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

Comment from Pat Ridley on 2010-03-03

2010-03-03T15:17:51Z

Dear Leo

I took your recommendation and replaced OE with Thunderbird (v3), but it only received email for the first day! I suspect it has to do with supplying my password but my attempts to configure the account manually simply failed. It does seem to be broken. The Thunderbird Support pages have reports of lots of similar problems but virtually no solutions. I have reverted to OE until further notice.

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Comment from Dave duChene on 2010-02-27

2010-02-27T12:54:48Z

Would be very interested in your comments on Thunderbird 3.
I think they took a good product and broke it.

I've been pretty happy with 3. There are a couple of minor annoyances, but overall I'm just as happy as before.

27-Feb-2010

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Comment from Ken Laninga on 2010-02-23

2010-02-23T22:45:34Z

After just having moved to Windows Live Mail from Windows Mail, with TONS of problems trying to move my address book, I'm sorry that Thunderbird cannot handle the WLM addies. I'd move but for that. I hate Windows Live Mail. Nowhere near as good as Outlook Express was.

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Comment from Linda White on 2009-11-28

2009-11-29T01:54:49Z

I have used Thunderbird for years after switching from Eudora. But I have a beef with v2. When you forward an email there is now all that gobbledygook at the top that is redundant info that I know have to take the time to delete! I didn't used to have to do this and I can not find a way to shut this off. Any suggestion?

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Comment from Derek Miles on 2009-11-11

2009-11-12T05:38:17Z

Leo, I'm rather surprised that you didn't mention this photo embedding thingy in the article and then commented on by Judy Currior Jly 4th. It's important to me that pics get sent down the line in the usual O'Ex way ?

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Comment from Glenn P. on 2009-11-06

2009-11-06T21:45:28Z

Does Thunderbird do newsgroups, the way OE does???

Yes.

07-Nov-2009

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Comment from Robert Bunney on 2009-11-04

2009-11-05T05:34:17Z

I’ve recently converted 11 gigabytes Outlook Express data to Thunderbird. The conversion happened without a hitch and was quicker than expected considering the amount of email. The file structure was preserved. Some things did not come across, or came across imperfectly. For example:
+ The read/unread status of email did not come across
+ Message rules/Message filters did not come across and had to reconstructed by hand (not a big deal)
+ The account data was “imperfect” requiring some research and fiddling with all accounts before I could send and receive email. The account data for my wife’s hotmail account was way off.

In addition to getting Thunderbird up and running, there have been a variety of interface and usability issues that needed solving. Things like the emails being sent immediately instead of going to an outbox, emails written in Ariel but being sent as plain text, the option to start up in the inbox was buried and mislabeled, and Outlook identities mapping to Thunderbird profiles (Thunderbird has “identities,” but they are a very different feature than Outlook identities). And many more small issues like these. Thunderbird is working fine now, but it took some research and fiddling before everyone in the family was happy.

== Rob ==

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Comment from Bob Greene on 2009-11-04

2009-11-04T11:09:27Z

For about a decade, I have used the basic email "engine" for Thunderbird (even since it was part of the Netscape email application). TBird has been a reliable, stable email application, and these days, that makes it a prized asset.

TBird is not only very solid and easily handled, but an easily-fixed application-- not that it ever needs much attention.

What I like best about TBird is the new anti-spam ("Junk") feature, which makes life far easier than when we had to use filters for each email box. The junk filter is very good at guessing what is sales junk mail and what is subscription or other mail.

And the few times TBird's junk filter threw my good email into a junk folder, I "taught" TBird to correct its error by simply restoring the message (dragging it back to its correct folder). TBird "learns" each time I correct a mistaken junk mail identification, and becomes "smarter" every day.

The nice thing about using TBird is every user can visit one of the TBird forums (from the main menu, under "Help Contents") for free assistance from other users, many of whom are experts.

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Comment from David on 2009-11-03

2009-11-03T22:30:46Z

Used to use Thunderbird until Gmail came out in '05(?). I don't need to bother with backups, don't need to lug machines around, don't need to transfer settings and files to new machines. Now with Google Gears, all the info is also synched to my laptop so I can use Gmail/calendar/tasks/docs off-line.
All my POP3 email for my business is automatically transferred... I can't for the life of me think why I'd ever use an email client like Thunderbird/Express (uughhh)/Outlook, etc.

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Comment from Robert Funkey on 2009-11-03

2009-11-03T21:33:40Z

Thunderbird can't import from Windows Live Mail. And, Blackbury will not sync with Thunderbird. Two good reasons not to use.

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Comment from Pat Shields on 2009-11-03

2009-11-03T16:01:33Z

To Bill Nelson -
Yes you can import all your old email from Outlook Express and your Address book too into Thunderbird.

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Comment from Hugh on 2009-11-03

2009-11-03T15:16:29Z

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...

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Comment from Jenny Esk on 2009-09-21

2009-09-21T18:04:45Z

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

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Comment from doug stoddart on 2009-09-09

2009-09-09T13:47:46Z

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

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Comment from Judith Currier on 2009-07-14

2009-07-14T20:28:06Z

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

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Comment from Spengler on 2009-07-14

2009-07-14T15:54:48Z

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.

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Comment from Gary Adsitt on 2008-11-04

2008-11-05T04:20:09Z

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

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Comment from Bill Nelson on 2008-09-17

2008-09-17T07:58:50Z

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 believe Thunderbird imports from Outlook Express.

-Leo

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Comment from Leo Mayer on 2008-09-16

2008-09-16T20:32:37Z

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.

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Comment from Dave on 2008-07-24

2008-07-24T18:57:09Z

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.

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Comment from Richard Deem on 2008-07-22

2008-07-22T18:37:08Z

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

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Comment from Leo on 2008-07-21

2008-07-21T16:34:47Z

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Vincent: I *believe* that Thunderbird will import the
directory/folder structure. I would strongly suggest you
test this. It's one area where it seems like many mail
programs fall down.

Leo

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Comment from Leo on 2008-07-21

2008-07-21T16:33:40Z

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Vincent: yes. There are add-ons that allow you to download
Hotmail, Yahoo mail and perhaps others, directly into
Thunderbird. My Hotmail account is mostly spam, so I don't
use them, but I did try them a while back and they worked
well.

Leo

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Comment from Leo on 2008-07-21

2008-07-21T16:32:21Z

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Kevin: I can't speak to the mozilla dev team's
responsiveness, however:

1) I send emails with pictures all the time. As attachments,
embedded, what have you. Works great.

2) Rich text also works well, as far as I can tell. Better,
in some cases, than Outlook in my opinion.

3) Yes, the calendar falls short in some respects. I find,
though, that hooking it to Google Calendar goes a *long* way
to making it much more functional. But strong enterprise
users that rely heavily on calendaring and meeting
scheduling and the like may be better served by Outlook.

Leo

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Comment from Leo on 2008-07-21

2008-07-21T16:29:19Z

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Novice: Ziggie answered before I could. :-) I'll also point
out this article:
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_backup_my_gmail.html

Leo

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Comment from Kevin Farley on 2008-07-21

2008-07-21T15:09:43Z

I like Thunderbird, but there are a few huge problems that the team refuses to look into. (I've been on the mozdev boards). 1: try sending emails with pictures, we do this at work all the time. Doesn't work in Thunderbird. Or forwarding. 2. Cant handle rich text properly. 3. Calendar plugin is not smooth, doesn't fully replicate Outlook functionality.

I would Love to replace Outlook, as it has ~no usability. (31 configuration forms and rising, and no evolution over time with the exception of the move to unicode, thankfully no 2GB limit anymore.) Tbird is a nice start, but the development team is not anything like Firefox's team, who fix bugs with the quickness.
Cheers!

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Comment from Ziggie on 2008-07-21

2008-07-21T14:45:19Z

I use gmail's web client because it's convenient and syncs easily (as in, it's the same everywhere cuz it's web based).

But as Leo has pointed out before, what if Gmail were to go away tomorrow? What then?

If you don't care, then web based is perfect for you.

If the thought causes heart flutters, that's where Thunderbird comes in. I leave Thunderbird open on my computer simply to download and backup mail. No, it's not organized very well, if at all, but it's backed up. If gmail were to disappear I'd be inconvenienced (as it is my primary email address), but I would have all my email.

I rarely ever have to look for messages in Thunderbird. And it's nice to have it there if I need it.

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Comment from vincent on 2008-07-21

2008-07-21T11:25:38Z

Also, is there a way to transfer my entire Outlook directory structure (in outlook data files) and contacts to Thunderbird without losing any attachments etc. etc. ?

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Comment from vincent on 2008-07-21

2008-07-21T09:16:45Z

I have a hotmail account that I can access from outlook and outlook express (still from way back in the good old days ;-)
Can I access my account in Thunderbird?

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Comment from peter on 2008-07-20

2008-07-21T05:39:54Z

To be honest Leo if we compare between (thunderbird - outlook - other email clients) , thunderbird will be the first competently , But for me i prefer to use online mail service as Gmail.
Nice article leo ....
http://www.fosdir.com

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Comment from novice on 2008-07-20

2008-07-20T21:25:26Z

my question is email client versus web based access. is it necessary or better to have an email program? i use webmails and never felt the need. i have tried windows live. i like its vista look but i find web based access faster.

at least in gmail (web) i can filter items and send them to whatever folders i create. i can access such sorting from any place unlike in the case of email programs.

am i not utilizing the mail programs efficiently or do i actually not need them?

im talkin about home use. i have lotus notes at work and cant change that.

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