How to Backup Thunderbird Emails?

It allows users to send, receive and organize emails across multiple accounts. It offers a wide range of features such as customizable folders, powerful search filters, and advanced email management tools.

Purpose to Backup Thunderbird Emails

• To make a backup of Thunderbird emails allows to protect mailbox data from cyber attacks, hacking or phishing attacks. If your email account is compromised then your backup copy will be secure.
• When users backup Mozilla Thunderbird emails then you can easily access it without having connectivity and it also helps you to access it when travelling or have limited internet connection.
• It helps you when system crashes, hardware failure, software errors then having a backup copy of Thunderbird offers you recovery of your emails.
• When switching to another machine then having backup ensures that all emails, contacts and all other settings will be restored correctly without losing any data.
• For legal reference, Users keep emails to be kept for future for professional and individual purposes.

Instructions to Backup Thunderbird Emails

1. Download and run “Thunderbird Backup Tool” on your system.
2. Click on “configured Thunderbird mailbox data” and check on multiple users if required.
3. Browse the “Thunderbird mailbox folder” as you want to backup.
4. Choose export type in the list of “Select Saving Options”.
5. Browse Destination path and choose “Advanced filter”.
6. Now, click on Next to start “Backup Thunderbird emails”.

Remarkable Qualities of Thunderbird Backup Tool

• It also supports dual mode: select files or select a folder to upload the Thunderbird profile according to the user’s requirements. The “select files” option allows browsing multiple Thunderbird files, while the “select folder” option allows you to directly select the whole folder of Thunderbird profiles, including any number of profiles available inside the folder.
• You can also convert Thunderbird to CSV, PDF, EML, MBOX, HTML, DOC and many more export formats.
• With this tool, you can also use filter functions to convert as per date range, from, to, subject, exclude folders, root folder, sender blank address, receiver blank address and more to get maintained attributes.
• This software is specially designed with an easy to perform interface by any corporate or individual users who may technically expertise or have basic technical terms information.
• With this wizard, you can easily migrate Thunderbird to Microsoft 365, Outlook.com, Windows Live Mail, Lotus Notes, Zimbra, Maildir, Thunderbird, Outlook for Mac, Exchange Server, G Suite and all IMAP Supported email platforms.

How to Backup Thunderbird Emails Manually?

If you want to backup your emails from Thunderbird manually then we have stated several approaches. You can follow any of them by performing instructions as we have stated below:

Method 1. How to Export Thunderbird Emails Using Thunderbird’s Built-In Export Feature?

1. Open “Thunderbird” then click on the Menu.
2. Go to “Tools” and here select “Accounts”.
3. Select the “Account” as you want to export.
4. Click on “Local Folders” inside Account Settings.
5. Copy “Entire folder” or export individual emails/folder as required.

Method 2. How to Save Thunderbird Emails Using Thunderbird Profile Folder?

1. Close “Thunderbird”.
2. Navigate to “Thunderbird profile folder”
3. On Windows: “C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\”
4. On Mac: “~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/”
5. Copy the entire folder including Mail, “IMAP Mail” and Local Folders to a secure backup location such as hard drive, external hard drive or cloud storage.

Method 3. How to Backup Thunderbird Emails Using Import/Export NG Tools Add-ons?

1. Go to “Thunderbird Menu” and click on “Add-ons and Themes”.
2. Now, Search “Import/Export NG Tools” and click on “Add to Thunderbird”.
3. POP appears, press the OK option and Right-click on the “Mailbox folder” as you want to backup.
4. Now, Go to the “Import/Export NG Tools” option and choose “Folder Export(MBOX)” and click on the MBOX file.
5. Here, Select the “Destination directory” and hit on Select Folder.

Issues with Manual Methods to Backup Thunderbird Emails

• To perform manually, you need to locate profile folders and you must be required to have knowledge of file management and navigating hidden folders.
• If the backup process is not done correctly, there is a possibility of data loss such as Attachments or Account settings. It’s crucial to backup the whole Thunderbird profile folder including hidden files which may be easily missed during manual backup.
• If the manual approach is not performed correctly or is interrupted during copying, the backup folder may get corrupted.
• Restoring a Thunderbird backup file could lead to data loss if the profile folder isn’t replaced correctly or backup files are not compatible with the latest version of Thunderbird.
• Skipping any steps can corrupt your mailbox data and it turns into unreadable format making restoration difficult or impossible.

Commonly Asked Questions about Backup Thunderbird Emails

How do I Export everything from Thunderbird?

To export everything navigate to Thunderbird Menu> click on Tools> Account Settings. Locate your profile under local folders then copy the whole profile folder. You can also use Import/Export NG Tools add-ons to export emails and folders in MBOX or EML format.

How do I Backup all emails from Thunderbird?

To backup all emails, close Thunderbird and navigate to Thunderbird profile folder C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ copy the entire profile folder to save its secured location.

How do I Copy emails from Thunderbird to a local folder?

To copy emails from Thunderbird to the local folder going to File> New> Local Folder. Then drag and drop emails or the entire folder into it. Alternatively, right-click on an email or folder and click on Move to choose the local folder to move it to the local folder.

Overall Reflection

In this tutorial, we have explained all the effective methods to backup Thunderbird emails by manually and Thunderbird Backup Tool. As manually it has lots of drawbacks and requires much manual effort. So, we recommend you to opt Thunderbird Backup Software as it can perform it easily without losing or affecting any crucial information.