[azziam]

I have been using fastmail.fm online e-mail for about 2 years. I can sync it so I can manage it through a local e-mail programming using IMAP. I want to do this so I can bring my online mailboxes into my local machine. I need to do it ASAP to avoid maxed out mailbox quotas and so I can archive old mail exchanges. I was going to set it up with Thunderbird but I remember reading in the past that T-Bird uses a proprietary mailbox format that can be difficult or impossible to migrate to another program if desired (maybe I'm just thinking back to a Windows environment). So, I thought maybe I would be better off setting up Evolution which is also listed by Fastmail as useable as a local front-end. Can someone please tell me if they know whether T-bird still is difficult to migrate from? Does Evolution use a more universal mailbox file format? Thanks...

[melodie]

Hi,

Migration problems don't come from mailbox format, but from the developers of the different mail client we use. One can easily go from Sylpheed to Claws, Thunderbird to Sylpheed, and even to Evolution : you can import and export mail boxes in the 2 classic formats (never remember the names : mh and... )

but you have to configure your mail clients again with login passwd and so on.

Choose according to your needs. If your machine can run Gnome and Evolution, use Evolution : very good tool indeed ! Calender, address book and mail all in one is very practicle to have : professional quality software.

[azziam]

Hi,

Migration problems don't come from mailbox format, but from the developers of the different mail client we use. One can easily go from Sylpheed to Claws, Thunderbird to Sylpheed, and even to Evolution : you can import and export mail boxes in the 2 classic formats (never remember the names : mh and... )

but you have to configure your mail clients again with login passwd and so on.

Choose according to your needs. If your machine can run Gnome and Evolution, use Evolution : very good tool indeed ! Calender, address book and mail all in one is very practicle to have : professional quality software.

Dang!... Thanks Melodie, I searched online some and saw that T-bird uses a regular mbox format that is compatible with most other e-mail. I guess the other main mailbox format is maildir. Whatever I read in the past maybe had something to do with compatibility with Outlook or something (never liked it, I used to use Eudora). Dunno, doesn't matter. So, I went ahead and started setting up T-bird and just got finished but I'm having problems getting some of my Fastmail mailboxes properly recognized. I may put some more effort into it and also read more about Evolution before deleting my mail from the server in case I want to change horses.

[melodie]

Hi,

One turnaround could be (if it's possible to do so) managing to send the mail from where it is now to another webmail (let's say gmail to give an exemple) and then get the mail client to fetch your mail from within the second webmail.

[azziam]

Hi,

One turnaround could be (if it's possible to do so) managing to send the mail from where it is now to another webmail (let's say gmail to give an exemple) and then get the mail client to fetch your mail from within the second webmail.

I got it almost working last night and as I dumbly hoped, it worked when I started it this morning. I didn't really expect it because I'd read of others having a similar problem between T-bird and Fastmail. It wasn't really a "migration" problem but a "subscribing" problem. All mailboxes that were subfolders of the Inbox had to be subscribed and recognized. That wasn't working at first despite following all instructions from Fastmail.fm. I still have a lot of work to do, archiving 600MB of past mail but that's why I use a lot of separate mailboxes so it is already sorted by various forums, ebay/paypal biz, Craigslist stuff, etc. Thanks for the help. I won't know for a while if everything is hunky dory but it seems to be working great.

[melodie]

I won't know for a while if everything is hunky dory but it seems to be working great.

Hi,

What does "hunky dory" mean ? I'm not "from there" you know ?

[azziam]

I won't know for a while if everything is hunky dory but it seems to be working great.

Hi,

What does "hunky dory" mean ? I'm not "from there" you know ?

Did I notice before you're in France? Sorry, I don't know enough French to tell you the best equivalent. Hunky dory is an old saying like "peachy keen" that just means everything is just great, mighty fine, or at least , very good (Would that be tres bon?)

It helps that Thunderbird is a lot like the old Eudora I used for years.