Crediting the Calmail team for these instructions and adding MCB Help wording and pictures.
For the best Eudora to Thunderbird migration results, follow these detailed instructions:
1. Pick a time to perform the migration that allows enough time to finish all the instructions.
2. Clean up your existing Eudora mailboxes.
- Delete old messages that you don't need.
- Deleted messages are just moved to the Trash mailbox. You will need to empty the Trash. Go to the Special Menu to Empty Trash when you are finished.
- Review the files in your attachments folder. Remember that with Eudora, depending on your settings, the attachments may remain on your computer in an attachments folder even after you delete the original message. Attachments "orphaned" this way will not be imported into Thunderbird (but they will remain in the attachments file on your computer).
- Organize your folders to make older messages easier to find. This is best done by creating archives of the older years of your in and out mail boxes. Within Eudora go to Window/Mailboxes and click on new mailbox. Call it Archive_Inbox_2006 and transfer all mail before 2007 to that new mailbox. Do the same with your Out box.
- Check the names of all your mailboxes. Mailboxes and folders with non-standard characters will not import and should be renamed first. Avoid spaces and any punctuation other than a dash or an underscore.
- Compress your mailboxes by opening each mailbox and clicking on the set of numbers in the lower left side of each mailbox.
Click on the group of 3 numbers in the lower left hand corner and the last number should become zero.
3. Run a full virus scan on the Eudora mailbox folder and the attachment folder. This is critical since the import process may fail if Symantec (your virus software) quarantines either the mailbox or the attachment during the migration process.
- Go to Applications/Symantec Solutions/Norton Antivirus.app and start Norton.
- Select your Eudora Folder under the Fileview heading and click Scan/Repair.
4. Create a COPY of your Eudora Folder. Select your Eudora folder and then go to File Menu/Duplicate. This will rename it 'Eudora Folder Copy' so it won't get imported in addition to the original. You should move it to another location to prevent confusion later .
5. You are now ready to install Thunderbird and configure it. Most former Eudora users have their account set up for POP. If you are thinking of switching to IMAP, read this page for clarification. Follow these CalMail instructions to setup your Thunderbird POP account. Or if you have an IMAP account follow these CalMail instructions .
6. To properly import all your mailboxes, attachments and address book and to retain Priority (High, Low, Normal), Labels (To Do, Important, etc.), and Status information (unread, forwarded, etc.), you will need to use Eudora Mailbox Cleaner. Migrate your email files from Eudora to Thunderbird following these instructions, with credit to Sarah Jones of the CalMail team.
Note: You will NOT be able to import filters into Thunderbird.