Thunderbird - A Free, Open Source, and Powerful Email Client

Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.

Thunderbird won't import mail or addresses from Microsoft Mail (Outlook Express replacement). Without that functionality, it is completely worthless to me.

Thanks Leo, I just tried "Thunderbird" and love it to death, I was using "OE" than that switched on me when I installed "MS Office 2007" to "Outlook" by default. I hated "Outlook", it was just to busy for what I needed, but "Thunderbird" is great, just what I need and so much faster than "Outlook" Plus being able to "POP"download my "Hotmail". Thanks again for the recommendation. One caveat tho, first time I installed it I transferred my "outlook" settings to it and had no way to put in my passwords so I had to uninstall and reinstall adding my accounts separately.

I like Thunderbird very much. Except, it won't work with AT&T/Yahoo browser. I can't seem to get any help from either AT&T or Thunderbird.

I guess I haven't been paying close enough attention. I didn't realize that "Outlook Express" is going away. When I got a new computer a couple of years ago, I also purchased Office and tried "Outlook," but quit using it after a few days and went back to "Outlook Express," which I still use. As Leo often suggests, I have Windows automatic updates turned on, but after virtually every update, it changes my email client back to "Outlook." I even tried removing "Outlook" but it still does that.

I'm trying to figure out from the above commentary about "Thunderbird" if it will import my files from OE, including the address book, or do I have to start over? I'd dread starting over, because I frequently refer back to emails that are a couple of years old. If "OE" goes away, I don't know how I'll be able to do that.

I haven't heard any mention of'windows live mail'. I like it better than OE and Outlook.

Leo - Please! - Thunderbird does not import my files from Windows Mail. Friends have the same problem from OE in XP. It just doesn't work. Please advise.

I followed to this article because I am looking for a different email program than Thunderbird. My only complaint is how it handles embedded photos when they are sent from a Microsoft program. Yes, I know, it is Microsoft's not following standards that is causing the issue, they say the picture is text, and as such Tbird is ignoring it. HOWEVER -- it is annoying as all get out and if people have written their email counting on you getting the pictures embedded even more annoying. I tried to find some way that I could change the source doc information so it would display properly. Certainly the plug in that I tried took forever to change one statement and I had about 5 to change -- not worth it.

Any suggestions?

Judy

Hi Leo,

glad to find a big Thunderbird fan out there, I've been happily using it as an alternative to OE for a few years now.

In fact I run my 3 little businesses, and personal stuff on it, and that's the reason for my question.

My wife and I share about 3 PC's for the businesses across our LAN, and I now have a shiny new NAS (synology DS209), on which to store all our files centrally. I'd also like to put our mail server on there, so that no matter what PC we're on we can work on email. Do you have any experience of setting up T-bird like this, or do you always just have your mail living on one Pc (plus backups)?

many thanks for any help,
Doug

Not sure what you mean by "mail server" in this context. I'd be reluctant to put Thunderbird's mail store on a networked location - one little network hiccup and I'm not sure how it'd react. I keep all my mail on one primary machine, and replicate that out nightly to backup locations.

12-Sep-2009

Hi Leo
I have just synced my Gmail with Thunderbird as it seems like something that should make my life much easier...it imported all my inbox however it completely ignored my labeling structure and more importantly my sent box which i really need for reference.
Any tips on what might have gone wrong/how to fix?
Thanks

Sent messages aren't downloaded by POP3. And labelling is a GMail web-only feature.

22-Sep-2009

One of my favourite features is to make my own incomming mail sound...I use a windoz sound 136 from(xp)pinball on most of my Thunderbirds...

To post a comment on "Thunderbird - A Free, Open Source, and Powerful Email Client", please return to that article's main page.