How to transfer old emails from a Thunderbird POP account to new Thunderbird Owl-EWS account
Hey, I recently had to switch my email accounts, which use Office.365 servers, from using a POP account to Exchange, as apparently Microsoft stopped supporting POP. I have a new install of Thunderbird 102.12 (running on Windows 10). I have installed the OWL add-on, so the email accounts are now using "OWL-EWS" server protocol. Everything works fine, as far as my different email accounts sending and receiving new emails.
My problem is trying to import my old 20+ years of emails and the whole folder heirarchy from all my past clients and business dealings into the new install of Thunderbird. I have tried using the import method with various file types, I have tried just copying the folders in manually. Nothing seems to work, I either get errors or Thunderbird just doesn't recognize the old folders.
FYI - I also have bought the full paid version of the Thunderbird Migration Wizard software from recoverytools.com. With this, I can change my old emails folders/files into practically any format.
What is the proper way to import my old stuff??? This is driving me crazy and really killing my business productivity.
I would appreciate any pointers, I can't be the only one having issues with this.... thanks!
All Replies (3)
To transfer old emails from a Thunderbird POP account to a new Thunderbird Owl-EWS (Exchange Web Services) account, you can follow these steps:
Set up the Owl-EWS account in Thunderbird:
Open Thunderbird and go to "Tools" > "Account Settings." Click on "Account Actions" and select "Add Mail Account." Enter your name, email address, and password for the Owl-EWS account. Thunderbird will automatically configure the account using Owl-EWS settings. Enable the Owl-EWS account to access old POP emails:
In Thunderbird, go to "Tools" > "Account Settings." Select the Owl-EWS account from the left sidebar. Under the "Server Settings" tab, check the box that says "Allow immediate server notifications when new messages arrive." Click on "Advanced" and check the box that says "Include this server when getting new mail." Transfer emails from the POP account to the Owl-EWS account:
In Thunderbird, go to the POP account folder that contains the old emails you want to transfer. Select the emails you want to move by holding down the "Ctrl" key (or "Cmd" key on Mac) and clicking on each email. Right-click on the selected emails and choose "Move To" > "Owl-EWS account" > "Inbox" (or the desired folder in the Owl-EWS account). Thunderbird will start moving the selected emails to the Owl-EWS account.
Hey, thanks for trying to help, I do have the email accounts setup and working fine for sending/receiving already. However the second half of your response seems to be inaccurate or outdated?
In my version, there are no settings available as you describe:
- Under the "Server Settings" tab, check the box that says "Allow immediate server notifications when new messages arrive."
Click on "Advanced" and check the box that says "Include this server when getting new mail."***
At this point, I have been able to load all my old emails into my local folder, but they are not integrated into my inbox for the actual account. And also, there has got to be an easier way of importing them in, than just highlighting each email and moving them to my new inbox. I have 20+ years of correspondence with clients, etc. with hundreds of different folders in a complex heirarchy, recreating this all manually would take me days.
Are there any other ways to do this that work with the current version of Thunderbird?
Thanks again for trying....
Since you have the old folders on your PC, a simple approach may be to exit thunderbird and in Windows FIle Explorer, locate the folders within the profile and copy to the Mail\Local Folders folder in the profile. Then restart thunderbird and verify that all the folders are working properly and then remove the old POP account.