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How to Save All Emails from Thunderbird? Easy Guide!

  Mark Regan
Mark Regan
Published: March 27th, 2025 • 6 Min Read

Thunderbird has been a popular and consistent choice for many users over the years. Thunderbird email services and features are applicable for both professional and domestic users, making it a prime voice for many people. Recently, we’ve been receiving many queries on how to save all emails from Thunderbird with complete data. Therefore, in this article we will guide our users with multiple methods, both manual and professional, to export all emails from Thunderbird smoothly and efficiently. Let’s discover the reasons for which people look to save all Thunderbird emails.

Table of Content Hide
    1. Why Save All Emails from Thunderbird
    2. Manual Methods to Export Thunderbird Emails?
    3. Limitations of Manual Methods
    4. Professional tool To Save Thunderbird Emails
    5. Quick Steps to Download Thunderbird Emails
    6. Salient Features of Professional Tool
    7. Conclusion

Why Save All Emails from Thunderbird

  • Many people fear the risk of losing emails due to accidental deletion or email client crash or phishing attacks. Hence, they prefer to save all emails from thunderbird to create a second copy of their important data.
  • Email client migration is also one of the primary reasons for which people download all emails from thunderbird to safely migrate it to another email client.
  • Exporting all Thunderbird emails is a smart way to share large volumes of emails with other, especially in an office setup, where an individual may need to share it with colleagues, support team, and other recipients.
  • Saving all Thunderbird emails can help users in organizing and searching emails easily and quickly whenever needed.
  • Some organizations may need to keep a record of all their emails for auditing and legal proceedings for which it is crucial for them to save all emails from thunderbird to a safe place.
  • Exporting Thunderbird emails to the local system provides the offline access of emails. Therefore, users don’t need to have an internet connection and can access it anytime from anywhere.

Manual Methods to Export All Thunderbird Emails

Method 1: Using Save As Method

  1. Firstly, run Thunderbird on your system.
  2. Next, select an email folder.
  3. Then, press Ctrl + A and select all emails in the folder.
  4. Now, right click and select the Save As option.
  5. Next, choose the EML format from the list of saving options.
  6. Finally, select the desired location and tap on the Save button.

Method 2: Using Add-ons Method

  1. First, open Thunderbird on your P.C.
  2. Next, go to the three-dot icon from the menu and select Add-ons option.
  3. Then, go to the search icon and type ImportExportTools plugin and further select the Add to Thunderbird option from there.
  4. Now, click on the Email Account option if you need to export all email folders, or click on the Email folder you need to save.
  5. Further, choose ImportExportTools NG option.
  6. Next, select the Folder Export (mbox)  to save all emails from Thunderbird.
  7. Lastly, choose the desired location to export all thunderbird emails.

Method 3: Using Default Location

  1. First, open the C Drive on your computer.
  2. Next, go to the Users option.
  3. Now, tap on the Users Name option.
  4. Then, go to the App Data option from the list.
  5. Further, click on the Roaming option.
  6. Next, choose the Thunderbird option.
  7. Finally, go to the profiles option and export all emails from Thunderbird to your desired location. 

Limitations of Manual Methods

  • Manual methods are slow and inefficient especially when there are large volumes of emails to be exported.
  • Manual approach involves high-risk of losing important data like attachments, embedded images, email components etc. resulting in data loss.
  • Users may experience errors or interruptions due to which they can face data corruption, which may not be easy to recover.
  • The manual methods lack the search and filter option, which means users cannot select specific emails based on certain criteria like date range, subject, email address etc.
  • Users may lose their folder structure and email formatting as original as manual methods doesn’t guarantee to keep the content intact as before.
  • Users with no technical background may experience multiple complexities in exporting Thunderbird emails as the process is technical and may lead to human errors.

Save All Thunderbird Emails Using The Professional Tool

Although there are several manual methods to export all emails from Thunderbird, however, all the methods come with major drawbacks that we discussed. Addressing all the manual issues, our software engineers have developed an automated tool to outperform all the issues of manual methods. The BitRecover Thunderbird Backup Wizard is designed to save all emails from Thunderbird to a 30+ saving format including MBOX, EML, PST, MSG, PDF, DOC, CSV and many more.

The Thunderbird email export tool can export all emails from Thunderbird including attachments, inline images, contacts, calendars, metadata etc. all at one in a single process. Users can choose individual or multiple folders to export all Thunderbird emails to their desired format.

How to Download All Emails from Thunderbird Quickly:

  1. Firstly, download and run the software on your P.C.
    run the software
  2. Next, select the email folders you want to export.
    select email folders
  3. Then, select the desired saving format from the list of options.
    select saving format
  4. Now, choose the saving location of your choice.
    select saving location
  5. Finally, press the Next button to save all Thunderbird emails.
    save all emails from Thunderbird

Salient Features of Thunderbird Email Export Tool

  • The tool offers 30+ saving options to export emails like MBOX, PST, EML, MSG, PDF, Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, Zimbra and many more.
  • Users can either choose to Select File or Select Folders to save all Thunderbird emails as per their requirements.
  • The tool ensures complete export of emails including attachments, embedded images, contacts, calendars, metadata like CC, BCC, Sender, Subject, Date and Time etc.
  • The tool preserves folder hierarchy and maintains the email formatting as original during and post the export process.
  • The tool provides multiple file naming options for users to make it convenient for them to organize and manage the exported email data.
  • Users can choose the desired location to save Thunderbird files directly from the software panel.
  • The tool is fast, quick and has a user-friendly interface for users to seamlessly and effortlessly download all emails from Thunderbird without any struggle.
  • The Thunderbird email export tool is completely safe and reliable to use. It never uploads user’s data on the server and rather processes it locally.

Conclusion

In the following article, we discussed the various factors for which users need to export all emails from Thunderbird. We provided a comprehensive guide of all the manual methods to save all Thunderbird emails. Although the manual methods are free of cost, they come with several challenges and risks. Therefore, we recommended our users with the ideal software to overcome all the manual issues and facilitate a quick and smooth export process.