Moving mail from Microsoft Outlook to Thunderbird

Author: Bret Fishley
Date: Sept 06

Marked up By: Jarrod

Background information:

All of the mail in your inbox and sent items in Outlook are all stored as a .pst file. This is a “compressed” file that cannot be directly imported into your Linux Thunderbird mail client. You will need to convert this file so that Thunderbird can read and display it before you move it across to your new computers Thunderbird program. You will need to have a portabable storage to transfer your mail to complete this task.

This is a brief description of the steps you will need to take to transfer your mail. You will find detailed instructions in the “how to” section below.

1. Open Outlook Express on your old computer and import all of your mail into Outlook Express
2. Make Outlook Express your default mail client
3. Install Thunderbird on your old Computer and import all of your mail into Thunderbird.
4. Copy the Thunderbird files that store all of your mail and paste them onto your portable storage device.
5. Go to your new computer, individually copy each file you have stored on your portable storage device and paste it into your Thunderbird program.

Beware: You need to be aware that your mail and contacts are going to take up a lot more room on your hard disk than they do at present as a result of the things that you are going to have to do to export them across to your new Thunderbird program. If you have a lot of mail and contacts and not much room left on your hard disk on your old computer you will have to do one or both of these following two things to successfully export your contacts and mail.

1. Clean up your hard disk

   Delete all non-windows and Office related programs off your hard disk. To do this:

   a. Move your cursor to the Start icon & “left click” to open the start menu

   b. Go to Settings & “left click” on Control panel

   c. Your control panel window should now be open. “Left click” on Add/Remove Programs.

   d. As you remove each program write it down.

   e. Find a program what you do not need. “Left click” to select each non-essential program one at a time and then “left click” on Change/Remove. This should remove the program.

   Ensure your recycle bin is empty as this will also free up room on your hard disk. You can clean up other stuff of your disk:

   a. Go to your desktop and open your My computer program.

   b. Find your hard disk. It should be called C:

   c. Right click on the icon for your hard disk

   d. Move your cursor to Properties and “left click”. This should show you a pie chart which will tell you how much free space you have on your hard disk.

   e. If you look to the right of the Pie Chart you should find an icon that is labeled Disk cleanup. Move your cursor there and “Left click” that icon.

   f. This will open a new window. Tick the select boxes for each item you would like to delete. Select OK and these items will be deleted and the window will close.

Note: Even once you do this you may find that still run out of room on your hard disk in process of executing the steps described below. Do not despair. There is another way by moving folders across to your Outlook express seperately. It will take you more time if you have to do it this way but it will mean you will still be able to achieve your ultimate goal. You will find the directions for how to do this in step 1 of the instructions below.

Some of the programs you deleted may have left remnant files on your computers hard drive.

a. Move your curser to to the Start icon & “left click”

b. Move your curser to Settings and then move your cursor across to Search & “left click” on For Files Or Folders.

c. Do a search for each of the programs you have deleted and see if there is any remnant files and delete them if you dare. This is not a recommended thing to do unless you know what you are doing and you are desperate to make room. Try to do everything you can to exercise caution that you do not delete files that windows or office needs to be able to run.

How To

Instructions for how to get all of your mail onto your new computers Linux Thunderbird.

Step 1. Open Outlook Express on your old computer and import all of your mail into Outlook Express

1. Close all programs
2. Open “Outlook Express”
3. “Left click” on File then move the cursor down to Import and a subwindow will open. “Left click” on Messages.
4. You will now need to select the program where you want to import your mail from. “Left click” on Microsoft Outlook. “Left click” on Next.
5. You will now need to select what is that you want to export out of your Outlook program. If you think you have enough spare room on your hard disk to shift everything at once select the All folders option then click Next and all of your mail will be shifted across from your Outlook to your Outlook express in one go.
6. If you do not have much room you will have to select the other option which is Selected folders and shift them across one folder at a time. Select a folder and click Next and the folder will be shifted there and then. You will then have to go back to step three of this list and repeat the process for each folder that you want to shift.

Once you have completed the above steps you will find that all of the mail you selected is in your Outlook express folders.

Step 2. Make Outlook Express your default mail client

1. Close Outlook Express and re-open it. If it asks you if you want to make Outlook express your default mail client select Yes. If it does not ask you if you want to do this then you can go into your control panel and do it manually.

a. Move your cursor to the Start icon & “left click”

b. Move your cursor to Settings to open menu & “left click” on Control panel

c. Your control panel window should now be open. “Left click” on Internet Options.

d. Find the Programs Tab. Read what it says in the window next to E-mail: If it says anything other than Outlook Express then you will need to change it. “Left click” on the down arrow icon in the email window and a menu will drop down; “left click” on Outlook Express. Click OK to apply your choice and close your control panel.

Step 3. Install Thunderbird on your old Computer and import all of your mail into Thunderbird.

1. To install Mozilla Thunderbird on your old Computer put disk in your cd drive & wait for the disk tree to open and click on The Install now icon next to Mozilla Thunderbird.
2. Once you have finished installing Thunderbird on your old windows computer you should find that an “import wizard” window will automatically open. Select “Outlook Express” and “left click” on Next. If you have a lot of mail this may take some time. Hours even. Do not touch your computer till this process is complete. Go and do something else.
3. Once this processed has finished you should find that the various mail folders you selected are now on your Thunderbird program.

Step 4. Copy and paste the Thunderbird files that store all of your mail onto your portable storage device.

1. Open your control panel window once again and find the Folder options icon and “left click” it.
2. Find the View tab and “left click” on that.
3. Look down the list displayed and you will see Show hidden files & folders. “Left click” the selectable circle next to it.
4. Clike OK to close that window then close your Control Panel
5. Move your cursor to Start and “left click” to display menu and find Search and then click the option For files and folders on the menu that opens up.
6. Enter .sbd in the search window & “left click” the Search icon.
7. Amongst the many files displayed there should be two files which will be of interest to you. Inbox.sbd and Sent.sbd Both of these files will have long extension names.
8. One at a time, copy and paste each of these files onto your portable storage device. To do this, “right click” on the first file that you want to move (eg; inbox.sbd) and this will open a menu, then “left click” on Copy.
9. Open Microsoft Explorer
10. Find your portable storage device and “left click” it to open it.
11. “Right click” in the window that opens to show the menu and “left click on Paste.
12. The item you copied should now transfer over to your portable storage device. This may take some time if it is a big file.
13. Repeat the process for the other file when you want to shift it across to your new computers Thunderbird program.

Step 5. Go to your new computer and copy across the files you have stored on your portable storage device.

1. Plug your portable storage device into your new computer.
2. Close Thunderbird
3. Now you are going to navigate with your file browser to find where your computer stores the mail for the Thunderbird program

1. Go to Places with your cursor and “left click” that
2. Find Home folder and “left click” on that to open your file browser
3. Go to the menu on the top of the new window that has just opened and “left click” on View to open up a new menu and “left click” on Show hidden files.
4. Find the “mozilla-thunderbird” folder and “left click” on that.
5. Find the file u4ebvxl5.default
6. “Left click” on that and find the folder called Mail and “left click” on that
7. Next find the file called Local folders and “left click” on that
8. You should now be able to find two files which will be of interest to you. Sent.sbd & Inbox.sbd
9. “Left click” on Sent.sbd This will open a new window where you will find the various folders that contain the sent items from your old computer.
10. Now you are going to open another file browser window and find your portable storage device. So, move your cursor back to your main desktop menu and once again find Places and “left click” on that and once again left click on Home folder to open your file browser.
11. In this new file browser window once again move your cursor to View and “left click” that to get the drop down menu and “left click” on Show hidden files.
12. Find the portable storage device that you have stored the inbox.sbd & sent.sbd files on and “left click” on that.
13. You should now be able to see the two .sbd files named above. “Left click” on sent.sbd
    
14. In this new file browser window once again move your cursor to View and “left click” that to get the drop down menu and “left click” on Show hidden files.
    
15. Find the portable storage device that you have stored the inbox.sbd & sent.sbd files on and “left click” on that.
16. You should now be able to see the two .sbd files named above. “Left click” on sent.sbd
    
17. This should open a new window that appears to contain three copies of each of your sent mail folders. This is where it gets a little painful. You will not be able to simply select them all and copy and paste them across to your other file browser window file to get them onto your new computer. At least it did not work for me. You will have to copy each file individually and paste them across one at a time. So if you have a sent items folder called Family you will find three files for that folder: 
    One called "   Family.sbd" which will be yellow. One called "Family" which will have no extension name and will be white. One called "Family.msf" which will also be white.
    
18. You will need to copy and paste each of these three files across from this portable file browser window into the other file browser window which indicates your hard drives contents that you opened earlier.
    
19. Go to the File Browser window that you opened earlier for your portable drive. Lets pretend you have a sent items file there called Family.sbd for a moment to describe the next step.
20. “Right click” on Family.sbd and a menu will open where you should “left click” on Cut.
21. Then go to the file browser window that indicates your hard drive. “Right click” in and empty space within this window and “left click” on Paste. The file should appear.
22. Repeat this process for each individual file.
    

When you open Thunderbird: Hey presto!

Your mail should all be there.

Repeat the above process for your Inbox files.