[SOLVED] Move email from Thunderbird to Outlook

[Haole Boy]

Aloha everyone. Apologies for my lack of knowledge on email, but I only deal with this area about once a year so I forget everything I learned from my last disaster.

Client was using Thunderbird IMAP to access his email provided by GoDaddy. Something happened and they closed his email account (long story - not pertinent to this situation). They've created a new account but it is an Exchange account not IMAP. We've purchased Microsoft 365 got it up and running and his email is once again working. However, he has about 2.5k emails in the local Thunderbird MBOX file that I would like to figure our how to get them out of Thunderbird, and into Outlook 365.

One of the mail migration specialists at GoDaddy suggested that I get Thunderbird working with Exchange, and then copy the files from the IMAP inbox folder to the Exchange inbox folder. I installed the Owl extension in T-Bird and it seemed to talk with Exchange. Tried the copy from folder to folder as suggested, but nothing got copied. I'm *guessing* this is due to the IMAP account being unable to logon to the email servers. Whatever the reason, this did not work.

Another call to GoDaddy support and they said to find a 3rd party conversion program. I found Stellar MBOX to PST Converter. Does anyone have any experience with this program? (good or bad feedback)

Assuming I use Stellar (or some other mbox to PST converter), what the heck to I do with the PST file?

Lastly, I was able to migrate the address book from T-Bird to Outlook, but I could not figure out how to do this with the "Collected Addresses" in T-Bird. Any suggestions on this?

Mahalo for your assistance!

Harry Z

 

[Kitten Kong]

It's been some time since I used this program, but em client may be able to do what you are looking for.

 

[Haole Boy]

It's been some time since I used this program, but em client may be able to do what you are looking for.

Aloha @Kitten Kong. OK. Thanx for the reply. I know of eMClient. But how can it help me?

Also, I forgot to mention that at one point I selected all the emails in the IMAP inbox, and selected 'Save As'. So, in addition to the T-Bird MBOX file, I also have a whole lotta .EML files. But from my googling it seems like importing these EML files into outlook might not provide good results.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Godaddy is shutting down that old IMAP mess, and they're doing so without notice.

I have 1 client left on it, and I'm moving them off as I type this. And it makes me giggle because Godaddy has tried to force them into M365 several times now and failed. Why? Because I already made a tenant with that name... client in question is already using it... mercifully FREE of Godaddy's nightmarish M365 mess. That's why this happened, and your client was emailed several times to tell them the when and why's.

Anyway... a quick google shows how to get Thunderbird connected to M365. https://uit.stanford.edu/service/office365/configure/thunderbird-oauth2

Then this describes how to move local IMAP mail into GMail, which honestly should be the same process or very similar for M365 mail: https://www.stellarinfo.com/article/migrate-from-thunderbird-to-outlook.php#Methods1

The EASY way to do this is a proper mail migration, M365 and GSuite offer free tools where they can login to an imap mailbox and suck up all the stuff. But Godaddy has as usual... slammed that door in your face. Which is in a way a bit strange because if you live on their IMAP service and get sucked into their forced change to their half aborted M365 services they move your mail for you. So when you login to the new exchange mailbox all of it is simply there. And if it isn't they'll happily sell you stuff to do it for you.

 

[Markverhyden]

Did you actually copy the folder, as in right click copy, or did you drag and drop? Drag and drop is usually move which might explain why it failed.

 

[callthatgirl]

In Thunderbird, I believe you can export to Exchange and as you have Exchange with Outlook I assume, close Outlook and run the exporter, it will make a PST for you to add to the Godaddy 365. Happy to show you how Harry.

 

[Haole Boy]

Godaddy is shutting down that old IMAP mess, and they're doing so without notice.

I have 1 client left on it, and I'm moving them off as I type this. And it makes me giggle because Godaddy has tried to force them into M365 several times now and failed. Why? Because I already made a tenant with that name... client in question is already using it... mercifully FREE of Godaddy's nightmarish M365 mess. That's why this happened, and your client was emailed several times to tell them the when and why's.

Anyway... a quick google shows how to get Thunderbird connected to M365. https://uit.stanford.edu/service/office365/configure/thunderbird-oauth2

Then this describes how to move local IMAP mail into GMail, which honestly should be the same process or very similar for M365 mail: https://www.stellarinfo.com/article/migrate-from-thunderbird-to-outlook.php#Methods1

The EASY way to do this is a proper mail migration, M365 and GSuite offer free tools where they can login to an imap mailbox and suck up all the stuff. But Godaddy has as usual... slammed that door in your face. Which is in a way a bit strange because if you live on their IMAP service and get sucked into their forced change to their half aborted M365 services they move your mail for you. So when you login to the new exchange mailbox all of it is simply there. And if it isn't they'll happily sell you stuff to do it for you.

Aloha @Sky-Knight . This (latest) email mess for this customer was due to a physical move. Even though he kept the same ISP (Spectrum) they would not let him keep his hawaii.rr.com email address. So, all the 'time to renew' emails just went into the bin bucket, and his email account got closed.

Your comment about "Godaddy's nightmarish M365 mess" does have me concerned. Can you elaborate. Feel free to send me a PM if you don't want to put it on the forum.

Lastly, the IMAP mailbox is not available to be "logged into", that account was closed by GoDaddy. I'm working with both the emails that were left in the local machine T-Bird profile and also a recovered T-Bird profile as what was there only went back 2 months.

Did you actually copy the folder, as in right click copy, or did you drag and drop? Drag and drop is usually move which might explain why it failed.

Aloha @Markverhyden I did not try anything on the old Inbox folder. I selected individual emails and did a right-click, selected Copy in the pop up window, and then selected the Exchange inbox folder. Tried single emails and several at a time. Nothing worked.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Re: Go Daddy, yeah they announced that last fall and over the winter...that they'd be retiring their "Workspace" hosting and they'd migrate those to O365.

GoDaddy - My Workspace Email is moving to Microsoft 365

See frequently asked questions about the move from Workspace Email to Microsoft 365.

www.godaddy.com

We work with a few local website designer/marketing people, who included the previously "free" Go Daddy Workspace with website hosting. Some of them reached out to us a few months ago to start migrating clients of their over to our 365 so they wouldn't be stuck with Go Daddys 365.

Go Daddys 365 is....straight up 365, it's just, they "hide" the admin pages from you so end users can't self inflict damage. Any changes you want to do, you HAVE to go through Go Daddys support. That's why us IT guys can't stand Go Daddys resold 365, because we can't do anything for our clients on them. Except...migrate them away from Go Daddy to standard/vanilly 365. Which is pretty easy....you just go through a couple of steps to "defederate" it ...add you own admin account, assign yourself the back door partner access, add licenses from your CSP, remove Go Daddy as a partner, call Go Daddy to cancel their licensing.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@YeOldeStonecat And yet if Godaddy was any other M365 partner like the rest of us in the ecosystem, all we'd have to do is assign licenses and punt them out. Even the simple process of defederation is unacceptably complex compared to the standard practice.

@Haole Boy Stonecat has it nailed. Godaddy sells M365 as if it's email hosting, it IS NOT. And if your client is only intending to use M365 for email, they're better off saving money and going elsewhere. Such a decision would be monumentally foolish, because M365 offers features and functionality you simply cannot get elsewhere, and not having them puts any business regardless of scale at a competitive disadvantage.

That's also why I hate Godaddy M365 so much. Not only is their support sub standard, but the wrapper they put around M365 services functions as a straight jacket, reducing value while at the same time increasing expense. It's dishonest, criminally so in my opinion.

 

[Porthos]

This (latest) email mess for this customer was due to a physical move. Even though he kept the same ISP (Spectrum) they would not let him keep his hawaii.rr.com email address. So, all the 'time to renew' emails just went into the bin bucket, and his email account got closed.

Typical Spectrum. As soon as you disconnect services your email is shut down.
Every one of my spectrum clients I have are instructed to change email providers to something else and never use the ISP address.

 

[Sky-Knight]

This should be solid advice for any ISP provided mail... those have never been a good idea.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

GD did make defederating easier. You used to have to do it via powershell and a bunch of work....now you can just call them and tell them to do it...you provide them with your clients PIN, or whatever else they ask to authorize you.

 

[britechguy]

Typical Spectrum. As soon as you disconnect services your email is shut down.
Every one of my spectrum clients I have are instructed to change email providers to something else and never use the ISP address.

Amen! (and to @Sky-Knight's agreement)

I try to get my clients to understand that they should never tie their email to a specific internet service provider. Whether they choose to use a free (as in no monetary cost, but there are other "payments" you make) email service provider or go for a paid one, you want something that is completely independent from who you get your internet service from.

 

[Haole Boy]

Re: Go Daddy, yeah they announced that last fall and over the winter...that they'd be retiring their "Workspace" hosting and they'd migrate those to O365.

GoDaddy - My Workspace Email is moving to Microsoft 365

See frequently asked questions about the move from Workspace Email to Microsoft 365.

www.godaddy.com

We work with a few local website designer/marketing people, who included the previously "free" Go Daddy Workspace with website hosting. Some of them reached out to us a few months ago to start migrating clients of their over to our 365 so they wouldn't be stuck with Go Daddys 365.

Go Daddys 365 is....straight up 365, it's just, they "hide" the admin pages from you so end users can't self inflict damage. Any changes you want to do, you HAVE to go through Go Daddys support. That's why us IT guys can't stand Go Daddys resold 365, because we can't do anything for our clients on them. Except...migrate them away from Go Daddy to standard/vanilly 365. Which is pretty easy....you just go through a couple of steps to "defederate" it ...add you own admin account, assign yourself the back door partner access, add licenses from your CSP, remove Go Daddy as a partner, call Go Daddy to cancel their licensing.

@YeOldeStonecat - Thanx for the info. I only have one other customer on 365 from their provider, so I don't have any interaction with it. I can't even spell 365, so going with whatever GoDaddy provides will suffice for this customer (sole proprietor).

@Haole Boy Stonecat has it nailed. Godaddy sells M365 as if it's email hosting, it IS NOT. And if your client is only intending to use M365 for email, they're better off saving money and going elsewhere. Such a decision would be monumentally foolish, because M365 offers features and functionality you simply cannot get elsewhere, and not having them puts any business regardless of scale at a competitive disadvantage.

That's also why I hate Godaddy M365 so much. Not only is their support sub standard, but the wrapper they put around M365 services functions as a straight jacket, reducing value while at the same time increasing expense. It's dishonest, criminally so in my opinion.

@Sky-Knight - as mentioned above I am ignorant about the benefits of regular M365 vs. whatever GoDaddy provides. My customer is just using it for email, and occasional Word and Excel (he was on Office 2007). What features of M365 would be applicable to a sole proprietor that it's "foolish" to use the GoDaddy offering?

Typical Spectrum. As soon as you disconnect services your email is shut down.
Every one of my spectrum clients I have are instructed to change email providers to something else and never use the ISP address.

Yeah, I've tried to get my customers to get off their ISP provided email, but they just don't get it - until they change providers and suffer the pain.

Mahalo to all who replied. Much appreciated, and (as always) I'm learning a lot from you folks.

Harry Z

 

[Haole Boy]

Update: Lisa @callthatgirl contacted me and provided some assistance. It turns out that opening his old IMAP inbox in Thunderbird, and then doing a copy and paste to the Exchange mailbox (also in Thunderbird) did actually work. I guess I was not patient enough for the files to make the transition. Mahalo to Lisa for her assistance!

And Mahalo to all who responded.