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What is best way to import from Outlook Express on Win XP to Thunderbird? No article on this!!

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  • Last reply by finitarry

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Surprised there isn't a clear article about this.

What is best way to import from Outlook Express on Win XP to Thunderbird?

1) I have OE 6 on a decent Win XP Pro SP3 machine with 4GB RAM and at least 40GB unused hard drive space. My OE6 has only one important master "Identity" but numerous email folders holding stored received and sent emails over the last 8 years or so. Also, it covers eight current email accounts in and out - seven on verizon.net and one maintained through Network Solutions (a family business email address). Anything received on the eight accounts goes to Inbox. When I send, I can choose the "From", which picks the account to use, and the sent email is saved in Sent. I think all the email accounts are POP and not IMAP (although maybe one of them is IMAP).

2) The idea is to move everything into TB on my XP machine and then move that TB to a Win 7 or Win 8 (or maybe 8.1) machine. But first need to move to TB on the XP machine, yes?

3) I want the TB to have the same numerous folders and email accounts as my OE with same folder names (like "Older Inbox W" and "Oldest Sent Z"). I have these separate folders in OE because OE does not work well when a folder gets bigger than 1 GB.

4) MANY MANY of my emails have important attachments that I definitely want to save.

5) A few of the Support articles indicated that TB has a hard time with a complicated OE 6 setup (like mine). I really want to do this right.

6) FYI - Right now, if I run "Compress" in OE, it works on almost all folders, but there is something in two of the numerous folders that gags. Will this also be an import problem?

7) After I install TB on my Win XP machine and before I import, should I shut off OE's connection to the world (go "Offline") - MAYBE EVEN DO THE IMPORT IN SAFE MODE (if that's possible)? OE is touchy about doing things while it's working and connected.

Thanks.

Surprised there isn't a clear article about this. What is best way to import from Outlook Express on Win XP to Thunderbird? 1) I have OE 6 on a decent Win XP Pro SP3 machine with 4GB RAM and at least 40GB unused hard drive space. My OE6 has only one important master "Identity" but numerous email folders holding stored received and sent emails over the last 8 years or so. Also, it covers eight current email accounts in and out - seven on verizon.net and one maintained through Network Solutions (a family business email address). Anything received on the eight accounts goes to Inbox. When I send, I can choose the "From", which picks the account to use, and the sent email is saved in Sent. I think all the email accounts are POP and not IMAP (although maybe one of them is IMAP). 2) The idea is to move everything into TB on my XP machine and then move that TB to a Win 7 or Win 8 (or maybe 8.1) machine. But first need to move to TB on the XP machine, yes? 3) I want the TB to have the same numerous folders and email accounts as my OE with same folder names (like "Older Inbox W" and "Oldest Sent Z"). I have these separate folders in OE because OE does not work well when a folder gets bigger than 1 GB. 4) MANY MANY of my emails have important attachments that I definitely want to save. 5) A few of the Support articles indicated that TB has a hard time with a complicated OE 6 setup (like mine). I really want to do this right. 6) FYI - Right now, if I run "Compress" in OE, it works on almost all folders, but there is something in two of the numerous folders that gags. Will this also be an import problem? 7) After I install TB on my Win XP machine and before I import, should I shut off OE's connection to the world (go "Offline") - MAYBE EVEN DO THE IMPORT IN SAFE MODE (if that's possible)? OE is touchy about doing things while it's working and connected. Thanks.

Modified by glnz

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