Enterprises require a common email platform that is easy to use and accessible for their users. Hence, most of them prefer Office 365. However, they often find it difficult to communicate or access certain information from users on another email client, such as Mozilla Thunderbird.
This difficulty arises because Thunderbird utilizes the MBOX file format to create an archive of the mailbox data. This file format is not supported by Office 365. Hence, it becomes challenging to migrate data from active Thunderbird profiles or archive Thunderbird MBOX files to Office 365.
In this post, we will address this challenge and list some workarounds that may help you swiftly migrate Thunderbird data to Office 365.
Let’s look at these workarounds in detail.
Simplest Way to Migrate Thunderbird to Office 365
Transitioning from one email client to another is a complicated process that can lead to downtimes in business processes. To avoid this, an easy way to migrate Thunderbird data to an Office 365 account is by using Stellar Converter for MBOX Technician – an advanced MBOX to Office 365 migrator tool.
But to use it, you will first need to export Thunderbird mailbox data as an MBOX file.
Note – If you already have an archive Thunderbird MBOX file, you can use this software without the need to install Thunderbird to open your MBOX file.
This advanced MBOX to Office 365 migrator tool lets you directly migrate your Thunderbird mailbox data to an Office 365 account in a few simple steps. Its algorithms are specifically developed to ensure that the data migration process is swift and accurate. They also ensure that the Thunderbird data migrated to Office 365 has the same mailbox structure and folder hierarchy as in the source MBOX file.
Additionally, you can also use this software to convert and save the Thunderbird mailbox file or apply filters to export individual mailbox items, such as e-mails, contacts, calendars, etc., as PST, PDF, RTF, EML, etc., files.
Note – The demo version of the software lets you scan and preview the mailbox items. In case you want to export the data to Office 365 account or save it, you will need to activate the software.
Follow the steps below to use this software to migrate your Thunderbird data to Office 365:
- Download and install Stellar Converter for MBOX Technician from its official website.
- Launch it.
- You will see the Select MBOX window. Use the drop-down menu against the Select Mail Client option to select the e-mail client.
- After selecting the e-mail client, click on either Select File or Select Identity. Then, click on Convert.
- The software will start scanning the selected MBOX file. Once the scan is complete, preview the MBOX data.
- If you are satisfied with the conversion results, click on the Save Converted File button under the Home tab.
- Choose the Export to Microsoft 365 option in the Save As window. Click Next.
- The Microsoft 365 Login window will appear. Use the drop-down list to select the Microsoft 365 profile in which you want to migrate Thunderbird data. After selecting the profile, click on Migrate.
- Once the software has successfully migrated Thunderbird mailbox data to the selected Office 365 account, you will see the Migration Successful dialog box. Click OK to complete the process.
An Alternative Way to Migrate Thunderbird to Office 365
Another way to migrate Thunderbird to Office 365 is by configuring your Office 365 account in Mozilla Thunderbird. Here’s what to do:
- Launch Mozilla Thunderbird on your PC.
- Click on the gear icon at the bottom-left corner to open Settings.
- Click on Account Settings.
- Then, click on Account Actions in the left pane and select the Add Mail Account option.
- It will take you to the Account Setup screen. Enter your Microsoft 365 credentials and click on Configure Manually.
- Next, add the following details:
- Incoming: IMAP|outlook.office365.com|993|SSL/TLS|OAuth2
- Outgoing: SMTP|smtp.office365.com|587|STARTTLS|OAuth2
- Click Re-test to test the settings. Once Thunderbird successfully finds the e-mail settings, click on Done to proceed.
Let Thunderbird sync your Office 365 e-mails. Once it does, drag and drop the required e-mail from your Thunderbird folder into Office 365 folders.
- During the process, you may get a pop-up about cookies being disabled or the sign-in window not loading. For this, you can go into Thunderbird Menu > Settings > Privacy & Security.
- Select the Accept cookies from sites option and clear the checkbox against Send websites a “Do Not Track” signal that you don’t want to be tracked option.
- Restart Thunderbird and try to configure your account again.
- You may also get a prompt to enter Microsoft 365 credentials. Add them and click on Sign In.
- Allow Thunderbird the required permissions and click on Accept to proceed.
- Once the process is complete, your O365 account will be added successfully to Thunderbird.
- Click on the Mail icon at the top-right corner to see various mail accounts added in Thunderbird.
- You will see your Office 365 account along with other email accounts configured in Thunderbird.
- Right-click on the Office 365 account and click on New Folder. Give it a name.
- Now, select the emails from Local folders or any other email account configured in Thunderbird and right-click on them. Go to Copy To > Office 365 account > Folder.
- Your emails will be copied into the selected folder in the configured Office 365 account.
Limitations of Configuring Office 365 account in Thunderbird
This method has certain limitations:
- It is only suitable for migrating a few e-mails from Thunderbird to a single Office 365 account.
- It is a lengthy and time-consuming process as it takes time to individually select emails.
- Emails may undergo formatting changes or SMTP header change during the transfer.
- Sometimes, Thunderbird fails to establish a connection with your Office 365 account due to incorrect configuration settings.
- Migrating emails from archive MBOX files to Office 365 requires additional software, which unnecessarily complicates the process.
Wrapping it Up
As depicted above, configuring Office 365 in Thunderbird is tedious and time-consuming process. Moreover, it has limitations that make it unsuitable for migrating Thunderbird data of large number of users to Office 365. Hence, the best way is to use specialized MBOX to Office 365 migration tool like Stellar Converter for MBOX Technician. This tool simplifies the migration process by directly migrating MBOX file contents to your Office 365 Account.
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