Contents |
Introduction
This pages explains how to migrate your addressbooks and mail from Evolution to Thunderbird.
Addressbooks
Export From Evolution
In Evolution, choose the address book you wish to export. From the file menu choose: 'Save address book as Vcard'. This will export the currently selected address to a single vCard (vcf) file. Repeat this step for every address book you wish to export.
Thunderbird cannot directly import the vCard format, so your exported addressbook needs to be converted using one of the two methods described below.
Online Conversion
From the Help Documentation in the Mozilla Wiki:
Use an online conversion utility to convert the vCard file to an LDIF file. Open Thunderbird, select Tools > Import... > Address Book > LDIF file. Select the LDIF file that was created by the online conversion tool.
Conversion Using KAddressBook
From the Help Documentation in the Mozilla Wiki:
Open KAddressBook and click on "Import VCF file"; select the vcf file you exported. This will move all contacts into KAddressBook. Now, click on "Export" in KAddressBook and export contacts as an LDIF file.
Open ThunderBird, select Tools > Import... > Address Book > LDIF file. Select the LDIF file you exported from KAddressBook.
Preparation
Create a new mail account in Thunderbird so that you don't replace any emails in your existing accounts. Do this by selecting Edit > Account Settings > Add Account in Thunderbird.
Select Email Account and click Next. Leave identity settings as they are, click Next. Set both the Incoming Server and Outgoing Server to localhost and uncheck Use Global Inbox, continue by clicking Next. Leave the Incoming user name as it is, select Next. Change the Account Name to something relevant such as Evolution Mail.
Once the settings are created return to Edit > Account Settings and select the Server Settings option under the Evolution Mail account. Take note of the Local Directory Setting. It will be a string like "/home/yourloginname/.mozilla-thunderbird/a2ti6rsz.default/Mail/localhost". This is where all mail is stored for this account.
Now that the account is created and you know where to find it (you wrote down the path didn't you?) and you can transfer the emails from Evolution.
Transferring Mail
Open up two windows to your Home Directory. In one of the windows navigate to the path that Thunderbird has assigned for your email storage (.mozilla-thunderbird is a hidden folder, so press CTRL+H to see it). You should see some files called Inbox.msf, Sent.msf, etc.
In the other window from your home folder navigate to .evolution/mail/local This is where any locally stored mail from Evolution is placed. There are a similar set of files to what you see in the Thunderbird folder, Inbox, Drafts and so on.
Copy the files named Inbox, Sent, Outbox and Drafts from the .evolution/mail/local folder to the .mozilla-thunderbird/.../localhost folder. Click replace when you are warned that some files already exist in the folder.
If you have your mail folders organised in evolution under your Inbox there will be a sub directory called "Inbox.sbd" under the .evolution/mail/local/ directory. In that directory you will find files named the same as your folders. For any of the folders you want to move to Thunderbird select the file WITHOUT any extension and copy it to the .mozilla-thunderbird/.../localhost folder.
Open Thunderbird and you should see all your mail and the relevant folders in the account you previously created. You can keep the mail there or move it into other accounts.
See Also
Ubuntu Forums thread on migrating from Evolution to Thunderbird
Another good Ubuntu Forums thread on migrating from Evolution to Thunderbird