How to Back Up Mozilla Thunderbird Emails?
How to Back Up Mozilla Thunderbird Emails?
Why Do You Need to Take a Mozilla Thunderbird Mail Backup?
Different Methods to Backup Mozilla Thunderbird Emails
Option 1: Mozilla Thunderbird Mail Backup (Manually)
Method 1: Backup Thunderbird Emails in Specific Location on PC
To manually take a backup of Thunderbird emails, first, you need to access the specific location on your PC. Then, find the MBOX files, copy them, and save them to a network or external drive.
Pursue the following steps for better understanding:
- First of all, navigate through the following location on your computer:
- C:\Users\*ProfileName*\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\*Profile.default*\
- Then, click right on the MBOX files and copy them.
- After this, you need to save these files in a different external drive, volume, and network storage media to create a backup.
Please Note: Here, you will find the files in .msf format (Mail Summary File). These files contain your email header details and other files without file extensions. Such files (that are saved with no extensions) are the MBOX files. You need to copy these files and create a Mozilla Thunderbird mail backup.
- Later, you can import these MBOX files to Mozilla Thunderbird. However, ImportExportTools will be required for this procedure.
Method 2: Backup Thunderbird Emails as .EML Files on PC
As an alternative method, you can also create a backup of individual emails. To make this happen, you can use Thunderbird options as the .eml files. To take a manual backup of these mail folders, you can do the following:
- Access Thunderbird
- Then, select any email folder for which you want to create a backup. It could be Inbox or any other folder.
- After the selection, you can start selecting the emails. For this, you can use the Shift This will let you mark multiple emails. If you want to take a backup of all the emails, press Ctrl + A. This will mark all the emails for the backup.
- Now, click right and select the Save as
- Here, you can browse the folder location. It should be the location where you prefer to save the backup of emails.
- Then, choose Select Folder.
As you do so, it will save the selected emails into the folder with the EML file extension. Remember, you can open & view these emails in different email client apps.
This should be noted, one cannot create a backup of Thunderbird emails in different formats such as RTF, PST, PDF, HTML, and Office 365 by performing the manual method. However, if you want to backup your Thunderbird emails in different formats, the next method can be followed.
Option 2: Mozilla Thunderbird Mail Backup (In Other Formats)
As stated earlier, you will require some third-party tool to save the Thunderbird emails in other formats. Third-party software applications such as MBOX to PST converter or Thunderbird Add-on named ImportExportTools NG can be used to keep all your Thunderbird emails in Office 365, RTF, PST, PDF, HTML, and formats.
If your Thunderbird current version is supporting the ImportExportTools NG add-on, you can continue using it to backup emails. To get started, you need to install this add-on, select the emails, and export all the folders and messages in the desired format.
- Start installing ImportExportTools NG add-on.
- Now, click right on the email profile in order to take a backup of all the emails.
- Then, select ImportExportTools NG.
- Click Export all the folders.
- After this, click right on the individual folder and select ImportExportTools NG.
- Then, choose the Export all messages in the folder
- Here, you need to choose the preferred file format and backup your Thunderbird emails.
This should be noted that the latest versions of Thunderbird no longer support ImportExportTools NG. If you are unable to use this add-on, a third-party converter tool can help you with email backup.
In a Nutshell
Mozilla Thunderbird emails contain valuable data and thus one should regularly take a backup of these files to prevent data loss. To take a Mozilla Thunderbird mail backup, different methods can be followed. For instance, you can either save all the emails manually on your computer or use the third-party converter tool to save the emails in other formats.
