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Using Thunderbird as a PC-based backup for Yahoo Mail folders

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  • Last reply by mfrumer

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I use Yahoo mail and plan to continue to do so. How can I use Thunderbird as a backup for my Yahoo mail folders so that all of my emails are on my local PC? I have installed Thunderbird and connected to Yahoo with IMAP. I could manually create Local Folders with the same names as all of my Yahoo folders and copy the emails from the Yahoo folders to the Thunderbird Local Folders. I could then copy new emails that I put into Yahoo folders to the Thunderbird folders as I add them. But is this the only way? Is there a better way?

I use Yahoo mail and plan to continue to do so. How can I use Thunderbird as a backup for my Yahoo mail folders so that all of my emails are on my local PC? I have installed Thunderbird and connected to Yahoo with IMAP. I could manually create Local Folders with the same names as all of my Yahoo folders and copy the emails from the Yahoo folders to the Thunderbird Local Folders. I could then copy new emails that I put into Yahoo folders to the Thunderbird folders as I add them. But is this the only way? Is there a better way?

Chosen solution

It's definitely the only way IF you want the same organisation folders to be replicated on the server because IMAP keeps the remote server and Tbird in sync. You could use filters to automatically place messages into appropriate folders when they arrive, or when you manually run filters. With the ability to open a folder in a new tab, you can have matching local and IMAP folders open side-by-side for comparison to avoid duplicates.

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Chosen Solution

It's definitely the only way IF you want the same organisation folders to be replicated on the server because IMAP keeps the remote server and Tbird in sync. You could use filters to automatically place messages into appropriate folders when they arrive, or when you manually run filters. With the ability to open a folder in a new tab, you can have matching local and IMAP folders open side-by-side for comparison to avoid duplicates.

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As a follow-up, I will want to add new emails from my Yahoo folders to the local Thunderbird folders. Is there any way to automate this? Any kind of "scripting" that would enable me to get emails starting at a given date from the IMAP folders of Yahoo and put them into the Thunderbird Local Folders? If not, I will just have to do that manually.