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Importing email from Windows Live Mail fails

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  • Last reply by Don Peters

Don Peters
Don Peters
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I'm migrating my email from Microsoft's Windows Live Mail to Thunderbird on Windows 10. I installed the Thunderbird add-on to do the import. As per the instructions, I clicked on "Settings|Tools|ImportExport Tools|Import all messages from a directory". I then selected a Windows Live Mail storage folder that contained subfolders containing the eml mail files.

The selected folder name then did appear as a folder in Thunderbird. Strangely, though, it was empty! Puzzled, I repeated the operation, this time selecting another of my Windows Live Mail folders. This time I could see the progress of importing all the mail messages (but it was slow - about two messages per second). But upon completion of the import, the prior empty Thunderbird folder now had the content of this newly imported folder. On the other hand, the name of this newly imported folder was nowhere to be found.

Fortunately, I only selected two mail folders to import. If I had selected the top level folder, it would have taken hours and the content would have been all scrambled up.

Is this a known import bug? If so, is there a workaround?

I'm migrating my email from Microsoft's Windows Live Mail to Thunderbird on Windows 10. I installed the Thunderbird add-on to do the import. As per the instructions, I clicked on "Settings|Tools|ImportExport Tools|Import all messages from a directory". I then selected a Windows Live Mail storage folder that contained subfolders containing the eml mail files. The selected folder name then did appear as a folder in Thunderbird. Strangely, though, it was empty! Puzzled, I repeated the operation, this time selecting another of my Windows Live Mail folders. This time I could see the progress of importing all the mail messages (but it was slow - about two messages per second). But upon completion of the import, the prior empty Thunderbird folder now had the content of this newly imported folder. On the other hand, the name of this newly imported folder was nowhere to be found. Fortunately, I only selected two mail folders to import. If I had selected the top level folder, it would have taken hours and the content would have been all scrambled up. Is this a known import bug? If so, is there a workaround?

Chosen solution

Perhaps if you has selected the higher level folder you would not have had so much trouble.

The import occurs to the folder you have selected. I assume the second time you have the empty folder selected from looking at the last import you though you had done. The first is probably in some other folder you had selected when you chose to do that import.

Make your life easier and use the right click menu on the selected folder to start your import. Then you will know what is imported.

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All Replies (2)

Matt
Matt
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Chosen Solution

Perhaps if you has selected the higher level folder you would not have had so much trouble.

The import occurs to the folder you have selected. I assume the second time you have the empty folder selected from looking at the last import you though you had done. The first is probably in some other folder you had selected when you chose to do that import.

Make your life easier and use the right click menu on the selected folder to start your import. Then you will know what is imported.

Don Peters
Don Peters Question owner
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Right on Matt! The key was, as you suggested, to first create the target Thunderbird folder, then select it with a right click, and do the import from all folders and subfolders. The process wasn't as automatic as I had assumed.

My basic problem was that I followed the posted import instructions, assuming that the selected Windows Live Mail folder would get imported with the same name, i.e. the Thunderbird folder would be automatically created with that name. These directions were at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switching-thunderbird

It would be very helpful if someone doing Thunderbird support would clarify these instructions.