Transferring email from Thunderbird to Mail

[Benbikeman]

Having to spend my weekend rebuilding my Mac manually due to some as-yet-unidentified software glitch, I'm aiming to build a leaner machine sticking to Apple software as much as possible for maximum reliability.

I currently use Thunderbird with three email accounts. I did previously try switching to Apple's Mail client, and thought it should be a doddle as I use IMAP. Quit Thunderbird, open Mail, plug in account details, connect to server, download mail.

Nope. Mail did download the mail but then, for some reason known only to itself, immediately deleted it all. Worse, the IMAP server duly synchronised and deleted the mail from the server too! I then had to go back to Thunderbird, restore the old mail folder and sync again. I'm not keen to repeat that experience!

So, is there a way to export from Thunderbird in a format I can import into Mail?

Ben

 

[Weaselboy]

Just go to import under the File menu in Mail and point it to your Thuderbird account. See my screen cap.

 

[Benbikeman]

Thanks. In the end, I just backed up the Thunderbird profile folder then sync'd Mail to IMAP and all was well. No idea why it failed so badly last time.

I have to say Mail is a very, very nice mail app. The only thing I miss from Thunderbird is Identities. I have an email address that auto-forwards to my main one, and in Thunderbird I had a second Identity within the same account that put the correct From address on it, and automatically assigned the correct sig. With Mail, I'd have to have a separate account to do it (unless there's an Identity feature I've missed?).

 

[satcomer]

Then take a look at the sale for Mail add-ons http://www.getback2mail.com. The sales ends real soon. It might help you find a Mail "plug-in" that you would like.

 

[Weaselboy]

The only thing I miss from Thunderbird is Identities. I have an email address that auto-forwards to my main one, and in Thunderbird I had a second Identity within the same account that put the correct From address on it, and automatically assigned the correct sig. With Mail, I'd have to have a separate account to do it (unless there's an Identity feature I've missed?).

I'm not sure if this is what you are after, but if you have multiple accounts configured in Mail when composing a new message you can click the "from" drop down just below the subject field and select which account you want to send the message from.