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A step-by-step guide to saving Thunderbird Mail as individual files and backing up your profile
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If you want to back up Thunderbird Mail, it's easy. You can export individual messages and folders or your entire Thunderbird profile as a backup. Read on to learn how.
Things You Should Know
- To export Thunderbird mail, select the messages you want to export, right-click or control-click the selection, click "Save as," then choose a folder.
- To export your profile (all mail, calendar, and settings), go to ☰ > Tools > Export > Export, select a folder, then click "Save."
- Exporting email messages saves them as EML files you can import into other mail apps. Exporting your profile backs up all data in a Thunderbird-only format.
Steps
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Create a folder on your computer for your exported messages. If you want to export one or more email messages from Thunderbird, you can save them to a new folder as EML files. EML files are easy to import into most other desktop email apps (including Outlook and Apple Mail) by simply dragging and dropping them into a folder in the email app.- Whether you're on a Windows PC or Mac , right-click (or control-click) the desktop, select New Folder , enter a name for the folder, and press Enter or Return .
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Select the messages you want to export. Click a folder in the left panel, then highlight the messages you want to export.- To select all messages in the folder, click one of the messages, then press Ctrl + A (PC) or Cmd + A (Mac) to select all .
- To select multiple messages (but not all messages), hold down Ctrl (PC) or Command (Mac) as you click each message.
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Right-click (or control-click) the selection and choose Save as . This opens your computer's file browser. -
Select the new folder click Select Folder or Choose . This exports the selected Thunderbird messages to the folder.- You can now repeat these steps to export mail from other folders.
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Click the hamburger menu and select Tools . The hamburger menu is the three horizontal lines at the top-right corner of Thunderbird .- Use this method to export all your Thunderbird mail, address book(s), calendars, and settings to a ZIP file. [1] X Research source This is a great option if your goal is to back up Thunderbird.
- If you're backing up the files, you may want to connect a flash drive or external hard drive to your computer now.
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Select Export . This opens Thunderbird's profile export tool in a separate tab.- The Export tool will only work if your Thunderbird emails and other information are less than 2 GB.
- If the folder is larger than 2GB and you're unable to export it:
- Click Open profile folder on the Export screen.
- Select everything in the folder by pressing Ctrl + A (PC) or Command + A (Mac).
- Press Ctrl + C (PC) or Cmd + C (Mac) to copy the entire selection.
- Open the folder you want to save the files to. You can create a new one by right-clicking or control-clicking the desktop (or another location) and selecting New Folder .
- Press Ctrl + V (PC) or Cmd + V (Mac) to paste the copied files.
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Click the Export button. This opens your PC or Mac's file browser. -
Select a folder and click Save . This exports all mail and other Thunderbird data to the selected folder.- If you want to import the exported profile back into Thunderbird (either on the same computer or a different one), click the hamburger menu and go to Tools > Import .
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Tips
- If you're planning to reinstall Windows or macOS, it's best to export your profile instead of individual email messages.Thanks
- To import an EML file into another mail app, open the mail app, enter a folder or mailbox, then drag and drop the EML file directly into the app.Thanks
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