# Thunderbird email file format

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbird-email-file-format/295134>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 18, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbird-email-file-format/295134 "2005-03-18T14:05:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbird-email-file-format/295134/1 "2005-03-18T14:05:31Z")

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Does Thunderbird use industry-standard “mbx” email files like Eudora and Netscape? My girlfriend is not happy with Eudora (seems glitchy under Windows XP) so I thought we’d try her on something else. Can I just throw her Eudora mailbox files into the folder containing Thunderbird’s mailbox files and expect Thunderbird to see them?

Alternatively, does it import from Eudora?

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**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbird-email-file-format/295134/2 "2005-03-18T14:19:13Z")

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I believe it’ll import from just abuot anything

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**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbird-email-file-format/295134/3 "2005-03-18T14:29:30Z")

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Yes, TBird uses the standard mbox format. You don’t even need to import, just copy a file in mbox format into the directory that’s your mail folder, and that file will show up as a new folder containing your messages (do this while TBird isn’t running). You may want to rename the file, because the file name will be your new folder name. TBird will also create an index file to help it keep track of what’s in that file and what is marked read, important, etc.

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**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbird-email-file-format/295134/4 "2005-03-18T16:11:41Z")

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I was hoping such would be the case. Excellent!

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**Author:** ![lostinspace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@lostinspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lostinspace)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thunderbird-email-file-format/295134/5 "2005-03-18T16:14:57Z")

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You might want to read this, from the [mozillazine.org](http://mozillazine.org) knowledge base. It explains part of what Thunderbird does when importing from Eudora:  
[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird\_:\_Attachments](http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_Attachments)