MS Outlook, as we know, is probably the most versatile and widely used email client all over the globe. Many small, as well as large business organizations use Outlook in combination with Microsoft Exchange Server and Office 365 to manage emails, calendars, meetings, and events. Though with rich features and functionalities, Outlook comes with a price to pay. This perhaps is one of the major reasons that users migrate from Outlook to a reliable application that is cost-effective. Here, Thunderbird being an open-source and a free email-client application, plays a crucial role in gaining the attention of the users.
Thunderbird is an open-source desktop-based email client application that can be accessed on multiple platforms like Windows, Mac, Linux, and Ubuntu operating systems. Designed and developed by the Mozilla Foundation; Thunderbird allows users to manage emails, News feeds (RSS), Newsgroups, and other mailbox features. It supports “.mbox” as the default file format to save data, which indeed is supported by many email client applications like Apple Mail, The Bat!, etc.
Instant Solution
Outlook on the Web. Exchange Online offers a web based email and calendaring client through the university's Office 365 subscription called Outlook on the web. If you have previous experience using Outlook, the new version will be familiar. For users newer to Outlook, we recommend visiting Microsoft's Getting Started guide for basic instructions. For instance, Mozilla Thunderbird is roughly the equivalent of Outlook but considering it as an Office 365 product as a whole lends context to the comparison. The safety features along with the ability to collaborate online on documents in real-time makes Office 365 an attractive proposition for businesses.
Try automated tool Kernel for Import PST to Thunderbird to Import entire PST data to Thunderbird and other email servers like Outlook.com, AOL, Yahoo Mail, etc..
Reasons to Migrate PST to Thunderbird
As we have discussed, Thunderbird is an open-source email client that can be deployed on several platforms. There are several other governing factors that make Thunderbird a reliable and effective program for users to migrate.
- Supported by multiple platforms:
- Spam Filtering:
- Data Security:
- Single-button archive:
- pCloud storage facility:
- Exclusive plugins:
Thunderbird is compatible with almost all platforms like Windows, MacOS, UNIX, Linux, and Ubuntu. It is the most preferred email client for Linux and UNIX users.
Spam Filtering is much better as compared to Outlook and other email client applications.
Thunderbird provides the best security features in the market.
There is a single click archive option that saves the selected emails in an archive file.
Users can upload the large files to pCloud directly using thunderbird.
Thunderbird gives the opportunity to the users to add different helpful plugins to multiple usage.
Export PST to Thunderbird – Manual Methods
Migrating Outlook mails to Thunderbird client is not as easy as it seems. Thunderbird doesn’t provide any direct option to import Outlook PST files. So, Outlook to Thunderbird migration is solely achieved by the conversion of PST to MBOX file format.
Conversion of PST to MBOX can be carried out by several manual as well as automated techniques. Here we have listed some popular manual techniques to export Outlook emails to Thunderbird.
Import Outlook PST to Thunderbird
If you are running Outlook and Thunderbird on the same machine, then you can easily import Outlook mails to Thunderbird. Just follow the steps given below:
Step 1: Make Outlook your default program for sending/receiving emails. Go to the Start button and click Default Programs >> Set your default programs.
Step 2: Select Outlook from the Programs tab and click Set this program as default. Then click OK to save the changes.
Step 3: Now, launch Thunderbird and click on the Display the Thunderbird Menu option.
Step 4: Go to Tools >> Import.
Step 5: Select Mail, or you can select the Import Everything option and click Next.
Step 6: Select Outlook as the file type and click Next.
Step 7: In the last window, click on the Finish button to complete the import process.
This will import all mails in the Outlook email client to the Thunderbird interface.
Use Google Take Out to export Outlook PST to MBOX
This approach requires configuring Gmail account in your Outlook program and eventually exporting emails from Outlook to Gmail. Migration from PST to Thunderbird is then achieved via Google Takeout. The step-by-step process to implement the method is mentioned below:
Step 1: Open your Gmail account and go to Settings >> Forwarding and POP/IMAP and select the radio button “Enable IMAP.”
Step 2: Launch Outlook and go to File >> Add Account option.
Step 3: Enter the login credentials of your Gmail account and hit Enter.
Your Outlook is now configured with the same Gmail, for which you have changed the IMAP settings.
Step 4: Create a new folder within the newly configured Gmail ID and move the desired Outlook emails to that folder.
Step 5: Now, Log in to your Gmail account using Chrome or any other efficient browser and open Google Takeout (https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout).
Step 6: From the Select data to include tab, deselect all options, and check the Mail option only. Also, make sure to check the Include all message in Mail option provided under the All Mail data included category. Click Next after making the necessary changes.
Step 7: Now, in the Customize archive format tab, specify the Delivery method, Export type, File type & size, and hit the Create archive button.
Step 8: Once your archive is generated by Google, you can download the ZIP file containing the Outlook data in the MBOX file format. Click Download to download the ZIP file in your local machine.
Step 9: Now, extract the downloaded ZIP file in a convenient directory. You will get the MBOX file containing all your emails, including spam and trash.
Step 10: At last, import the downloaded MBOX file using the Thunderbird email client.
Note: Thunderbird requires installation of an Add-on feature to import files. Download and install the Add-on ExportImportTool and relaunch Thunderbird in order to import files.
If you are facing difficulty while implementing these lengthy and time-consuming native methods, try using an automated third-party tool to import PST file to Thunderbird.
Kernel Import PST to Thunderbird is an efficient tool that helps users to migrate the entire PST file data to Thunderbird and other MBOX email client applications.
Export PST to Thunderbird – Automated Method
Kernel Import PST to Thunderbird tool allows users to import PST directly to Thunderbird.
To migrate PST to Thunderbird using Kernel Import PST to Thunderbird, follow the steps given below:
Step 1: Launch Kernel Import PST to Thunderbird on your system, select the mode to recover files and click Browse to navigate to the folder containing the PST files.
Step 2: Add the required PST file, and click Next.
Step 3: The next window contains the preview of data inside the PST file. The left-hand side pane contains the mailbox data, whereas the right-hand pane shows the contents inside a specific data item. Click on the Save button to save the required file.
Step 4: Select the Output type as MBOX file and click Next.
Step 5: Apply desired filters to save specific data from the PST file and click Next.
Step 6: Select Thunderbird as the email client, provide a destination path to save the recovered file, and click on the Finish button.
Step 7: Wait until the conversion process gets completed.
Step 8: The required file gets saved to the specified location. Click OK to finish the process.
Conclusion
If we look at the various methods discussed so far, the one with lesser steps, quick results, and trusted source will always catch the user’s attention. Summing up, the only way to get the most effective results in a short interval of time is to use a reliable third-party tool like Kernel Import PST to Thunderbird.
Thunderbird Outlook 365 Contacts
Incompatibility of data formats
Mozilla Thunderbird® is a popular cross-platform email and news client used by millions of people around the world. Available for all major operating systems, Thunderbird supports multiple identities in a single account, virtual saved search folders, powerful message filtering and grouping, and a number of other advanced functions that make the process of email management easy, efficient and intuitive. The program is a well-known free alternative to commercial email clients and is praised for its security, flexibility and a highly customizable UI.
Although all email messages look identical to the end-user, regardless of the email client used, the formats they are stored in are often very different. Thunderbird has a special way of storing messages and attachments. It saves emails in mailbox data files and indef them as *.msf folder files, which is completely incompatible with Outlook’s PST format. To make matters worse, in addition, different versions of Thunderbird save data in different folders deeply nested in the folder structure on the user’s hard drive. Finally, neither of the programs has any integrated tools facilitating the transfer or conversion into an intermediate format.
When it comes to converting Thunderbird emails to any other application, such as Outlook, the task is to choose the most rational and appropriate method that works best for your needs.
Locating your Thunderbird data files
The initial point of any conversion procedure is the location of the source files. In order to locate Thunderbird’s mailbox files, do the following:
- Start Mozilla Thunderbird®
- Click on “Tools” on the menu bar
- Click on “Account Settings” – the “Account Settings” window will open
- Scroll down to the end of the list and select “Local Folders”
- The path you need is listed under “Local Directory”
This path can be used later on for converting the contents of Thunderbird’s mailbox files directly to Outlook or an intermediate format supported by numerous converters. Just keep it in mind for now.
Taking care of your Thunderbird contacts
Messages are important, but don’t forget about your contacts. Losing an important business connection may be even more critical than losing your correspondence, so if you are serious about switching from Thunderbird to Outlook, make sure you take your contacts with you! This process does not require any tools and is only explained here to help you migrate to Outlook faster.
Here are some tips on exporting contacts from Thunderbird and transferring them to Outlook:
- In Thunderbird, go to your Address book, switch to Tools and select Export.
- Enter the name of the destination file and select “Comma Separated” in the “File Type” drop-box. Wait for the program to save your contacts.
- Start Microsoft Outlook
- Go to File -> Open -> Import, the select “Import from another program or file”, click Next
- Select “Comma Separated Values (Windows)” and click Next
- Either type in the path and name of the source file or use the Browse button to locate it
- Select one of the three available options related to duplicate contacts: “Replace duplicated with items imported”, “Allow duplicates to be created”, “Do not import duplicate items”. The second option is the default one.
- Select the destination Outlook folder. We recommend selecting the “Contacts” folder to keep things in order. Click Next.
- Configure field mapping to match fields from Thunderbird contacts with their Outlook counterparts.
- Click Finish to start the import process.
Know you email migration options
As in many other situations, there are several ways of solving the Thunderbird to Outlook conversion problem. Some are free, yet longer and more complex; some are quicker, but require you to obtain a specialized converter. The choice here depends solely on how quickly and reliably you need this problem to be solved.
Option 1 – Manual conversion
If all you need is to convert a few emails from Thunderbird, you can do it manually. To do that, start Thunderbird, open the necessary folder, locate the messages you need converted and start dragging and dropping them onto your desktop or a folder on your hard drive. They will be automatically converted into the EML format supported my many conversion tools and email clients. You can also select several messages at the same time by pressing and holding down the Shift or Ctrl key, or use the Ctrl + A combination to select all messages in the current folder. Once done, use the File -> Save As command from the main menu and select the destination folder on your hard drive. The emails will be saved as EML files.
Once you are on this stage, you need to somehow convert your EML messages to Outlook. This can be done using some of the tools listed in this article. Described products allow users to pack an arbitrary number of EML files into Outlook’s PST format, making sure that message encoding is properly converted and messages themselves remain perfectly readable in the resulting PST file.
Option 2 – Semi-automatic conversion
Thunderbird mailbox data (emails) can also be converted to EML messages using specialized tools. These tools will also be absolutely necessary if you don’t have a copy of Thunderbird on your system, but have access to its mailboxes. Programs like Free Email Extractor from Outlook Import or Free MBOX Converter from Aid4Mail have nearly identical functionality and enable you to extract particular or all messages from an MBOX mailbox file to a set of EML. However, they do not solve the key problem – migration from Thunderbird to Outlook, since they are unable to convert EML files to the PST format. And this is where you will definitely need a specialized MBOX to PST (MBOX to Outlook) tool.
Option 3 – A specialized Thunderbird to Outlook converter
This is by far the most reliable and efficient way of moving from Thunderbird to Outlook. Although their functionality is largely similar, you should be looking for a tool supporting the latest versions of Thunderbird, since they store data somewhat differently than the older ones. The newest versions of Thunderbird use both the MBOX format, *.msf indexing AND links to an internal database, which makes older tools useless for these files.
In essence, these tools combine MBOX to EML conversion with EML to Outlook conversion – that is, they perform double conversion with EML serving as an intermediate format. In addition, they ensure full readability of all email messages, transfer attachments and save lots of your personal time by fully automating the migration process. Some of these products automatically located your source MBOX files and some require you to specify the source folder (the one we mentioned above) manually. Manual specification of the source folder may also be required in case of existing conflicts between profiles, registry inconsistencies and errors, as well as in situations when you need to convert files that have been copied over from another system.
Some examples of Thunderbird to Outlook converters are:
Thunderbird Vs Outlook 365
- Thunderbird to Outlook Transfer from GlexSoft www.outlooktransfer.com – the tool has a nicely-looking, sleek interface, can extract data from damaged Thunderbird mailbox files, supports the automatic detection of Thunderbird mailboxes , MSF indexing and direct output to Outlook PST files. A well-balanced, affordable product with an attractive price tag. This tool allows to keep the Thunderbird folders structure intact while converting emails into Outlook, works with any version of MS Outlook and supports Win and Linux email encoding.
CONS: No. - Thunderbird to Outlook Converterwww.thunderbirdtooutlook.com – very similar to Thunderbird to Outlook Transfer, this product offers identical functionality that comes at a great price. We liked the flexible licensing policy and the detailed user’s manual available on the official site. Product supports both 32 and 64 bit systems and Outlook editions, allows to convert Thunderbird emails along with the original folder structure and supports Linux and Windows email encoding.
CONS: No. Aid4Mail from Fookes Software – a powerful multi-format tool supporting Thunderbird to Outlook conversion, as well as other conversion types. Automatic restoration of the source folder structure and message statuses, possibility to convert to Office 365 or MS Exchange (Professional version). The payoff is a higher price compared with competitors.
CONS: It is not working with 64 bit Outlook edition which makes this tool useless in 50% of cases.- Mail Passport Prothunderbirdtooutlook.info – an MBOX to PST conversion tool supporting multiple source formats, Unicode-encoded messages and featuring a wizard-based UI.
CONS: No 64 bit support. No email encoding/decoding support.
Summary
The bottom line is simple: although some parts of the Thunderbird to Outlook conversion process can be handled in the manual mode, complete automation is only possible using specialized conversion software. Not only will this ensure the fastest turnaround time, but will also guarantee the integrity of your files and their full readability in Outlook.
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