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Migrate emails from Microsoft Live Mail app to Thunderbird in Windows 10

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by sfhowes

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My PC has just been updated (a forced Microsoft process) to Windows 10, meaning I can no longer send/receive emails in Microsoft Essentials Live Mail from my BT.com account. I have stored a lot of important emails in Live Mail (no longer on the server). Does Thunderbird run in Windows 10? Can I export email accounts from Live Mail to Thunderbird? Can I export the archived emails from Live Mail to Thunderbird?

My PC has just been updated (a forced Microsoft process) to Windows 10, meaning I can no longer send/receive emails in Microsoft Essentials Live Mail from my BT.com account. I have stored a lot of important emails in Live Mail (no longer on the server). Does Thunderbird run in Windows 10? Can I export email accounts from Live Mail to Thunderbird? Can I export the archived emails from Live Mail to Thunderbird?

All Replies (4)

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Are you sure you can't continue to use Live Mail? It works fine here in W10. But if you wish to switch to TB, note that the support article is somewhat obsolete. After you export eml files from WLM, you can either use the updated ImportExportTools NG add-on, or simply drag the eml files from File Explorer to a subfolder of Local Folders in TB.

For the contacts, save them as vCards from WLM, merge them into a single .vcf file, then import the vcf to TB (Tools/Import, Address books...):

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1280605

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Thanks to sfhowes, but Windows Essentials Live Mail is most definitely NOT working in my recently updated Windows 10 environment. I get an error message on all 3 email addresses - haven't a note of it to hand. How did you get it to work?

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It works with my Hotmail IMAP account in W10/20H2. It probably doesn't work with some kinds of authentication such as OAuth2, but that can usually be bypassed with app passwords. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work with btinternet accounts.