Ways to Import OLM into Thunderbird
Thunderbird can do many things; importing OLM files is not one of them. It is a free, cross-platform, and open source email client from Mozilla foundation, and is primarily run by a large community. Thousands of plugins make it a versatile email program that many users have come to love. It’s unfortunate that there is still no direct support for OLM files.
For those who don’t know, OLM is a file that Mac Outlook stores or archives its data in. It’s a proprietary file by Microsoft and serves many purposes.
Thunderbird, on the other hand, uses MBOX files natively (same with Apple Mail).
So, how can one import OLM into Thunderbird when the file format is not supported? Here are some of the ways that you can do that.
Manually Export Data Using IMAP
This approach doesn’t require OLM files. You basically need a dummy email account that allows you to store your Mac Outlook data. So, first, you need an email server that provides the storage capacity equivalent to the data you need to import to Thunderbird.
Here’s how you do this:
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- Create a dummy email account that supports IMAP (Like Gmail)
- Add that account into Your Mac Outlook client.
- Drag your folders (that you want to import) into the newly created email account folder.
- This will sync/upload everything to the servers.
- When the sync/upload is done, add the same email account to Thunderbird.
- Drag all the folders inside the account folder into any local folder inside Thunderbird.
- This time it will sync/download everything from the servers into Thunderbird’s local database.
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This approach has long been discredit by experts as an efficient way to import Mac Outlook data into Thunderbird. It’s not accurate, requires a lot of time, your internet bandwidth, and the data may even be fragmented during the migration. Not to mention that if you have a really large database to export, you might not be able to find an email server that allows that much data storage capacity.
Use an in-built feature of Thunderbird
Thunderbird has an in-built feature that allows you to import data from Mac Outlook, given that you have installed Mac Outlook on your Machine. If you just have OLM files, you cannot use this technique.
Another major issue with this is that you cannot use your latest version of Thunderbird. To use an in-built feature to import olm into Thunderbird directly, you need to have a Thunderbird version 31.8.
However, unfortunately, this too is an inefficient and outdated way to get your data imported. Thunderbird frequently crashes or freezes during the importing process. You might need to go back a version or two even further if it still doesn’t work.
But the worst part is, often times Thunderbird won’t appear to have stopped importing the data from Mac Outlook when in reality it has skipped a lot of files from Mac Outlook. This results in an incomplete migration that you may not even be aware of until you check each and every single email, contact, and calendar entry manually.
Convert OLM into Thunderbird
Both techniques mentioned above have a lot more problems than it solves. Most advanced users with expertise in email migration never even go close to such manual techniques because it always results in data loss, frustration, and a drop in their productivity.
That leaves us with one final solution – converting OLM into Thunderbird. This is a modern solution that is a result of some third-party converters.
Basically, these converters convert OLM files into Thunderbird files. However, how the conversion takes place and the efficiency of the output is dependent on your choice of the converter.
Do not worry. You don’t have to dig up the entire internet to find a decent Olm to Thunderbird converter. We have just the perfect tool for you.
It’s called “OLM Extractor Pro” and is developed by USL Software.
The way it works is simple – you simply load your Olm files, choose the folders you want to convert, check other settings for finer control, choose output as “Thunderbird,” and click ‘Convert’.
This will get the tool in motion. Within few minutes, all the data from Mac Outlook OLM files will be extracted into Thunderbird database that you can then import into Thunderbird.
It works perfectly in tuned with the general users’ needs and demands. It has a simple interface that makes the job even easier, and the accuracy of data conversion is simply matchless. The tool is adept in converting even the smallest item of information into output files without any loss in the fidelity.
You can download the setup here: http://www.olmextractorpro.com. Use it in a free trial mode before getting a full version.
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Try ‘OLM Extractor Pro’ to import OLM into Thunderbird Mail Database.
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