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Will I loose my emails in Thunderbird if I change the server in settings in Thunderbird for a particular email account?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by robertdc

robertdc
robertdc
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Hello,

I am a new Thunderbird user. I am in the process of moving my website to a new host and, as part of the migration, will loose all of my emails with the old host. So, to save my emails, I downloaded Thunderbird. After adding the email account (Yahoo, POP) to Thunderbird, I moved all of the emails that I wanted to save to my Yahoo inbox. They were then visible in that email's inbox in Thunderbird. Once the emails were visible, I dragged them from the inbox to several subfolders that I created under the email address (all within Thunderbird). 

So, I have two questions:

1) Are the emails now on my computer, always accessible via my Thunderbird account until I delete them? Even when I close my account with my old host (Yahoo)? Or, do I need to download them outside of Thunderbird to my computer?

2) I want to have the exact same email address with my new host. Once I have created the same email address with my new host, in Thunderbird settings for this email account, do I simply update the server name to the new host? If so, will changing the server name for this email address cause all of the subfolders that I created (as well as all the emails that I dragged into the subfolders), automatically delete? Or, will they still be there? Am I missing a step where I need to export the emails out of Thunderbird to a separate file on my computer in order not to loose them?

Thank you for your help.

Hello, I am a new Thunderbird user. I am in the process of moving my website to a new host and, as part of the migration, will loose all of my emails with the old host. So, to save my emails, I downloaded Thunderbird. After adding the email account (Yahoo, POP) to Thunderbird, I moved all of the emails that I wanted to save to my Yahoo inbox. They were then visible in that email's inbox in Thunderbird. Once the emails were visible, I dragged them from the inbox to several subfolders that I created under the email address (all within Thunderbird). So, I have two questions: 1) Are the emails now on my computer, always accessible via my Thunderbird account until I delete them? Even when I close my account with my old host (Yahoo)? Or, do I need to download them outside of Thunderbird to my computer? 2) I want to have the exact same email address with my new host. Once I have created the same email address with my new host, in Thunderbird settings for this email account, do I simply update the server name to the new host? If so, will changing the server name for this email address cause all of the subfolders that I created (as well as all the emails that I dragged into the subfolders), automatically delete? Or, will they still be there? Am I missing a step where I need to export the emails out of Thunderbird to a separate file on my computer in order not to loose them? Thank you for your help.

All Replies (2)

Matt
Matt
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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If your account is IMAP, what you will end up with is what is on the new server. Probably nothing.


Use the import export tools add-on to export MBOx files outside of Thunderbird. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

Once the changes have been input and the worst happens, use the same import export tools add-on to import the mail back to Local folders. Mail can the be copies a bit at a time to the mail account, where it will actually propagate back to the mail server.

Just once of the quirks of IMAP. If the account is POP then nothing will happen, just update the settings.

robertdc
robertdc Question owner
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Thank you, Matt. From what I understand, the email account with the old host was POP, so I'm thinking the folders/emails should still be there in Thunderbird after I update the server name to the new host. Just in case, though, I took your advice and exported the emails outside of Thunderbird using the ImportExportTools add-on. Thank you again, I now have more confidence that I'm covered if those emails disappear in Thunderbird when I make the server update.