Summary: The tutorial summarizes the manual procedure to convert Thunderbird MBOX files into MS Outlook PST or Office 365. It also discusses the limitations associated with manual conversion approach and suggests a direct method to perform MBOX to PST/Office 365 conversion by using a specialized MBOX to PST converter tool. Download the demo version of the tool from the link below to verify its functionality.
Mozilla Thunderbird is a freeware email client that stores mailbox data in an MBOX file. There may arise a situation when you need to access Thunderbird data in Microsoft Outlook and Office 365 email clients. However, both these email clients does not support MBOX file. Thus, to move mailbox data from Thunderbird to Outlook or Thunderbird to Office 365, you will need to convert MBOX to PST.
Personal Storage Table (PST) file is an Outlook data file that can be easily imported into Outlook or Office 365 account.
Check out major reasons to move from Thunderbird to MS Outlook/Office 365 in below infographic:
The manual procedure to convert Thunderbird MBOX email items to Outlook PST can be categorized into three steps:
Important! The following steps apply to Outlook 2007 or earlier versions. If you have set up a POP account in Outlook 2010 or later versions, you can directly export EML files to a PST file format. To do so, perform the following:
In MS Outlook, Open the folder that stores EML files.Next, Select all the EML files and then drag and drop them into an outlook PST folder
You can also create a new folder in PST mailbox to store all the converted EML files. But, keep in mind, you cannot directly export EML file to PST format when Outlook uses an IMAP email account.
Now let’s discuss the manual Thunderbird to PST conversion process in detail.
The first step requires converting Thunderbird MBOX emails to EML file format, as EML file can be opened in Outlook. To do so, follow these steps:
All the selected MBOX emails will get saved with .eml extension at the desired location.
To know other ways to convert MBOX File to EML, read this: How to Convert MBOX file into EML File?
Once the MBOX files are converted to EML format, the next step is to convert the EML files to any of the email programs – Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail. Here, we will discuss the procedure to convert EML emails to Windows Live Mail.
Detailed steps are as follows:
Now, repeat the drag and drop procedure for every individual folder that needs to be converted.
Note: Manually moving large number of emails from Thunderbird MBOX file to Outlook may cause the email applications to freeze or crash. This may further lead to file corruption or data loss. Use a professional Thunderbird to Outlook converter tool to move bulk messages to PST format without data loss risk.
Now, when all the email messages are imported to Windows Live Mail, export them to Outlook
Note: Before performing this step, make sure that the MS Outlook is installed on the computer. Also, you need to know that any image files embedded within the Windows Live Mail messages will be converted as attachments that might appear empty when you attempt to access them.
Follow these steps to perform Thunderbird export to PST process:
Note: Usually the Outlook profile is selected by default.
To know how to convert Thunderbird MBOX to Office 365, read this: How to convert MBOX to Office 365?
You may successfully convert Thunderbird MBOX to PST files by following the above stated manual procedure. However, the manual conversion process involves the following challenges:
Stellar Converter for MBOX is purpose-built to helps users convert Thunderbird MBOX file to PST format in a few simple clicks. Also, the technical edition of the software allows to directly export resultant PST file to Office 365.
Read this: How to convert mailboxes stored in MBOX files of various email clients to Outlook PST
Though you can manually convert Thunderbird MBOX file into MS Outlook PST or Office 365 format, maintaining data integrity can be a challenge. Essentially, the manual Mozilla Thunderbird export to PST process can help you export email items, but the original folder structure of Thunderbird mailbox may be different. Also, the manual process doesn’t support converting other mailbox items such as contacts, calendar, notes, etc.
Use a specialized MBOX to PST converter utility such as Stellar Convert for MBOX to convert Thunderbird mailbox to PST, preserving the original folder structure. The utility also helps export all the mailbox items from Thunderbird email client to Outlook. Also, by using the technician version of the software allow to directly export thunderbird to Office 365.
Eric Simson is an Email Platform Consultant and is associated with Stellar Data Recovery from last 6 years. He writes about the latest technology tips and provides custom solutions related to MS Outlook, MS Exchange Server, Office 365, and many other Email Clients & Servers.
Is software support the latest version of Mozilla Thunderbird archive (.MBOX) file?
Yes!
To verify compatibility factor, you can try a free demo version.