Table of Contents
How To Import from Thunderbird Desktop
Export Thunderbird Desktop settings
- Open Thunderbird Desktop and click > > .
- Tick the Email accounts you wish to export to Thunderbird for Android.
- If you have accounts that are not using OAuth and you wish to export your passwords, you will see a Security section. Tick Include all accounts passwords under Security to export your passwords in the QR code.
- Click
Import the Desktop settings into Thunderbird for Android
Open Thunderbird for Android on your phone or tablet and follow the steps below.
First run
After you install Thunderbird for Android and run it for the first time, here's how to import settings from Desktop:
- Tap on the initial screen.
- Tap
- If you have many email accounts, you will scan multiple QR codes but only one QR code is displayed at a time by Thunderbird Desktop . After scanning the first QR code, Thunderbird for Android will display a confirmation of the form: Scanned X of Y where X is the count of QR codes you have scanned so far out of a total of Y QR codes (e.g. Scanned 1 of 2). In Thunderbird Desktop, click to manually advance to the next QR code to be scanned. Repeat until all QR codes have been scanned.
. Thunderbird for Android will start the camera and display Align the QR code provided from Thunderbird Desktop. Scan the QR code from Thunderbird Desktop.
- Ensure the email accounts you want to import are all ticked. Tap .
- If your account uses OAuth instead of password authentication or you have chosen not to import your passwords, you will be prompted for your passwords. Follow the prompts to complete your import.
Subsequent runs
Once you have set up an email account, the next time you import email settings, the process will be slightly different:
- Tap at the top left > tap the gear icon: at the bottom left.
- Tap > . Scan the QR code from Thunderbird Desktop. If you have many email accounts, after scanning the first QR code, another code will be displayed and scanned until all account settings have been setup.
- Ensure the email accounts you want to import are all ticked. Tap .
- If your account uses OAuth instead of password authentication or you have chosen not to import your passwords, you will be prompted for your passwords. Follow the prompts to complete your import.
How To Import from K-9 or other Thunderbird for Android apps
Open Thunderbird for Android on your phone or tablet and follow the steps below.
First run
After you install Thunderbird for Android and run it for the first time, here's how to import settings from K-9 or Thunderbird from Android:
- Tap on the initial screen.
- Tap > tap .
- Tap the email app you wish to import your email account settings from (either K-9 Mail or another release of Thunderbird for Android e.g. Beta).
- Ensure the email accounts you want to import are all ticked. Tap .
- If your account uses OAuth instead of password authentication or you have chosen not to import your passwords, you will be prompted for your passwords. Follow the prompts to complete your import.
Subsequent runs
Once you have set up an email account, the next time you import email settings, the process will be slightly different:
- Tap at the top left > tap the gear icon: at the bottom left.
- Tap > tap .
- Tap the email app you wish to import your email account settings from (either K-9 Mail or another release of Thunderbird for Android e.g. Beta).
- Ensure the email accounts you want to import are all ticked. Tap .
- If your account uses OAuth instead of password authentication or you have chosen not to import your passwords, you will be prompted for your passwords. Follow the prompts to complete your import.
How To Import email account settings using a settings file from Thunderbird or K-9
1. Export Thunderbird or K-9 settings to a file
Open the app, K-9 or Thunderbird for Android, whose settings you wish to export.
- Tap at the top left > tap the gear icon: at the bottom left.
- Tap .
- Tick the Email accounts you wish to export to Thunderbird for Android.
- Tap .
- Change the directory and the filename as you see fit and tap . Take note of the filename and directory e.g. a directory in Google drive, the Downloads directory, etc. You will need the filename and directory in order to import the settings in Step 2.
2. Import the exported settings file into Thunderbird for Android
Open Thunderbird for Android on your phone or tablet and follow the steps below.
First run
Here's how to import settings from the file you created in Step 1:
- Tap on the initial screen.
- Tap > . Select the file you saved from Step 1.
- Ensure the email accounts you want to import are all ticked. Tap .
- You will be prompted for your passwords. Follow the prompts to complete your import.
Subsequent runs
Once you have set up an email account, the next time you import email settings, the process will be slightly different:
- Tap at the top left > tap the gear icon: at the bottom left.
- Tap > tap . Select the file you saved from the Step 1.
- Ensure the email accounts you want to import are all ticked. Tap .
- You will be prompted for your passwords. Follow the prompts to complete your import.
Not seeing all your email accounts?
You will not be able to import some email accounts because they are configured in a way that is not supported by Thunderbird for Android.
Not supported
Email accounts with the following configurations are NOT supported (See Bug 1919786 for full details):
- GSSAPI
- NTLM
- TlsCertificate
- TryStartTls. See Bug 1868517
- Non-ASCII email addresses are not supported.
- Non SMTP outgoing servers are not supported.
Multiple outgoing servers are not exported
- Only the SMTP server for the default identity is exported for those email accounts with multiple outgoing servers.