Importing Mozilla Thunderbird mails in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express

This tutorial describes how you can migrate your mails from Mozilla Thunderbird (>= 1.0) to Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. Please note that there is also a German Version of this tutorial.

First of all: A direct import of Thunderbird Mailboxes in Microsoft Outlook (unfortunately) is not possible. So we have to use a little trick I figured out. But don’t worry, its easier as it sounds … ;-)

Step 1: Exporting the Thunderbird Mails to Outlook Express

First you have to create exactly the same mail folders in Outlook Express that you had in Thunderbird. For instance if you had a folder called “Old Mail 2004” in Thunderbird, you have to create a folder with exactly the same name in Outlook Express.

Then you have to open the mail folder (with Windows Explorer or any other file manager) where Thunderbird stores its mails in the so called *.mbox format. This is where you can find the Thunderbird Mail folder:

On Windows XP/2000, the path is usually %AppData%\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\, where xxxxxxxx is a random string of 8 characters. Just browse to C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\ and the rest should be obvious.
Note: %AppData% is a shorthand for the Application Data path on Windows 2000/XP. To use it, click Start > Run..., enter %AppData% and press Enter. You will be taken to the "real" folder, which is normally C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data.

On Windows 95/98/Me, the path is usually C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default

On Linux, the path is usually ~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default/

On Mac OS X, the path is usually ~/Library/Application Support/Thunderbird/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default/

Now that you are in the directory with the *.mbox files all you have to do is to look for the *.mbox file of your choice. For instance if you want to export the inbox of Thunderbird you have to look for a file called “inbox” (but NOT for the file with the file extension *.mfs, but for the file without file extension!) and copy it to another directory of your choice (for instance C:\tempmail\). There you have to attach the file extension “.mbx” to the file “inbox” you just copied (you can simply do that with: Right click -> Rename). Please note that this is crucial for the next step.

The next thing you have to do is to download the freeware Mbox2eml from http://people.freenet.de/ukrebs/mbox2eml.html . This little piece of Java software will convert Thunderbirds mails stored in the *.mbox file into the *.eml format Microsoft Outlook Express can read.
After you have converted your files (for instance in “C:\tempmail\") with Mbox2eml (you can find a tutorial on how to do this on the download page of Mbox2eml) a new folder called “inbox” will appear in the folder "C:\tempmail\". This folder “inbox” contains all your mails from the former Thunderbird Mailbox (every single mail is stored as a *.eml file).

The next (and final thing) you have to do is really simple. Just select all these *.eml files with your mouse and drag them per “Drag&Drop” into the inbox of the opened Outlook Express. And booooom – your former Thunderbird mails are now in the inbox of Outlook Express. :-)

Step 2: Importing Outlook Express mails in Outlook (2003)

All you have to do to import Outlook Express mails in Outlook 2003 is to use the import function of Outlook (File -> Import/Export). That’s it. ;-)

Links:

Mbox2eml download location: http://people.freenet.de/ukrebs/mbox2eml.html

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask right here. Just use the comments button of my blog. And if you liked this tutorial don’t forget to support my work by donating some money with the Paypal button.