move multiple mailboxes and email from Eudora to Thunderbird
Thunderbird is my new email client of choice. Unfortunately, I have multiple mailboxes in Eudora and Thunderbird locks onto your default mailbox when you import. After working with it for a week or so, I have figured out how to get all of my Eudora mailboxes and email moved into Thunderbird, with attachments intact. Here’s how to do it for free, no additional software needed!
First, make sure your mailbox structure is setup the way you want it in Thunderbird. Assuming you are reading this because you are moving from multiple mailboxes, you should have each already setup in Thunderbird.
Second, a note. When the instructions below say to delete, move or copy a folder or structure, give Thunderbird time. It may act like it’s done, but check your hard disk light for activity. I’ve noticed sometimes it doesn’t say it’s doing anything, but it may still be moving data around, especially when working with large mailboxes.
Open Eudora, delete all the email you don’t need and empty the trash. Then choose to Compact your mailbox from the Special menu.
Repeat this for each mailbox you have in Eudora.
Make sure that in Eudora, your attachment paths are correct. In Eudora, you can click an attachment and see the path in the status bar. If you are moving between computers, at this point, you would copy your mailbox folders from your old system to your new system being sure to match drive/path locations and import from the new location.
Next, the key part: remove Eudora. It sounds counter-intuitive, but it removes the association of Eudora with your default Eudora mailbox, and this is a good thing. The import process with Thunderbird would latch on to any Eudora default mailbox during the import, and only give you the option to import that single mailbox.
Turn off your antivirus scanner. Another point that sounds counter-intuitive, but if you don’t it may false detect and ruin the experience. 1
Now, Open Thunderbird, highlight Local Folders in your mailbox list and choose Tools, Import. You’ll get this window where you’ll choose Mail:
Then Choose Eudora from the following window.
If you removed Eudora as directed above, you’ll get the following magic prompt, asking for your mailbox location. Choose the folder that contains your first Eudora mailbox.Thunderbird will find the mailbox(es) there and begin importing when you click OK.
Then you’ll want to wait. It will take a good bit of time, especially if your mailbox is over 100MB.
- You’ll get a summary when it is finished, close it, then close Thunderbird. (I’ve found things go smoother if you do)
- Open Thunderbird back up and expand each folder under the “Eudora Folders” folder inside Local Folders.
- Highlight each folder one at a time, under the “Eudora Folders” folder. Again, sounds silly, but this builds summary files for each folder.
- Next drag the “Eudora Folders” folder from inside Local Folders up to the root of the mailbox you want to move it to. Thunderbird, won’t move the mailbox, as expected, but it will copy it. It will take time and you will see the progress bar move as it is copying the content.
- After it has copied the content, check it to be sure to compare the number of unread messages of the “original” under Local Folders to the the number of unread in each folder of the destination.
- Next, rename your Eudora Folders to whatever you want to call it.
- Delete the “original” import structure under Local Folders - this will take time, and it may not show as deleted until you close/reopen Thunderbird. Don’t try to delete it twice.
- Repeat this for each mailbox
- TURN YOUR ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE BACK ON.
That’s the complete process. It takes time, but you will end up with all of your email in each separate mailbox and with attachments intact. After verifying everything worked, you can delete your old Eudora email folder structure from your hard disk(in Windows explorer)
1If you forget this step or ignore it, your AV may flip out during the import process. If this happens, you will have to kill the Thunderbird.exe process in taskmanager. Then reopen Thunderbird, delete the structure under Local Folders, empty its trash, close Thunderbird and start over.
