Author Topic: Thunderbird import problem  (Read 125 times)

Offline AnotherUser

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Thunderbird import problem
« on: February 14, 2013, 07:55:31 AM »
I have a fully updated system. I am trying to setup Thunderbird for the first time and I wanted to import my email from an old Outlook *.pst file. So, I went to Tool --> Import, selected Mail as the types of items to import, clicked Next and I can't seem to do anything with it. The wizard has a blank window in which I cannot go to Next and I cannot select anything. It's as though something is missing/broken in the installation.

Any thoughts?


Offline 7272andy

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Re: Thunderbird import problem
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2013, 08:36:02 AM »
The only reliable way I found to do this was;
  • Install Thunderbird on to the windows machine alongside Outlook.
  • Import the mailboxes etc into Thunderbird on Windows.
  • Move the mailbox files to my new Linux system.

Regards


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Offline AnotherUser

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Re: Thunderbird import problem
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2013, 10:21:51 AM »
The only reliable way I found to do this was;
  • Install Thunderbird on to the windows machine alongside Outlook.
  • Import the mailboxes etc into Thunderbird on Windows.
  • Move the mailbox files to my new Linux system.

Regards

This may be a good tip, but that doesn't explain why the Linux flavor of Thunderbird in our repos seems to be broken.

Offline 7272andy

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Re: Thunderbird import problem
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2013, 10:29:34 AM »
It's not broken, to import the outlook files it needs to have outlook installed and for the .pst files to be in use (it's not necessary for outlook to be running at the time of import though).


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Offline pags

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Re: Thunderbird import problem
« Reply #4 on: February 14, 2013, 10:31:11 AM »
It's not broken.

Thunderbird on Windows uses the APIs from the installed (and configured) Outlook to access the PST files, and transfer the emails in their entirety.  If you had Thunderbird on a copy of Windows without any Outlook, it would be just as unable to import PST files.

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Offline AnotherUser

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Re: Thunderbird import problem
« Reply #5 on: February 14, 2013, 11:39:48 AM »
It's not broken.

Thunderbird on Windows uses the APIs from the installed (and configured) Outlook to access the PST files, and transfer the emails in their entirety.  If you had Thunderbird on a copy of Windows without any Outlook, it would be just as unable to import PST files.

Thanks, M$
(The dollar sign is only being used because I don't like the confusion of using MS that is created with relation to Multiple Sclerosis)
 :(

All I can say is wow :-( . Thanks to all of you for clarifying this for me.