Migrating to Thunderbird:
Advice from Around Campus

Pre-Migration

Migration Steps

Pre-Migration

Before you start the migration process, it's important that the end-user understands how the migration is going to affect them. Here are a few of the things we've found it important for the users to know. If you're a tech support provider, make sure you communicate these differences before you get started.

• Let's start with a biggie: Thunderbird keeps the attachment as part of the mail file, where Eudora downloaded and stored attachments as separate files. Why is this important? Deleting the mail file deletes the attachment. You need to detach the attachment or use the Save As command before deleting the mail file if you wish to keep the attachment.
• Related to the previous point, when you view an attachment from within Thunderbird (by double-clicking on it), you are looking at a temporary copy. Changes made to it are NOT re-written to the mail file, and you are very likely to lose your changes, which will make you very sad. To make changes to an attachment, either use the Save As command or detach the attachment and then make changes.
• Directory searches are performed a little differently so results may not match 100%. You probably won't notice unless you typically do complex searches. Thunderbird's directory search will not show you as much information (as many fields) in the results as Eudora did. On the other hand, Thunderbird's search is available in real-time as you address your message, which is very convenient.
• Terminology: many e-mail terms are common to both clients, but there are exceptions. For example, Thunderbird uses "accounts" where Eudora uses "personalities." It may take a little time and effort for users to get accustomed to options, preferences, and settings.

Migration Steps

(To avoid awkward language, we've phrased this section assuming you are an end user migrating yourself, but we hope tech support providers will find this information useful as well.)

1. Schedule a time that is convenient to perform the migration. Depending on the size of the your mailboxes, it could take an hour or more.
2. Clean up existing mailboxes

• Delete messages you know you won't need.
• Review the files your attachments folder. Remember that with Eudora, the attachments remain even when you delete the message they came with. Attachments "orphaned" this way will not be imported into Thunderbird.
• Organize your folders to make older messages easier to find.
• Compress your mailboxes.
• Mailboxes and folders with non-standard characters in Windows will not import and should be renamed first. Avoid spaces and any punctuation other than a dash or an underscore.

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 quarantines either the mailbox or the attachment during the migration process.
4. You may want to create an archive of your Eudora folders, in case of emergencies. This is a really good idea. Better safe than sorry.
5. If you wish to retain Priority (High, Low, Normal), Labels (To Do, Important, etc.), and Status information (unread, forwarded, etc.), you will need to use one of the migration utilities to pre-process the mailboxes. You will NOT be able to import filters into Thunderbird.
6. Verify disk space needs and availability to duplicate your mailboxes. Determine the total size of your Eudora mailboxes AND attachments. You'll need a bit more free disk space than that at a minimum. In general, operating systems hate to run short on disk space.
7. Install Thunderbird from Bear Access (at uPortal.Cornell) or the MSI provided by CIT.
8. Follow the configuration steps listed on our Configuring Thunderbird page. Then come back here.
9. Verify the mailboxes and address book migrated successfully. You'll find your imported messages in a Eudora folder under the Local Folders.
10. If you leave the messages where they are, you'll be able to see easily which messages date from before your migration. It also gives you a nice fresh Inbox to start with, which is nice. Or, you can move your messages into the folders where new mail will arrive, so that it will all be in one place. This is a question of user preference. If you use POP, your new messages will arrive in the Inbox directly under Local Folders. If you use IMAP, your new messages will arrive in the Inbox under your account name.
11. The migration is substantially complete at this point. Browse through our other Thunderbird pages and take a look at the various settings you can customize.