Imap mail migration to another account
Hi,
I had an e-mail which is no longer active and my Thunderbird has been set up to access it through Imap account settings. After my e-mail has been deleted, I still wanted to use my e-mail, which was OK up to a moment when I had to reinstal Windows. I noted that in my Hard Drive folder named AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\0eqc6dki.default\ImapMail from where I copied all folders and files to external hard drive in order to use these e-mails later.
After I reinstalled windows and installed Thunderbird, I've tried the "easiest" way I thought it will be, to open a new profile in Thunderbird, open AppData..... folder, find that new folder and paste the files I had. This was OK until the moment I had to turn off and turn on the Thunderbird. Once I run the program again, non of the folders and files where there.
I still have a copy of the IMAP folder with all the e-mails that I would like to use. A help would be very much appreciated since I do have very important e-mails in that backup.
Thank you
All Replies (7)
It would probably help if you could provide a little more detail about these very general statements.
I had an e-mail which is no longer active
After my e-mail has been deleted, I still wanted to use my e-mail
Hi Christ1,
Well the e-mail has been active for a while, and I used it a lot before, however I have no longer access to this e-mail as it has been deleted on the server. However, although it has been deleted from the server I was still able to use/see my old e-mails (as a reference, not for sending new e-mails) that remained in my Inbox and Outbox folders. Obviously Thunderbird did a back up for "offline" situations, so we can use all the e-mails even when the e-mail server is not available.
Well I have found that back up in my AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird... folder and I copied all the files to my external drive, before I format the disk and reinstall the windows on the same computer. Obviously this led to a situation that Thunderbird deleted all profiles and now I only have raw files that Thunderbird saved in AppData folder.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The folders were not part of the local folders, but part of the IMAP profile account created in Thunderbird.
As advised yesterday, when I copy those files in new Thunderbird account (again AppData\....), it appears the first time I run the program, while next time it is already gone. The first time I run it, I can see all the old e-mails and I can work with them (copy, save, forward - with new account) while the next time I run the program there is nothing to be found in Thunderbird. I've checked the AppData\.... folder and the files and folders I've copied to are still there, although not visible in Thunderbird.
Thank you so much for your help.
Think of "e-mail" as an adjective. When you write it down, think about what kind of thing it refers to. An e-mail message? An e-mail account? An e-mail address?
And we understand "email" too, so you can save yourself the effort of those unnecessary hyphens. ;-)
You probably need to move these messages into Local Folders to preserve them. All the time they are in an IMAP account folder, Thunderbird will try to synchronize them to a server. If they don't exist on a server, they may then stop existing in your email client.
Working with Thunderbird offline while you do this organizing may be useful.
New or additional profiles are rarely easy or useful. For one thing, switching between multiple profiles is painful, Accessing the contents of one for use in another is even more painful.
Modified by Zenos
Thank you Zenos.
This would be an excellent solution if I hadn't already formatted my PC and the only thing I have is a copy of the AppData\... folder with all the flies and e-mail messages and folders backed up by former Thunderbird client. Do you happen to have a solution for that? I have all flies and folders copied from ImapMail folder at AppData... that Thunderbird created, however once I paste them into a new profile they are visible the first time I run Thunderbird. Already next time there are no messages...
Thank you.
I think what Zenos was suggesting is that you switch Thunderbird into offline mode while you still see the messages underneath the IMAP account.
To switch Thunderbird between its online and offline states, choose File –> Offline –> Work Offline. When the option is checked, Thunderbird is offline. In case there is no menu bar press Alt or F10 to restore it.
Hi christ1 and Zenos,
It looks like this is not the good solution as it says: While working offline, you cannot move or copy messages that were not downloaded for offline use. From the Mail window, open the File menu, choose Offline, then uncheck Work Offline, and then try again.
Once I uncheck Working Offline he is not doing anything again, since it cannot connect to the server (I create imaginary profile) and he cannot download files for Offline Use...
Any other thoughts?
Thank you.
If you cannot access the messages while being offline, the body text hasn't been downloaded for offline use or isn't available anymore. You can try to open the mail file in a text editor while Thunderbird is closed to check whether message bodies do exist.