Transferring email from Thunderbird on Win 10 laptop to new Macbook pro

[Micawber]

This is my first post here, *** you van help.

I've used the various versions of Windows for literally decades but toyed with a Macbook for couple of years. I came close to buying one prior to buting my last HP laptop 14 months ago again opted for the familiar route as I have only used a Mac occasionally. That Windows 10 HP laptop recently suffered an expensive hardware failure ...out of warranty of course so I took the plunge and bought a new 500 GB HD Macbook Pro running Big Sur.

I'm still tentatively finding my way around the new machine but in order to make my life complete would like to transfer several years worth of emails from the Tunderbird mail handler on the Windows laptop over to the Mac mail on the new machine. There are several email accounts [profiles] in use in Thunderbird.

I had toyed with using the Mac version of Thunderbird on the new machine but I've become increasingly dissatisfied with Thunderbird over the past year so having read good things about Macmail thought I would give that a go instead.

I am aware that it's possible to carry out a manual transfer mail but the process seems involved and not guaranteed to be 100% successful. I have managed to convert all the Thunderbird profiles to emlx format' load and load it onto an external drive [approx 4GB data] but I'm stuck on how to plant this in the new Mac so that it accessible and useable using the Mac mail that came with the machine.

Any assistance would be gratefully received. TIA.

 

[ferrarr]

You may find it easier, going from winOS (Thunderbird) to macOS (Thunderbird) and then to macOS Mail.

But wait for other opinions, as I haven't used Thunderbird in about 5 years.

 

[chscag]

I agree with Bob. Several years of email to transfer can be a daunting task and there is no guarantee that you won't lose mail in the process.

I've used Thunderbird Mail both on my Macs and the Win machines that I owned. They are very similar in how they work. After you get all your mail setup on the Mac with Thunderbird, you can then transfer over to Apple Mail. The key would then be setting up folders on your Mac for the mail.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure you have a backup of all your mail.

 

[Micawber]

Thanks for the input.

Aye it does seem a bit of a faff. From what I read presuming I load the MacOS version of Thunderbird on the new machine it is a case of copying the profiles via, say an external hard drive. If that is the case then a walk through on how to find the profile location on the Mac would be a big help.

I suppose I ought to just set up the existing email accounts on the new MacOS Thunderbird and archive the old mail but I do need to refer to the old stuff sometimes.

My head hurts lol!

Thanks again,
Steve