2 Fast Ways to Export Your Thunderbird Email & Profile

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A step-by-step guide to saving Thunderbird Mail as individual files and backing up your profile

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: January 8, 2024 Fact Checked

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• Exporting Mail Only
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• Exporting Your Profile
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• Video
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• Tips

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If you want to back up Thunderbird Mail, it's easy. You can export individual messages and folders or your entire Thunderbird profile as a backup. Read on to learn how.

Things You Should Know

• To export Thunderbird mail, select the messages you want to export, right-click or control-click the selection, click "Save as," then choose a folder.
• To export your profile (all mail, calendar, and settings), go to ☰ > Tools > Export > Export, select a folder, then click "Save."
• Exporting email messages saves them as EML files you can import into other mail apps. Exporting your profile backs up all data in a Thunderbird-only format.

Steps

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Exporting Mail Only

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1. 1
   Create a folder on your computer for your exported messages. If you want to export one or more email messages from Thunderbird, you can save them to a new folder as EML files. EML files are easy to import into most other desktop email apps (including Outlook and Apple Mail) by simply dragging and dropping them into a folder in the email app.

   • Whether you're on a Windows PC or Mac, right-click (or control-click) the desktop, select New Folder, enter a name for the folder, and press Enter or Return.
2. 2
   Select the messages you want to export. Click a folder in the left panel, then highlight the messages you want to export.

   • To select all messages in the folder, click one of the messages, then press Ctrl + A (PC) or Cmd + A (Mac) to select all.
   • To select multiple messages (but not all messages), hold down Ctrl (PC) or Command (Mac) as you click each message.
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3. 3
   Right-click (or control-click) the selection and choose Save as. This opens your computer's file browser.
4. 4
   Select the new folder click Select Folder or Choose. This exports the selected Thunderbird messages to the folder.

   • You can now repeat these steps to export mail from other folders.
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Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Exporting Your Profile

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1. 1
   Click the hamburger menu and select Tools. The hamburger menu is the three horizontal lines at the top-right corner of Thunderbird.

   • Use this method to export all your Thunderbird mail, address book(s), calendars, and settings to a ZIP file. This is a great option if your goal is to back up Thunderbird.
   • If you're backing up the files, you may want to connect a flash drive or external hard drive to your computer now.
2. 2
   Select Export. This opens Thunderbird's profile export tool in a separate tab.

   • The Export tool will only work if your Thunderbird emails and other information are less than 2 GB.
   • If the folder is larger than 2GB and you're unable to export it:
     • Click Open profile folder on the Export screen.
     • Select everything in the folder by pressing Ctrl + A (PC) or Command + A (Mac).
     • Press Ctrl + C (PC) or Cmd + C (Mac) to copy the entire selection.
     • Open the folder you want to save the files to. You can create a new one by right-clicking or control-clicking the desktop (or another location) and selecting New Folder.
     • Press Ctrl + V (PC) or Cmd + V (Mac) to paste the copied files.
3. 3
   Click the Export button. This opens your PC or Mac's file browser.
4. 4
   Select a folder and click Save. This exports all mail and other Thunderbird data to the selected folder.

   • If you want to import the exported profile back into Thunderbird (either on the same computer or a different one), click the hamburger menu and go to Tools > Import.
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Tips

• If you're planning to reinstall Windows or macOS, it's best to export your profile instead of individual email messages.
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• To import an EML file into another mail app, open the mail app, enter a folder or mailbox, then drag and drop the EML file directly into the app.
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