Frank Slootweg wrote:
> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>> On 2/22/2024 8:48 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
>>
>>> Unless it has been changed, Thunderbird has no built-in Import (or
>>> Export) functionality.
>>
>> [Picture]
>>
>> https://i.postimg.cc/05XKRJCd/Import-Thunderbird-115.gif
>>
>> There's a sandbox to play in.
>>
>> I may have imported a TB profile from somewhere with it.
>> I tried that, instead of just copying a profile folder
>> and using the Profile Manager to glue it in. Normally
>> I just folder stuff here and there.
>
> OK, so they have added some - but only minimal - import functionality.
>
> The only one which makes some sense is 'Import from Outlook', but even
> that's probably not very common, people going from Outlook to Thunderbird.
>
> So they can import from another Thunderbird installation, from a
> Seamonkey installation and from a Thunderbird profile backup. Whoopie!
>
> Anyway, this was about import of mbox folders and it seems they still
> have nothing for that (unless 'Becky! Internet Mail' - never heard of
> that, must be *very* common :-( - uses mbox format).
>

If you have a file in mbox format you can drag and drop it to
import...Beeen doing it for years.

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

On 2024-02-22 16:20, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>> On 2/22/2024 8:48 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
>>
>>> Unless it has been changed, Thunderbird has no built-in Import (or
>>> Export) functionality.
>>
>> [Picture]
>>
>> https://i.postimg.cc/05XKRJCd/Import-Thunderbird-115.gif
>>
>> There's a sandbox to play in.
>>
>> I may have imported a TB profile from somewhere with it.
>> I tried that, instead of just copying a profile folder
>> and using the Profile Manager to glue it in. Normally
>> I just folder stuff here and there.
>
> OK, so they have added some - but only minimal - import functionality.
>
> The only one which makes some sense is 'Import from Outlook', but even
> that's probably not very common, people going from Outlook to Thunderbird.

I did just that, back in the day. Netscape it was then. Outlook and
Exchange.

....

--
Cheers, Carlos.

Jonathan N. Little <lws4art@gmail.com> wrote:
> Frank Slootweg wrote:
> > Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
> >> On 2/22/2024 8:48 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> >>
> >>> Unless it has been changed, Thunderbird has no built-in Import (or
> >>> Export) functionality.
> >>
> >> [Picture]
> >>
> >> https://i.postimg.cc/05XKRJCd/Import-Thunderbird-115.gif
> >>
> >> There's a sandbox to play in.
> >>
> >> I may have imported a TB profile from somewhere with it.
> >> I tried that, instead of just copying a profile folder
> >> and using the Profile Manager to glue it in. Normally
> >> I just folder stuff here and there.
> >
> > OK, so they have added some - but only minimal - import functionality.
> >
> > The only one which makes some sense is 'Import from Outlook', but even
> > that's probably not very common, people going from Outlook to Thunderbird.
> >
> > So they can import from another Thunderbird installation, from a
> > Seamonkey installation and from a Thunderbird profile backup. Whoopie!
> >
> > Anyway, this was about import of mbox folders and it seems they still
> > have nothing for that (unless 'Becky! Internet Mail' - never heard of
> > that, must be *very* common :-( - uses mbox format).
>
> If you have a file in mbox format you can drag and drop it to
> import...Beeen doing it for years.

My original need (back in 2015), which was snipped in Paul's response,
was to import a large *tree* of mbox folders (some 8000 messages, don't
know how many folders), hence I said "mbox folders" (plural).

Can the current built-in Import function also handle *that*?

Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
> On 2024-02-22 16:20, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> > Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
> >> On 2/22/2024 8:48 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> >>
> >>> Unless it has been changed, Thunderbird has no built-in Import (or
> >>> Export) functionality.
> >>
> >> [Picture]
> >>
> >> https://i.postimg.cc/05XKRJCd/Import-Thunderbird-115.gif
> >>
> >> There's a sandbox to play in.
> >>
> >> I may have imported a TB profile from somewhere with it.
> >> I tried that, instead of just copying a profile folder
> >> and using the Profile Manager to glue it in. Normally
> >> I just folder stuff here and there.
> >
> > OK, so they have added some - but only minimal - import functionality.
> >
> > The only one which makes some sense is 'Import from Outlook', but even
> > that's probably not very common, people going from Outlook to Thunderbird.
>
> I did just that, back in the day. Netscape it was then. Outlook and
> Exchange.

Was that from (Outlook/Exchange) at work to (Netscape) at home/private?

If so, that was also kind of the path for me, from Outlook
(non-Exchange [1]) at work to Outlook Express at home/private.

[1] We didn't run Exchange because our company made/supported the
'Exchange killer'! :-)

On 2024-02-23 15:40, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> Jonathan N. Little <lws4art@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Frank Slootweg wrote:
>>> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>>>> On 2/22/2024 8:48 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Unless it has been changed, Thunderbird has no built-in Import (or
>>>>> Export) functionality.
>>>>
>>>> [Picture]
>>>>
>>>> https://i.postimg.cc/05XKRJCd/Import-Thunderbird-115.gif
>>>>
>>>> There's a sandbox to play in.
>>>>
>>>> I may have imported a TB profile from somewhere with it.
>>>> I tried that, instead of just copying a profile folder
>>>> and using the Profile Manager to glue it in. Normally
>>>> I just folder stuff here and there.
>>>
>>> OK, so they have added some - but only minimal - import functionality.
>>>
>>> The only one which makes some sense is 'Import from Outlook', but even
>>> that's probably not very common, people going from Outlook to Thunderbird.
>>>
>>> So they can import from another Thunderbird installation, from a
>>> Seamonkey installation and from a Thunderbird profile backup. Whoopie!
>>>
>>> Anyway, this was about import of mbox folders and it seems they still
>>> have nothing for that (unless 'Becky! Internet Mail' - never heard of
>>> that, must be *very* common :-( - uses mbox format).
>>
>> If you have a file in mbox format you can drag and drop it to
>> import...Beeen doing it for years.
>
> My original need (back in 2015), which was snipped in Paul's response,
> was to import a large *tree* of mbox folders (some 8000 messages, don't
> know how many folders), hence I said "mbox folders" (plural).
>
> Can the current built-in Import function also handle *that*?

/I/ can do that without using any import function.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 2024-02-23 15:44, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>> On 2024-02-22 16:20, Frank Slootweg wrote:
>>> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>>>> On 2/22/2024 8:48 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Unless it has been changed, Thunderbird has no built-in Import (or
>>>>> Export) functionality.
>>>>
>>>> [Picture]
>>>>
>>>> https://i.postimg.cc/05XKRJCd/Import-Thunderbird-115.gif
>>>>
>>>> There's a sandbox to play in.
>>>>
>>>> I may have imported a TB profile from somewhere with it.
>>>> I tried that, instead of just copying a profile folder
>>>> and using the Profile Manager to glue it in. Normally
>>>> I just folder stuff here and there.
>>>
>>> OK, so they have added some - but only minimal - import functionality.
>>>
>>> The only one which makes some sense is 'Import from Outlook', but even
>>> that's probably not very common, people going from Outlook to Thunderbird.
>>
>> I did just that, back in the day. Netscape it was then. Outlook and
>> Exchange.
>
> Was that from (Outlook/Exchange) at work to (Netscape) at home/private?

Yes.

It worked with the Windows Netscape, not with the Linux version, because
it had access to a library (mapi?). Once done, a second step would
migrate the mails to Linux easily.

What I could not do was migrate the inbox from enterprise Exchange, that
one needed to be online and active with the company login in order to be
readable, and I thought of that one day too late. I could only copy
local folders.

> If so, that was also kind of the path for me, from Outlook
> (non-Exchange [1]) at work to Outlook Express at home/private.
>
> [1] We didn't run Exchange because our company made/supported the
> 'Exchange killer'! :-)

The best current method to migrate mails today is using an intermediate
(online) imap server. You just copy mails using one software/account
combination to another imap folder, which you then access with the other
software combo.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 2/23/2024 9:40 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:

> My original need (back in 2015), which was snipped in Paul's response,
> was to import a large *tree* of mbox folders (some 8000 messages, don't
> know how many folders), hence I said "mbox folders" (plural).
>
> Can the current built-in Import function also handle *that*?

Why not test it ?

Do you use VMs at all ?

With W10 or W11, you could do a P2V and
drag a physical install into a VM and test.

That saves on doing a Windows install in the VM as the first step.

And that avoids "disturbing" your daily driver OS.

W10 and W11 are portable and will boot on foreign hardware,
which is why they'll boot within a VM.

The reason I suggest you test it, is you have the tree of boxes
to test with. Nobody else has a tree like that suited to
immediate test. It's not the work to make a test case
that matters -- it's getting the details right. And the
last time I made a test case, it was wide of the mark and
unusable. I have an AWK script that generated a 15GB mailbox
for me, as an example of the work I put into it.

Paul

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
> On 2/23/2024 9:40 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
>
> > My original need (back in 2015), which was snipped in Paul's response,
> > was to import a large *tree* of mbox folders (some 8000 messages, don't
> > know how many folders), hence I said "mbox folders" (plural).
> >
> > Can the current built-in Import function also handle *that*?
>
> Why not test it ?

Why would I want to test it? I have no current need. It worked fine in
2015 and the ImportExportTools extension is still available (and AFAICT
is compatible with current Thunderbird versions).

> Do you use VMs at all ?

No, no need sofar.

[...]

> The reason I suggest you test it, is you have the tree of boxes
> to test with. Nobody else has a tree like that suited to
> immediate test. It's not the work to make a test case
> that matters -- it's getting the details right. And the
> last time I made a test case, it was wide of the mark and
> unusable. I have an AWK script that generated a 15GB mailbox
> for me, as an example of the work I put into it.

???

Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
> On 2024-02-23 15:44, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> > Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
> >> On 2024-02-22 16:20, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> >>> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
> >>>> On 2/22/2024 8:48 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> Unless it has been changed, Thunderbird has no built-in Import (or
> >>>>> Export) functionality.
> >>>>
> >>>> [Picture]
> >>>>
> >>>> https://i.postimg.cc/05XKRJCd/Import-Thunderbird-115.gif
> >>>>
> >>>> There's a sandbox to play in.
> >>>>
> >>>> I may have imported a TB profile from somewhere with it.
> >>>> I tried that, instead of just copying a profile folder
> >>>> and using the Profile Manager to glue it in. Normally
> >>>> I just folder stuff here and there.
> >>>
> >>> OK, so they have added some - but only minimal - import functionality.
> >>>
> >>> The only one which makes some sense is 'Import from Outlook', but even
> >>> that's probably not very common, people going from Outlook to Thunderbird.
> >>
> >> I did just that, back in the day. Netscape it was then. Outlook and
> >> Exchange.
> >
> > Was that from (Outlook/Exchange) at work to (Netscape) at home/private?
>
> Yes.
>
> It worked with the Windows Netscape, not with the Linux version, because
> it had access to a library (mapi?). Once done, a second step would
> migrate the mails to Linux easily.
>
> What I could not do was migrate the inbox from enterprise Exchange, that
> one needed to be online and active with the company login in order to be
> readable, and I thought of that one day too late. I could only copy
> local folders.

Funny you mention that! I had a similar (or even the same?) problem
and went back to my (ex-)employer for a day to convert my .pst archive
to a .ost one (I hope that's what they were named, long ago, over two
decades).

I still have the .pst and .ost files on CD(s) (and probably somewhere
on a HDD).

> > If so, that was also kind of the path for me, from Outlook
> > (non-Exchange [1]) at work to Outlook Express at home/private.
> >
> > [1] We didn't run Exchange because our company made/supported the
> > 'Exchange killer'! :-)
>
> The best current method to migrate mails today is using an intermediate
> (online) imap server. You just copy mails using one software/account
> combination to another imap folder, which you then access with the other
> software combo.

On 2024-02-24 16:44, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>> On 2024-02-23 15:44, Frank Slootweg wrote:
>>> Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>>>> On 2024-02-22 16:20, Frank Slootweg wrote:
>>>>> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>>>>>> On 2/22/2024 8:48 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Unless it has been changed, Thunderbird has no built-in Import (or
>>>>>>> Export) functionality.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [Picture]
>>>>>>
>>>>>> https://i.postimg.cc/05XKRJCd/Import-Thunderbird-115.gif
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There's a sandbox to play in.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I may have imported a TB profile from somewhere with it.
>>>>>> I tried that, instead of just copying a profile folder
>>>>>> and using the Profile Manager to glue it in. Normally
>>>>>> I just folder stuff here and there.
>>>>>
>>>>> OK, so they have added some - but only minimal - import functionality.
>>>>>
>>>>> The only one which makes some sense is 'Import from Outlook', but even
>>>>> that's probably not very common, people going from Outlook to Thunderbird.
>>>>
>>>> I did just that, back in the day. Netscape it was then. Outlook and
>>>> Exchange.
>>>
>>> Was that from (Outlook/Exchange) at work to (Netscape) at home/private?
>>
>> Yes.
>>
>> It worked with the Windows Netscape, not with the Linux version, because
>> it had access to a library (mapi?). Once done, a second step would
>> migrate the mails to Linux easily.
>>
>> What I could not do was migrate the inbox from enterprise Exchange, that
>> one needed to be online and active with the company login in order to be
>> readable, and I thought of that one day too late. I could only copy
>> local folders.
>
> Funny you mention that! I had a similar (or even the same?) problem
> and went back to my (ex-)employer for a day to convert my .pst archive
> to a .ost one (I hope that's what they were named, long ago, over two
> decades).

Ah, yes. It did not occur to me to do that when I realized the problem.
The laptop might have been formatted already, my account erased.

> I still have the .pst and .ost files on CD(s) (and probably somewhere
> on a HDD).

Yes, same thing. At least I had for some years, I don't know where they
are now.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

Nick Cine <nickcine@is.invalid> wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> Attachments get encoded into long text strings inside of MIME blocks
>> (which bloats the original size of the attached by by 37%, or more).
>> I suspect it is you that doesn't know how to decipher the raw
>> source of your e-mails.
>
> What I want is Thunderbird to do "decipher the raw source of the
> emails". Can Thunderbird be pointed to that file to detach
> attachments for example?

There is no separate file that tags along with an e-mail. An attachment
is *in* the e-mail. If you want the attachment to be saved separate of
the e-mail, right-click on the attachment entry shown in the e-mail to
save it to a file. That will decode the MIME block in the e-mail
message from the long encoded text string into the specified output
file.

An attachment should be presented in the GUI of Thunderbird to let you
know an e-mail has an attachment. Try double-clicking the button or
icon showing the attachment. Should be an option to Open. That will
extract the attachment to save into a file, and then pass the file to
the associated filetype handler to let you view the attachment's file.

When looking at the raw source of a message, there are no attachments.
There are MIME blocks in which attachments got encoded into long text
strings. It's when rendered that features in the client will present on
how to handle the MIME blocks, like to extract the long encoded text
strings into a separate file. The MIME header indicates the filetype,
so the client extracts and saves into a file by that filetype.

As I recall, there is even an add-on that will automatically save all
attachments from MIME parts in e-mail messages into output files in the
folder you specify in the add-on. I've never used such an add-on, but
someone might have, and tell you about it. While you could select the
e-mails from which you want to extract attachments, the one I remember
would do it automatically on newly received e-mails: if a new e-mail had
an attachment, the add-on would automatically extract all attachments in
the new e-mail to some folder you specified in the add-on. It would
even modify the e-mail to put a URL to a local file in place of the
attachment in the e-mail, so you could reduce the size of your e-mails,
but still have a clickable link in the e-mail to view the extracted
attachment. (*)

(*) Possibly I'm recalling an add-in to MS Outlook that did this instead
of an add-on to Thunderbird, like:
https://www.sperrysoftware.com/Email-Tools/shop/
Attachment Save
After many years of using multiple e-mail clients, sometimes your
memory conflates features across them.

On 2/27/2024 4:16 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> Nick Cine <nickcine@is.invalid> wrote:
>
>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>
>>> Attachments get encoded into long text strings inside of MIME blocks
>>> (which bloats the original size of the attached by by 37%, or more).
>>> I suspect it is you that doesn't know how to decipher the raw
>>> source of your e-mails.
>>
>> What I want is Thunderbird to do "decipher the raw source of the
>> emails". Can Thunderbird be pointed to that file to detach
>> attachments for example?
>
> There is no separate file that tags along with an e-mail. An attachment
> is *in* the e-mail. If you want the attachment to be saved separate of
> the e-mail, right-click on the attachment entry shown in the e-mail to
> save it to a file. That will decode the MIME block in the e-mail
> message from the long encoded text string into the specified output
> file.
>
> An attachment should be presented in the GUI of Thunderbird to let you
> know an e-mail has an attachment. Try double-clicking the button or
> icon showing the attachment. Should be an option to Open. That will
> extract the attachment to save into a file, and then pass the file to
> the associated filetype handler to let you view the attachment's file.
>
> When looking at the raw source of a message, there are no attachments.
> There are MIME blocks in which attachments got encoded into long text
> strings. It's when rendered that features in the client will present on
> how to handle the MIME blocks, like to extract the long encoded text
> strings into a separate file. The MIME header indicates the filetype,
> so the client extracts and saves into a file by that filetype.
>
> As I recall, there is even an add-on that will automatically save all
> attachments from MIME parts in e-mail messages into output files in the
> folder you specify in the add-on. I've never used such an add-on, but
> someone might have, and tell you about it. While you could select the
> e-mails from which you want to extract attachments, the one I remember
> would do it automatically on newly received e-mails: if a new e-mail had
> an attachment, the add-on would automatically extract all attachments in
> the new e-mail to some folder you specified in the add-on. It would
> even modify the e-mail to put a URL to a local file in place of the
> attachment in the e-mail, so you could reduce the size of your e-mails,
> but still have a clickable link in the e-mail to view the extracted
> attachment. (*)
>
> (*) Possibly I'm recalling an add-in to MS Outlook that did this instead
> of an add-on to Thunderbird, like:
> https://www.sperrysoftware.com/Email-Tools/shop/
> Attachment Save
> After many years of using multiple e-mail clients, sometimes your
> memory conflates features across them.
>

If I take my MBOX from Takeout, it has invoices from my ISP in PDF format.
This is an example.

----boundary_56439_1c88e7f9-0011-44b0-becc-ea892a93ec66
Content-Type: application/octet-stream;
name=invoice.pdf
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment <=== this is a clue you're entering an attachment

12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678 \
.... \___ Save this as base64.txt
123456789012345678901234567= /

----boundary_56439_1c88e7f9-0011-44b0-becc-ea892a93ec66-- <=== this is the end of the attachment

b64.exe -d base64.txt base64.pdf

( https://sourceforge.net/projects/base64/files/ A very small EXE )

And when I tested that, the resulting PDF worked fine in my reader.

That's not the fancy feature you were expecting, but it shows
how if you were desperate, you could extract a single attachment
with Notepad and that b64.exe and get back the transmitted file.
It proves nothing was lost. Since the attachment line shows the
file name, you know what the intended file type is.

Paul