how to import mail?

[bigdan]

At work I use MS Outlook. At home I've just installed Mozilla Thunderbird.

I made a backup of my Outlook mail today, and saved it as an Outlook file. I'm now trying to import it in Thunderbird and its not working. There were 3 import options (as in I choose the file type or something) one was Eudora, one was Outlook, one was Outlook Express.

When I click Eudora it said No mailboxes were found to import, even though it never asked me the path to import the file from.

When I click Outlook it says "there is no email program associated to perform the request action, please install an email program." This is the most baffling of the 3 error messages, as I believe Thunderbird IS the email program.

When I click Outlook Express it actually somewhat behaves like you'd expect (except for the part that I dont actually use Outlook Express at work), it asks the path I want to import from. But when I navigate to that path it doesnt show the file in there, ie its not a recognized file type. When I just select the relevant folder, it says no mailboxes were found to import.

I'm hoping someone can help!

Thanks
Dan

 

[Delta789]

Do you currently have Outlook installed on your home computer?

You may have to install Thunderbird on your work computer, export outlook to Thunderbird and then copy the Thunderbird profile to a removable storage to get it at home.

Souce-- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switching-thunderbird

Thunderbird cannot import a standalone PST file. Mail import from Outlook works by using the Outlook program to source the emails, not the underlying PST file. If you are switching to Thunderbird and will no longer have a copy of Outlook then it will be necessary to convert all of your existing PST backup files to Thunderbird while you still have access to Outlook on the same computer as Thunderbird.

 

[Joe C]

This may be your issue:

Most import tools, and Thunderbird, require that a compatible version of Outlook be installed on the machine being used to import Microsoft outlook data. Microsoft Outlook stores data in .pst files, which is a proprietary format. Thunderbird does not understand that format, nor does it know that .pst files even exist. So there is no Thunderbird import command that lets you browse to the location of a .pst file, nor can it import data if Outlook is not installed.
Normally you import by setting Outlook as the default email client, and then use Tools -> Import -> Mail within Thunderbird.

There are alternatives that you can try here:
Import .pst files - MozillaZine Knowledge Base
You can download a 30 day trial version of outlook from Microsoft, that would allow you to move the .pst file from work pc to your pc at home
https://products.office.com/en-us/try

 

[balinshake]

Simple you to access Thunderbird or Eudora email client these both accept .mbox format files and if you are having .pst and you are using Mac OS then you should try Mailvita PST to MBOX Converter for Mac. This software will allow you to convert your PST file into MBOX format in Mac OS.