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Import of an incomplete export file, how do I fix it.

  • 4 replies
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  • Last reply by Pushmataha

Pushmataha
Pushmataha
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My old Inbox was not receiving e-mail for several days, so I set up a new e-mail inbox and that worked for new messages. Now I'd like to import the folders, subfolders, and messages from the old inbox to the new, then delete the old inbox and all its subs. I did an "export" with subfolders, then an import, but I discovered that this process only exported/imported one level of subfolders.

Being about half-bright, I expanded every folder/subfolder/subfolder--- in the old inbox and exported that to a new location. Am I safe in just importing that new export into my new inbox-- will it do an over-write of the previously imported folders, etc, which is what I'd prefer, or will I end up with a bunch of duplicate folders/subfolders---?

Or is there a way to UNDO the original import before importing the newer export? Or does this question now thoroughly confuse you?

Yes, I could just do it and see, but I'd like to not end up with a bigger mess if I can avoid it.

Thanks

My old Inbox was not receiving e-mail for several days, so I set up a new e-mail inbox and that worked for new messages. Now I'd like to import the folders, subfolders, and messages from the old inbox to the new, then delete the old inbox and all its subs. I did an "export" with subfolders, then an import, but I discovered that this process only exported/imported one level of subfolders. Being about half-bright, I expanded every folder/subfolder/subfolder--- in the old inbox and exported that to a new location. Am I safe in just importing that new export into my new inbox-- will it do an over-write of the previously imported folders, etc, which is what I'd prefer, or will I end up with a bunch of duplicate folders/subfolders---? Or is there a way to UNDO the original import before importing the newer export? Or does this question now thoroughly confuse you? Yes, I could just do it and see, but I'd like to not end up with a bigger mess if I can avoid it. Thanks

All Replies (4)

Matt
Matt
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As Thunderbird can not import it's own folders, or export them, I am assuming your using an add-on. So perhaps you could elucidate, before I make a complete fool of myself guessing incorrectly.

Pushmataha
Pushmataha Question owner
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Good point, I forgot to mention how I did what I've done so far. There is an add-on called "ImportExportTools 3.2.5" by Paolo "Kaosmos" that I used. It seemed to do a decent job other than not going deep enough into my mailbox sub-directories.

BTW, I tried drag/drop, nothing happened. No drag, no drop, no error message.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Matt
Matt
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Export folder with Sub Folder (with structure) should recursively export a whole folder tree.

But what format is your data in.... mbox file or EML files (importing anything else is probably not going to be successful.) they are really export only formats.

Pushmataha
Pushmataha Question owner
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Format is mbox.

Here's what I've done. I used "Color Folders 1.1" (by Fisheater) to color all the folders/subfolders (one level down) I had previously imported to my new mailbox. THEN I went to the old inbox, opened every folder/subfolder/subfolder-- that I could find, selected them all, and did an Export folder with Sub Folder (with structure) per your suggestion, which gave me several mbox folders in the place to which I exported them. I went to the new inbox, did an "import" of all those just created mbox folders, and made tea. When I got back I had a bunch of new stuff and a bunch of repeat stuff in my new inbox.

I can tell which was just done and which was previously done because I colored the previous imported folders. A quick check makes me think it transferred everything this time. Now all (all??) I need to do is VERIFY that everything transferred, delete any duplicates, delete the old InBox, and I think all will be well. Maybe.

Only issue (and it's small) is that all the newly imported e-mails are marked as unread. So I'll have to re-read them all. OK, Just kidding, I'll select all of them and mark them read.

Thanks for getting me on the right thought path, Matt.