[SOLVED] Transferring messages from Outlook on Windows to Thunderbird on Linux

Steve W · 04-08-2014, 06:05 PM

I am trying to transfer a load of emails and the profile details of a user of Outlook, from a Windows XP partition on a dual boot machine to a Linux partition on the same machine, running Thunderbird.

Advice on the internet says the only way is to install Thunderbird in Windows, then start it up. It will offer to import Outlook emails, address book and user profile into Thunderbird.

Then copy the profile folder from Thunderbird on the Windows partition into the profile folder for Thunderbird in Linux. Change one line in a config file in the same folder to tell Thunderbird which profile details to use.

However, having done this, Thunderbird in Linux does not recognise this profile when I fire it up. It requests I create a new email account and profile, rather than getting its information from the profile saved in its user directory on home/.mozilla.

Thunderbird in Windows has imported the Outlook details correctly, and displays them all when I start it up in Windows. It is just that they don't display in Thunderbird Linux.

I am at a loss as to what to do next, since I have carried out the instructions correctly. Has anyone successfully done this, and can advise me where I have gone wrong?

dolphin_oracle · 04-08-2014, 10:04 PM

what i've always done is just move the mail folders from the old thunderbird profile to the new one.

Steve W · 04-09-2014, 03:11 AM

Well I was hoping that the entire profile (including the identity details of the account, like server details and passwords) would move as well, as the user is not sure of the setup details of the original Outlook account (it was done originally some years ago).

descendant_command · 04-09-2014, 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve W

Thunderbird in Linux does not recognise this profile when I fire it up. It requests I create a new email account and profile, rather than getting its information from the profile saved in its user directory on home/.mozilla.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve W

I have carried out the instructions correctly.

Apparently not ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve W

Has anyone successfully done this, and can advise me where I have gone wrong?

Yes, and it's probably a typo in the profiles.ini or such. Maybe try this.

Unless maybe the versions of TB are vastly different between Win & Lin, although it does seem very tolerant of that usually.

Steve W · 04-09-2014, 03:35 AM

Okay, I shall try that when I get round their house later on. Although I wondered if the profiles.ini file is automatically loading it up with the wrong profile. I edited it as instructed, so it now reads something like:

Code:

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
#Path=sz8zjbuh.default
Path=d6xdvysg.default

... commenting out the original path and inserting the new one. I've checked the spelling!

Perhaps I shouldn't "start with last profile"...

The instructions I was following came from http://www.howtoforge.com/importing_...bird_evolution

descendant_command · 04-09-2014, 03:44 AM

Yeah that's the general idea and I done it without issue a few times.
Maybe launching the profile picker will show whats up, or start it from a terminal (with a --verbose or such??) and look for any clues there.

I still think it's a simple error somewhere as that method definitely works.

Steve W · 04-09-2014, 03:53 AM

Am I correct in saying, then, that I can install T/B on Linux, then start it up once and close it (to create the user directory in Home), then as long as the profile details are copied across correctly, I should be able to start the Linux T/B and all the e-mails, profile details, account details, server details, passwords etc that were used in Outlook/TB Windows will come up in Linux T/B without having to re-enter them from scratch? No initialization in Linux T/B should be necessary?

Only it occurred to me I might have been a little ambitious in the amount of information that would be transferred over!

descendant_command · 04-09-2014, 05:15 AM

Yes, that is what should happen.

Steve W · 04-09-2014, 09:10 AM

Well, I noticed that the Windows TB was version 24, and the Linux one was 16. So I downloaded the deb package for 24 and installed, removing 16. I can now access the folders brought across from Outlook (they go under "Outlook import"), but no account is set up and I cannot receive or send new e-mails. When exporting from Outlook, I did tell it to export everything, not just the messages. Should I try exporting again, only this time, just the Identities from Outlook, or could someone tell me where in Windows TB the identity/account details are stored, and I'll copy over just those files.

At the moment, the directory tree for .thunderbird is two folders: Crash Reports and Profiles. And the profiles.ini file. This reads:

Code:

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/m1m9o5fa.default

Inside the Profiles folder is the original "default" folder, and the new one with all the proper "imported from Outlook details" in, which is called m1m905fa.default.

Steve W · 04-10-2014, 03:46 AM

Does anyone have any further suggestions, since I'm a bit stuck at the moment. I am trying to get someone without much computer knowledge, transferred over from Windows XP to Linux, and this is a deal-breaking issue. If they cannot access their e-mails and previous e-mail archive from Linux, then they're going to stick with XP and see what happens. So transferring their e-mails from Outlook to Thunderbird is key.

The previous messages have come over, but not their address book or account details.

Steve W · 04-15-2014, 03:47 AM

Well, in the end I set up this person's e-mail account in Thunderbird again, from scratch. The import/export thing worked with her old e-mails, but not her settings, server details, password etc. Luckily, she had written down the ISP's e-mail password from when the computer was originally set up, so I could just write down the other details from Outlook and manually input them again into T/B Linux.