Looking for help moving from Thunderbird to Evolution

Applications
1

I have been using Thunderbird for a while now and far from happy with it. I heard about Evolution and the early signs look great. I am new to Linux and not a techie by any means, so please be gentle. :slight_smile:

In Thunderbird I have one IMAP account, and around 10-15 ‘local folders’. It seems modern folks don’t use that much any more, but I do as i have a lot of history in those folders and I need it to be searchable to grab information (many times a day). I am referring to the folders sometimes referred to as on this computer or ‘On My Mac’ (in the case of Mac Mail). Can I set those up in Evolution?

If so, is there a way to export my entire mail from Thunderbird to Evolution, retaining my local folders and their structure (some have sub folders)?

Actually, an extra question, is it possible to run both Evolution and Thunderbird at the same time so I can test/compare settings/folders etc and only delete Thunderbird when I am happy?

thanks

2

Welcome Mark. Although we do use the GNOME Discourse server, if you become a regular Evo user I do recommend subscribing to the alternate mailman service that was set up when the GNOME project switched from mailman to Discourse; many of the Evo users prefer that:

https://lists.osuosl.org/mailman/listinfo/evolution-users

Just to remind, when asking questions or for help, please be sure to include information about which version of Evolution you are using.

You say you are using IMAP, plus local folders. The question is what is the flow of email from IMAP to the local folders? Put another way, do you have something in Thunderbird that will download the email, filter it into folders on the local disk, and delete it from the server?

In that case no you won’t be able to use both mail clients at the same time, since that mail will be invisible to Evolution. If your local folders are in mbox format then you can get Evo to access them although it’s dangerous to have two clients accessing the same local folders; much better would be to make a copy to play with.

Or, is the email filtered into local folders, then also left on the IMAP server? If so then yes, you can use both.

I also have many folders that Evolution will sort my mail into, but all those folders exist on the IMAP server not on my local disk. So when I connect to my IMAP server from another mail client (say webmail or another Evolution instance at work or whatever) I still see all my mail and I can manage it equally well from either location. Maybe that’s not what you want but it works well for me.

Performance is not an issue because Evolution will cache email locally so it can be searched etc. without interacting with the server.

As for storing mail locally you have various choices.
I do recommend at least starting with the online docs:
https://help.gnome.org/users/evolution/stable/

and specifically here:
https://help.gnome.org/users/evolution/stable/mail-account-management.html.en

3

Thanks very much for this. I have read the guides, I couldn’t see a single mention of the phrase “local folders” on any page! Hence I had my doubts whether I can have them at all. To clarify my usage…

I don’t do the ‘cloud’ stuff. I don’t ever go anywhere else where I need access to any more than the default IMAP folders. When you ask if i have a way to move emails from IMAP inbox to local folders, yes I do, my mouse :D.

Basically, I get a lot of email, it all comes into IMAP inbox, i then file it manually into whichever local folder it is best placed in.

I am trying to work out if Evolution can do what I currently do, i.e. one mail account with an onlinle provider (Mailbox.org), and a good dose of ‘on my computer’ type folders (where the emials can be opuot and are stored on mjy hard drive, not on any server, thus clearing mjy server folders and making life cheaper :slight_smile:

If Evolution can do that, I want in! The only question remaining is whether (and how) to move from Thunderbird to Evolution. Ideally I’d test Evolution out first, but I guess I could actually do that on another machine, I have a spare old machine with Fedora 40 running on it (same as i have on main machine), so could I just copy the .thunderbird stuff over from my profile here, to the ot7her machine, and let Evolution rip with it? Will t7he local folders remain? I am not a tech, I doni’t know if tyhe format of the TB files will work with Evolution, or whether some import/conversion process is required.

You menhtioned mbox, I don’t know what format my files are in, is tyhere a way I can check this?

Thanks again, Evolution looks SO much nicer than Thunderbird. After 20 years on mac, I got kinda used to a ‘pretty’ email program, instead of a screen wart (TB)!

PS I didn’t get an email notification about your reply. I don’t do browser notifications. Is there any way to get email notifications? I looked through settijgs but can’t see aniy way, it only seems to offer ‘Live Notifications’ (browser)

4

Tags and watching ; Interacting with Discourse via email ; https://discourse.gnome.org/my/preferences/notifications

5

Yes it can.

I don’t know how to transfer Thunderbird data from one machine to another, that’s a question for a Thunderbird forum.

Evolution will not magically “rip with it”. See Sign in · GitLab
Migration-wise it would be much easier to keep all mail in IMAP remotely instead of copying around and exporting and importing local data.

That’s a question for a Thunderbird forum, I’d say…

6

Thanks. The link didn’t help, I am not trying to ‘interact by email’, just need email notifications with a link to read the thread again. I have already set the topic to watched. Strangely, I did get an email notification for your first reply. Nevermind, I will just check back manually.

I didn’t ask how to do that, I know how to do that and have done it many times.

I am trying to learn how to migrate my email data from Thunderbird to Evolution, I just mentioned that I know where the Thunderbird email/profile data is stored, in case it’s necessary to manually move that. I thought it would be a common question to move from Thunderbird to Evolution especially with Thunderbird breaking so often! I read the link you sent, it confuses me as it sounds more like Calendar or generic Gnome stuff. I also read the link out at the top to here: Re: [Evolution] No Matter What I Try, Can't Move Thunderbird Archives to
That sounds like the closest I have seen yet to some kind of guide, although the author says he hasn’t tried it! I guess I will just try that.

It’s not much easier when it’s not possible. Every email program I have ever used (Outlook, Mac Mail, Thunderbird, Betterbird, and others) understand that users have server folders but often local folders too for local mail storage (offline). I think you confirmed above that Evolution does offer local folders. I guess I just need to know how to populate them.

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It is possible. It’s hard to imagine that email programs force you to populate local folders (apart from storing temporary emails, like emails in the Outbox until sent). Server-side (remote) folders can be cached locally. I guess I don’t understand why you’d move stuff out of your IMAP / remote account to have it available on one single machine only in some file format defined by some local application. :slight_smile:

8

I said it was not possible, rather than ask why I said that, you tell me I am wrong and it is possible. No, it is not.

I do not have the storage space on iMap to move 30GB+ of data. It is not possible, I say again.

I expected that. You don’t need to understand the reasons to advise how to do something. Or do you only help people who work the way you do? That doesn’t seem like the ‘Linux way’ from what I have seen. You have already confirmed Evolution can provide local folders, so you must therefore understand some people want them and there must be reasons for some people to use them?

Did you ever use Outlook, or Mac Mail, or Thunderbird? If so, you’ll have seen they all offer folders that are not on the server but are ‘local’ or ‘on this computer’ etc.

I won’t bore you with the plethora of potential reasons why they can be useful. I’ll give you just one, which is my reason:

Why pay some company money to store a massive amount of emails/data on ‘cloud’ servers, open to abuse, hacks, or any other nefarious activity, when I have a perfectly large SSD on my machine and only ever want access to them from this machine (offline much of the time)? ‘Because everyone else does’ isn’t a valid answer in my opinion.

I currently have all of this data nicely sorted into local folders in Thunderbird, but I want a better email program, it’s buggy and ugly. Evolution looks way better and nicer to use, but I can’t use it unless I can replicate that folder structure and email storage locally in Evolution as I have it in TB.

Do you think this will not be possible? I can save time now if I know that, as it rules Evolution out from the start, which would be a great shame. But I think you said above it can be done, so maybe you could just confirm for certain before I dive into the complexity of trying to move data from TB to Evolution (which I thought would be a case of clicking ‘import from another program’ or similar, but apparently not!

9

You can certainly import standard mbox files into Evolution, and if
TBird stores a folder as an mbox file, then yes you can do that.

However you may have to do it one folder at a time, since we don’t know
what structure TBird uses for a set of folders. Maybe you could try
File->Import and let us know if it works.

The same would apply to importing from any other email client you care
to mention.

poc

1 Like
10

Thank you. That’s useful. So basically just create the folders in Evolution first, to replicate what I have in Local Folders in TB, then quit TB, find those folders (as mbox files) in the TB profile directory, and import one folder’s worth of email at a time, to the relevent local folder in Evo created earlier.
sounds like a plan. thanks again

11

Hi,
when you check the user documentation, “the Evolution main window”
section:
https://gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/evolution/help/intro-main-window.html
you can see there, on the screenshot, it has “On This Computer” section
with folders and subfolders. As you said, every other mail client
offers it, so does Evolution. I’d say it’s an essential thing.

With respect of the import of the data from the Thunderbird, the
File->Import offers a way to import from the other apps (the same as
importing single files), but it does not understand Thunderbird data,
I’m sorry.

The Thunderbird seems to store the local mail data under:

~/.thunderbird/<user_dir>/Mail/Local Folders/

where the <user_dir> may look like “1lkg3abc.Default User”, but it
depends whether you’ve more profiles or anything like that. The “Local
Folders” contains several files, for example I have there “Trash” and
“Trash.msf”. The “Trash” file contains the messages in an MBOX format,
which can be imported into Evolution. The “Trash.msf” file is a
Thunderbird internal file. Thus you import one file after another, into
the location you prefer in Evolution, just as you mentioned later in
this thread.

Bye,
Milan
1 Like
12

Thanks very much. this gives me even more detailed instructions, I think I should be able to get this done and try out Evolution, looking forward to it! (PS Sounds like you have used TB as well as Evolution, I’d be interested in your opinion on how you find Evolution after using TB!)

Yeah so would I, but these days I get looked at like I have three heads if I mention keeping emails on my computer instead of someone else’s (like Amazon AWS or Google!). What ever is the world coming to :smiley:

thanks again

13

Hmm. Couple of comments here:

  1. I see what you’re referring to, so if it does do what I am asking about, it would be REALLY nice to see the actual text/instructions/guide refer to these as ‘local folders’. A quick scour of the web shows that’s what most people refer to them as, and as such I have scoured and scoured, but can’t find any definitive instructions on setting up ‘local folders in Evolution’.

  2. This picture didn’t/doesn’t necessarily confirm the functionality is there. Here’s why… the usage guides ONLY seem to refer to local folders in the context of a ‘Local Mail Account’. I don’t have any ‘local mail accounts’ (don’t even know what they are!). I don’t want an ‘account’, i just want ‘folders’, but separate from imap folders, i.e. ‘on this computer’ but not tied to any account.

I can’t see if you have to set up a local account to get those folders or not, but I will just install to find out on a spare machine I have set up to test Evolution out.

14

Milan is the main developer/maintainer of Evolution. Just so you know.

It may also be worth pointing out that there is an alternative way to
ask for help, namely the Evolution mailing list. Many of us don’t like
to use a web-based forum, especially when discussing an email client,
but the Gnome team decided to move away from email as a support base
for many of its apps, so we set up an alternative. You can check it out
at:

https://lists.osuosl.org/mailman/listinfo/evolution-users

I think you’ll find more activity there than on the Discourse platform.
It’s also easier to keep track of who is replying to what comment,
especially if you interact via email. Note that the two systems are not
cross-linked and have no connection with each other. Just remember not
to cross-post the same question to both of them at once in the
interests of reducing confusion.

poc

15

Thanks, useful stuff.

Regarding that other board, I am not sure how easy I will find it to use but I did sign up yesterday, not been confirmed/approved yet. I really don’t think I will be able to use it though, I just clicked around, can’t find a login page, found an archive of ‘posts’ and i can’t make head nor tail of it. I guess it’s like guthub (but worse! (for me)), you either ‘get it’ or you don’t! I definitely don’t!!

“It’s also easier to keep track of who is replying to what comment,
especially if you interact via email” - Erm, it looks harder in every way to me! How can you interact by email?!

Confused.com :slight_smile:

16

I see what you’re referring to, so if it does do what I am asking
about, it would be REALLY nice to see the actual
text/instructions/guide refer to these as ‘local folders’.

Hi,

I do not think there’s anything to guide about. The user documentation
aims to help with things like setting account, configuring the UI,
changing this and that, while the “On This Computer” is just there and
you cannot do much about it (it’s even tricky to get rid of it, as some
people do not want to see it at all, but they cannot remove it, they
can only hide it).

This picture didn’t/doesn’t necessarily confirm the functionality is
there. Here’s why… the usage guides ONLY seem to refer to local
folders in the context of a ‘Local Mail Account’. I don’t have any
‘local mail accounts’ (don’t even know what they are!).

Local mail accounts are additional accounts, they can be configured,
thus they are mentioned in the use documentation, in contrast to the
“On This Computer” (see above).

I can’t see if you have to set up a local account to get those
folders or not

You do not do that, like in any other mail app. I do not know how many
other mail apps allow to create local accounts, they usually aim to
POP3, IMAP and such. Evolution is different, it allows a lot more.

I will just install to find out on a spare machine I have set up to
test Evolution out.

It’s usually the best to do. You do not need to wait for days for an
answer for a thing you can just see when you spend 10 minutes of
installing the app and giving it a try, see it in action. You can
always uninstall it, if you find it not suitable for your needs.

By the way, I do not use Thunderbird actively, I’ve it installed more
for testing purposes than anything else.

Bye,
Milan
17

That is an old-school mailing list. You are not expected to interact with it via the web. Instead, all the messages will be sent to you via email. You use your email client to interact with them (reply, etc.) Your email client will “thread” them for you and you can save them (or delete them) as you would any other email.

You would only use the web interface to search the history of the mailing list if you wanted to find something from a previous thread that you either deleted or happened before you were subscribed.

18

It’s not a “board”. It’s a mailing list, as they have existed
practically since the dawn of time in Internet terms. You interact by
reading and replying to email, which is what I’m doing right now. I
don’t use the Discourse web interface if at all possible, but the email
interface to Discourse is markedly worse than a normal mailing list.
For example the message you are replying to isn’t quoted in the reply
so it can be hard to figure out who and what you are actually replying
to.

You post messages to the list by sending email to
evolution-users@lists.osuosl.org and they will reach all subscribers.

The link I sent tells you how to sign up, after which you will receive
messages posted to the list in your email feed and can reply to them in
your email client - presumably Evolution at this point but really it
can be anything.

poc

19

Thanks Patrick/Paul.
I understand more now, and I thought I was old-school (and old without the school!), but I’ve never done this or heard of it. I must have just missed it when it was the done thing. I signed up, but have yet to receive one single email. I really couldn’t make much sense of it and don’t think I could manage a discussion of complex stuff via email versus a board now. Maybe if i saw your screen (or any messages) I could make more sense of it, but having never done it, my mind is just melting down at the thought of a forum conversation going on via email! I am probably mistaken and may even agree on it being better if I could actually see it working. I will hang around for a message one day and maybe have a play!
thanks

20

It’s been a few days since the last message to the list, but here’s a
link to traffic from July 2024:

https://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/evolution-users/2024-July/thread.html

poc