Eathlink Mailbox to Thunderbird?

July 8, 2006 12:34 PM

My mom just got a laptop and wants to get her mail moved across from Earthlink Mailbox (I assume its an Outlook Express clone?) to Thunderbird. Apparently the export does not work import into Thunderbird, has anyone had any success with this?

Is there a different program that can import it and then export it back out in a way Thunderbird likes? Outlook maybe?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

posted by chrisWhite to technology (3 comments total)

does export out of earthlink mailbox give you any different options as to format?
posted by juv3nal at 6:23 PM on July 8, 2006

CSV (Comma Seperated Values) and .DAT
posted by chrisWhite at 9:45 PM on July 8, 2006

Okay, so I have a way to get most of the way there. For further reference for anyone else who may see this here's how I got it to work.

I exported a CSV file from Earthlink's mail application. I then imported them with Microsoft Outlook 2007 Beta 2, for some reason Thunderbird doesn't currently seem to see Outlook 2007's mail folder so I important it into Outlook Express and then to Thunderbird.

Here's the problem, the folders (inbox, sent, etc.) all get lost in the process (I think in the CSV file). This would be easily fixable, albeit slightly annoying, to fix by exporting one folder at a time outside of Earthlink's mail, however they don't have an option to do this.

I spoke with Earthlink support about this and they told me that Outlook and Outlook Express do not support folders in their import (I smell BS...) but they could provide the solution on their end by allowing more export types and/or allow folders to be exported on an individual basis.

If nothing else, it makes me feel better that I am getting her moved away from the piece of crap shipped by Earthlink.
posted by chrisWhite at 10:56 PM on July 8, 2006