Transfering my email accounts and emails from Thunderbird to Mapp.app

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I am looking at switching my email client from Thunderbird to Mail.app does anyone know a simple way to do this? I switched to Macs a little while back but I carried on using Thunderbird as my email client.

I want to transfer over all my emails and folder structures.
 
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Hi amardilo, I would advise caution here, if you are using Thunderbird now. You will appreciate perhaps that Thunderbird uses industry standard MBX format for its mailboxes, allowing you to transfer your mail seamlessly amongst a large variety of email clients. Unfortunately, Apple's Mail does not use MBX format. It uses a proprietary format as of Tiger to enable Spotlight to more easily search email contents. As a result, once you go to Mail.app, you will have a much harder time moving your email out to another email client if you should decide to. It is not impossible, but it is not as simple as it is from Thunderbird. You might wish to Google this topic a bit and see all the solutions that are possible before deciding to commit your email to Mail.app.

This is NOT a Mail.app bashing thread. Mail.app is a great email client, but it does not use the major mailbox standard, so you need to be aware of this if you are headed that way.
 
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Thanks for the info.

I just wanted to switch as much over as I could to the Mac eco system.
 
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mac57, IMAP accounts make this a non-issue.

amardilo, are you using a POP account or IMAP currently in TB?

BTW I've gone from Mail to Entourage (when we switched to an Exchange server and mail would not work). I was able to copy all email messages with no problem, and they were local folders.
Then, months later when I figured out how to get mail to work with Exchange, I plopped all folders into the Exchange account. Then I opened mail and set up the account. 10 minutes later mail was in sync and I never opened Entourage again. Amen!
 
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Hi guilio, I agree, and I have used IMAP to transfer email now and then myself.

This doesn't change the basic fact that Mac Mail doesn't use an industry standard format however, and at least for engineering types like myself, that is important. I thought the original poster should know.

I also have to note that I have now used Thunderbird across all of Linux, Windows and Mac, and have been able to seamlessly move my mail from one platform to another with essentially no work at all - just copy the "Local Folders" folder from one to the other and I am done.

This isn't a Mail.app bashing effort though. I *like* Thunderbird and have used it because it meets my needs well. But no doubt about it, Mail is a good client too, and I have to admit that with the new functionality being added in Leopard, I will be looking at it again.
 
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It is possible to export Mail mailboxes to mbox format.

(As you mentioned, the only reason Apple doesn't use mbox is to support Spotlight. Before 10.4, Mail used mbox natively.)
Apple (Mail Help) said:
Backing up your email

You can back up your mailboxes to a CD or another disk. To do this, you can either copy the Mail folder in your Library folder or create an mbox file, a common format for storing mail messages.
  • To save the contents of all your mailboxes, hold down the Option key and drag the Mail folder (located in the Library folder of your home folder) to your desktop or to another disk. Copying the Mail folder only backs up mail from POP accounts, or mail from an IMAP account that you've copied to local mailboxes. When you are ready to restore the Mail folder, choose File > Import Mailboxes, select Mail for Mac OS X, and locate the Mail folder.
  • To create an mbox copy of a mailbox, drag the mailbox from the mailbox list to your desktop.
  • To create an mbox file with just some of your messages, select the messages, then choose File > Save As. In the Format pop-up menu, choose Raw Message Source, then enter a name and save the file.
You can copy mbox files to CDs or to other disks. When you want to restore your mail, choose File > Import Mailboxes, select Other, click Continue, and locate the files.
 
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EXCELLENT technologist - thanks! The "drag to the desktop" trick is simple and easy. I wasn't aware of it. Learn something new every day!!
 

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