.

As for the old messages appearing, it's because with the mbox system, when you delete an email, it's only marked as deleted. From my understanding it remains in the mbox until you compact/rebuild folders.

rustyPixel

May 12 2005, 17:52

QUOTE(tariq @ May 12 2005, 13:05)

Maybe try not deselecting anything if you did, I didn't have that problem so I can't help you there.

As for the old messages appearing, it's because with the mbox system, when you delete an email, it's only marked as deleted. From my understanding it remains in the mbox until you compact/rebuild folders.
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Oh wow...I didn't know that it worked like that.

I rarely if ever delete eMails. I didn't think this would happen.

The whole thing is very strange. I'm not sure how I'm going to proceed from here, unfortunately.

btw, I didn't deselect anything; only the "original" mailboxes that I was trying to import showed up in the import selection dialogue box.

Any other thoughts/ideas/success stories?

tariq

May 12 2005, 19:27

perhaps try creating a new folder (aka mbox) in thunderbird and move all your important mail there. then close thunderbird and import that mbox. that way its a fresh mbox with no deleted messages or other problems.

rustyPixel

May 16 2005, 02:32

QUOTE(tariq @ May 12 2005, 15:27)

perhaps try creating a new folder (aka mbox) in thunderbird and move all your important mail there. then close thunderbird and import that mbox. that way its a fresh mbox with no deleted messages or other problems.
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Nope.

Believe it or not I'm still having the same problem. I actually found someone on the Mac discussion board that is having the same exact issue; no one has responded with a suggestion though on how to fix the problem.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. The number of eMails is still off. I've tried rebuilding eMails, etc. No go.

tariq

May 16 2005, 03:36

Last Hope: Are you sure you're selecting the proper mbox to import? In my last recommendation, if you created a folder called Test, you need to rename the "Test" file (no extension) in your profile folder to "Test.mbox" and import that into Mail.

rustyPixel

May 16 2005, 15:08

QUOTE(tariq @ May 15 2005, 23:36)

Last Hope: Are you sure you're selecting the proper mbox to import? In my last recommendation, if you created a folder called Test, you need to rename the "Test" file (no extension) in your profile folder to "Test.mbox" and import that into Mail.
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I'm pretty sure I am selecting the right mbox; however for most of the process I've been selecting all of the mboxes at once in order to import *all* of my Thunderbird eMail. Do you remember if you selected "Other" or "Mozilla/Netscape" as the type of eMail store to import?

tariq

May 16 2005, 17:05

I imported one mbox at a time and used the "Other" type.

rustyPixel

May 16 2005, 21:56

Do you remember having to compact your folders in Thunderbird before you imported them? And what platform were you running Thunderbird on before the import to mail? OS X, or were you running Thunderbird in Windows?

Thanks for your patience and help thus far, tariq...I really appreciate it.

tariq

May 17 2005, 17:17

I didn't have to compact the folders because when I created new folders in Thunderbird, and put my messages into them before exporting, those mboxes were in perfect condition having never been modified.

I went from Mail (10.3) > Thunderbird (on 10.4) > Mail (10.4) because Mail 2.0 wouldn't import my mail after clean-installing Tiger. I just used Thunderbird as a intermediary since it could read my mail and export a mbox that was compatible with Mail 2.0

By any chance, do you have nested folders in Thunderbird? ie:

Mailing Lists
-- Straight Dope
-- Loop
-- TheList

Each nested folder has its own mbox.

rustyPixel

May 17 2005, 19:06

QUOTE(tariq @ May 17 2005, 13:17)

I didn't have to compact the folders because when I created new folders in Thunderbird, and put my messages into them before exporting, those mboxes were in perfect condition having never been modified.

I went from Mail (10.3) > Thunderbird (on 10.4) > Mail (10.4) because Mail 2.0 wouldn't import my mail after clean-installing Tiger. I just used Thunderbird as a intermediary since it could read my mail and export a mbox that was compatible with Mail 2.0

By any chance, do you have nested folders in Thunderbird? ie:

Mailing Lists
-- Straight Dope
-- Loop
-- TheList

Each nested folder has its own mbox.
[right][snapback]585933825[/snapback][/right]

Okay...yes, I actually do have nested folders.

Let me try one more time creating brand new mboxes by copying eMails over from my old folders. Maybe I did something wrong last time and the brand new mbox files will work better.

I'll give these ideas a whirl and let you know what happens.

Thanks again, tariq.

powerdafuture

May 17 2005, 19:28

Does thunderbird let you view HOTMAIL MAIL?

rustyPixel

May 18 2005, 00:20

QUOTE(powerdafuture @ May 17 2005, 15:28)

Does thunderbird let you view HOTMAIL MAIL?
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No.

powerdafuture

May 18 2005, 05:33

Which mail app does? besides Entourage

tariq

May 18 2005, 15:54

All do, just not out of the box like Entourage. You just need to use a third party program like HTTPMail (http://httpmail.sourceforge.net/).

petterpp

Jun 23 2005, 18:42

QUOTE(rustyPixel @ May 6 2005, 03:49)

I've done a bunch of searching but have not found a definitive answer...I was wondering if the new Mail (found in Tiger) can import my mail from Thunderbird.

I'm getting my Mac on Tuesday so I haven't been able to play with it myself to find out...but I'm hoping someone can give me some insight.

Thanks!
[right][snapback]585879616[/snapback][/right]

I have had the same problem as you until today! I found a way that works good.

1. Install Entourage
2. Find your mailfolders (found in Library/thunderbird/profiles/your account/mail/local folders)
3. There are three versions of your folders (Inbox.msf, Inbox.sbd, inbox)
4. Copy the one without extention to the desktop (or wherever you want)
5. Add the extention .mbox to your folders
6. Open Entourage and drag the folders to the main folder (Folders on my computer)
7. Open Mail and go: File/Import and select Entourage.
8. Done!

Hope this will help all frustrated minds out there.

/Petter

GothTeddy

Jun 24 2005, 02:08

I did this last week and was quite shocked to see Mail importing thousands of emails