Moving archived SMTP emails to AOS-5.1 Thunderbird

[Andrew Stephenson]

I'm still getting my system organised, so this question belongs in the "forward planning" pigeon-hole.

I need to move archived emails, some quite old, to my anticipated AOS-5.1 Thunderbird installation.  These exist as groups of files with names the same as topics covered by SMTP-form sequences within those files.  Eg: "family", "friends", "tax", "new computer".  Call these "content-files".  They may be within directories representing (eg) years: "2022", "2023" &c.  A couple of archives also have files with the same names as the content-files but oddball extensions, whose job seems to be to index the content-files.  But these are unreliable, so basically I only have sets of content-files.

Archive sources: KA9Q package, 1989-2014-ish, created when I was on dial-up with ISP Demon Internet; Apple Powerbook G4, 2005, Thunderbird; Dell Latitude, 2023, Thunderbird.

Thunderbird in both 2005 Apple and 2023 Dell has oddly limited ways of importing archives, none of which comes close to coping with ancient KA9Q stuff.  Is there an easy, tidy and reliable way of putting content-files where AOS-5.1 Thunderbird can find and index them, making them available via Thunderbird?  If the new archives can be in a partition ("E:") reserved for such materials, away from AOS Thunderbird's code, that would be even better.

[Dave Yeo]

Hi Andrew. Have no idea about KA9Q, isn't that a packet radio thing?
Generally, after you install Thunderbird and set it up and back up your profile, you might want to install the "Import Export Tools" addon, use the add-on manager or download it from https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/index-en.html and drag'n'drop the XPI on the add-ons page.
I have never done this but you should be able to import everything with the Tools-->Import menu
Make frequent backups.

[ivan]

Since these e-mails are archived material it sounds to me that you need a NAS box to store all that information.

A single NAS box with a couple of 4 Tb drives set up as a raid set would keep them safe yet still accessible if needed.  I have a couple of D-Link boxes powered via a UPS that has kept my info safe since their install on my network  during 1990 - OK, i've changed the UPS batteries as necessary since then.
The only problem I had was when I changed from ADSL to Fibre because the fibre box wanted to use the x.x.1.x subnet while my net is on the x.x.0.x subnet, and still is thanks to a little TP-Link box.
 

[Neil Waldhauer]

I've used ImportExportTools for this, but mbox and maildir formats have many dialects, so you may wind up needing to clean up your content a little bit. I was able to put a few million messages into Thunderbird at the end.

In the end Thunderbird used about 6 GB of storage for several million messages.

[Dave Yeo]

I'd suggest picking up a 1TB USB HD drive (or 2) for backup. I've found sticks too slow compared to a HD and they're fairly inexpensive now.

[ivan]

Hi Andrew,

The attached pic is of the partitions on my work machine spread over three drives drives.  Most motherboards will work with several drives attached, in fact I can also attach a couple of USB based disks (they are in usb to sata external hard drive lay flat docking stations which allows me to select which drives I want attached).