Move my inbox from Thunderbird to Outlook

August 24, 2009 7:57 AM

Long time Thunderbird user, I'm trying to switch to Outlook as it works better with my iPhone, but I can't find a way to accurately move the contents of my inbox. Help!

I've used several free programs (imapsize and tbird2oe) and neither transfers the date and sender of each message correctly - all the messages get given the same sender and date. Does anyone have any handy tips about how I can get round this?

posted by Sifter to technology (6 answers total)

This questions raises a few issues.

1. Not sure what you mean about Outlook working better with your iPhone. Thunderbird and Outlook are mail clients and your iPhone has a mail client. What you use on your desktop shouldn't affect what you use on your phone.

2. Are you using IMAP or POP for your mail?
posted by bitdamaged at 8:01 AM on August 24, 2009

Can you use gmail to handle your mail and monitor that with your iPhone? That works spectacularly well for me.
posted by Brockles at 8:03 AM on August 24, 2009

Of note, I read my mail with Thunderbird at work, and Apple Mail at home and my personal mail comes through gmail, my work through a bog standard mail server. I'm not having issues with any of them, as you describe them.

Maybe your client isn't the issue?
posted by Brockles at 8:04 AM on August 24, 2009

Make a new folder, and move the messages or add rules to do it for you? I'm not sure what you're trying to do exactly.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:19 AM on August 24, 2009

If you're using IMAP then you should be able to just drag the messages back into the inbox or any folder that's on the server and then see them on the phone and in both desktop clients, and with the correct metadata in all cases. I wonder if you've been using POP instead of IMAP?
posted by olecranon at 9:22 AM on August 24, 2009

neither transfers the date [...] correctly

If I remember correctly (trying to import email from Google Apps), Outlook does not interpret the dates of imported messages correctly and there's nothing you can do about it.

But bitdamaged is right, it seems there's no generic reason your iPhone should not work well with Thunderbird. Maybe you want to describe the actual problem and we can try to help with that?
posted by oxit at 12:30 PM on August 24, 2009