Win 10 - Mail System

[101RRS]

Ok I have migrated from a 2010 HP Win 7 system that used Windows Live Mail to a 2018 Lenovo Win 10 system with no mail system selected as yet.

When I got the old HP I had a Toshiba Satellite running XP and using Outlook Express as the mail system. I liked Outlook Express but lost all the emails because it was not compatible with Win 7 - I suppose I could have worked something out but it was just too much hassle.

With Win 7 I hated Windows Live Mail at the start but I have been using it for 8 years and it has grown on me. Now I understand that Windows Live Mail is not compatible with Win 10 (why does Windows do that - upgrade the Mail system so it will suck in all you old stuff).

So I have no issue going to a different mail system but I must be able to migrate my old emails and email file structure over to a new mail system and be able to use them.

So given the above what are the Mail system options? Win 10 Mail system? which I understand is a cutdown system and will not suck in my old data.

I am familiar with Outlook having used it at work and other places. Also I have Office 2010 on my system so have Outlook 10 already on my system.

Open to other options but your pet email system must be able to suck in my old data - emails, contacts, email folder structure etc - also no cloud stuff - I want things to stay on my laptop.

Thanks

Garry

[Graeme]

I installed Windows Live Mail 2012. I can send you the install file if needed. 130mb.

Edit. It imported my mail data from Win7's Outlook Express.

[incisor]

outlook 2010 has know issues in windows 10 :p

most of the features work fine but some are broken.

a little light reading for you on importing live mail into outlook 2010

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/980534/export-windows-live-mail-email-contacts-and-calendar-data-to-outlook

the builtin windows mail program is an abomination

there are other options but it can be a fair sort of muck around geting live mail data into them

have fun....

[AK83]

Thunderbird! [thumbsupbig]

you can make it a simple or complex as you like.

[p38arover]

I use Outlook 2010 with Win 10 Professional. I'm familiar with Outlook as I used it for years at work. Importing (on an earlier Outlook) from Outlook Express was dead easy.

Never had any issues with it until I tried to do something with synching it with iCloud (I can't remember exactly what it was). That totally screwed up the address book.

[speleomike]

Hi


Thunderbird! [thumbsupbig]
you can make it a simple or complex as you like.

AK83 has the right answer. Thunderbird stores the emails in the standard "mbox" format which has been around for 30 years. Compare that to Outlook which uses Microsoft's proprietary database format. An mbox format mail file can be copied from system to system , operating system to other operating system, and it can even be viewed and searched without a mail reader. It can be archived and read years later without any special software.

Mike

[donh54]

Thunderbird! [thumbsupbig]

you can make it a simple or complex as you like.

I've used Thunderbird for yonks. Does everything I need. Like anything new, there'll be a small learning curve, but it's worth it! [thumbsupbig]

[101RRS]

Thanks for all that input - Thunderbird would seem to be the choice.

I have googled the process of importing Windows Live Mail and seems pretty straight forward - is that the reality or are there gremlins in the process that are not highlighted.

I have googles Thunderbird but did not see much independent views on its functionality. I assume that Thunderbird will do the basic functions that I require, which are send and receive emails (Tpg and Gmail) with inbox/outbox/sent folders and the ability for me to create local folders of my choosing. In addition does it have a usable contacts folder.

Thanks

Garry

[123rover50]

Like you, I have just got a new computer with windows 10. Its a HP gone from my old Lenovo with 7. I had live mail on it and have Thunderbird on the new one.
Interested to read the replies as I can only find an Archive button that saves emails to one file. I cant see a way of making different folders like live mail had.

Keith

[DAMINK]

THUNDERBIRD FTW!!

Generally speaking dont use any of windblows built in tools apart from the OS. Firewall, AV, Email, Players, Burners etc etc. All crap on windows and there are better free programs available IMO.

Just Right Click on the email account and it will show NEW FOLDER in thunderbird.

I use thunderbird to collect all my emails. From domains, free providers like gmail, hotmail etc. All of them come together in an easy to read place.
A plesent tool to use. Never had issues with it.

[AK83]

..... with inbox/outbox/sent folders and the ability for me to create local folders of my choosing. In addition does it have a usable contacts folder.

Thanks

Garry

Yeah, it's called Address Book. Can sync with your phone contacts too. Not that you want phones numbers stored in an email client, but it's a good way to have backups too.

I use the Calendar feature very heavily now. So I set up T/bird to view the Calendar. My main use for the calendar is to mark my work shifts, they change all the time, I sometimes get cancelled, etc, etc so it's handy having the calendar as a sort of diary for work, as well as personal stuff.
So I set up a couple of Google calenders for he ability to sync on the mobile too.
I found that using Google Calendar directly was a PITA, and I hate the way it displays, and MS's calendar both on Outlook and the Calendar app in Win10 are pretty useless too.

And for backup I use a program called MozBackup.

Note that over time saving(or archiving mail) does build up some half decent bits and bytes!
I originally came from Eudora(mail client) and I or it lost some mails from work with my pay invoices.
So, tried Tbird, looked good enough, transferred mails easily(which is will also do from any Outlook based system too) I think either before or about '07, so been using Tbird for 10+ years now.
Obviously a lot of email nowadays is primarily junk, but some are keepers(eg. I still have my pre '07 Oziexplorer registration email confirmation).
All those saved/archived mails take up space, even tho the email itself is only a kB or two, the attachments will bloat it. So my current Tbird profile sits at about 3.5Gb, 3.1G of which makes up the archived mails.

All the important profile data is saved in your User/roaming/tbird folder, in there will be a folder with a weird cryptic naming convention eg. Zyx46tJlifX .. or something weird.
All the T'bird data is in here. You could archive just that cryptic folder itself, but as said over time it's size will be quite large.
MozBackup does enough to compress that saved data down to approx half that size(or less).
So as you move your PC needs from one device to another and you stick with Tbird; you install Tbird(DON'T OPEN it tho) just have it installed and before you use it restore the backup via Mozbackup.
I you do a manual folder dragging backup and restore it the same way, you need to open Tbird, allow it to create a profile, then add the profile folder you saved back into the newly created appdata directory.
Once done, you then change profile within Tbird and you're good to go again.

[123rover50]

THUNDERBIRD FTW!!

Generally speaking dont use any of windblows built in tools apart from the OS. Firewall, AV, Email, Players, Burners etc etc. All crap on windows and there are better free programs available IMO.

Just Right Click on the email account and it will show NEW FOLDER in thunderbird.

I use thunderbird to collect all my emails. From domains, free providers like gmail, hotmail etc. All of them come together in an easy to read place.
A plesent tool to use. Never had issues with it.

Thanks. I will give it ago. I cant give thanks because my thanks button does not work on this new computer with W10 on Chrome but it will if I open with firefox
Keith

MMM OK I made a new folder, now how do I get the mail I am looking at into it.
I still only have the archive option? with reply , junk, delete and more.

[101RRS]

Keep on asking the questions [thumbsupbig].

I am going to download Thunderbird tonight so will most likely have the same questions as you.

Garry

[DAMINK]

To move an email to a specific folder you would do the following.

Right Click Move To..... (Navigate to your inbox then your new folder).

Just tested and works fine mate.

Here is an UNEDITED pic lol.... Oops but who cares right??

144207

[101RRS]

Ok - downloaded Thunderbird but it will not set up my mail account - says the password is wrong. But what I entered is correct as it works to open my mail account at my ISP - so not sure where to from here - if it does not recognise my mail and password then there is little point trying to use it.

[DAMINK]

Ok - downloaded Thunderbird but it will not set up my mail account - says the password is wrong. But what I entered is correct as it works to open my mail account at my ISP - so not sure where to from here - if it does not recognise my mail and password then there is little point trying to use it.

Different email providers work differently sometimes.

Here is a link that may help.

Manual Account Configuration | Thunderbird Help (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/manual-account-configuration)

[101RRS]

Thanks but it is not the account configuration that is the issue - it recognises my ISP etc but will not accept my ISP password - I think the issue is that Thunderbird thinks the password is linked to my email address but it is not - it is linked to my ISP username. Thunderbird asks for my email then the password - that is not how my ISP works - to enter my ISP mailbox I enter my Username and Password - not email.

[101RRS]

After a few goes at the loading stage using the recommended setup button it still would not accept my password for the mail account so I uninstalled it and tried a custom install to my D Drive and it worked. In the recommended install it places the program on the Windows C drive with no options. With the custom setup I could place the program on D drive with all my other programs and now it works.

It sucked in all the inbox messages for the last 45 days from my ISP and I sent a message to myself from my phones Gmail account so it is receiving emails. I have found the outbox, trash and sent folders.

What is odd is that it has all the folders from my computer windows explorer listed down the left the Thunderbird main page - not sure how i get rid of them - am reluctant to just delete them in case it actually removes them from the computer.

So it is basically installed and running in a basic fashion - just need to read into how to set it all up, get rid of Windows Explorer down the left side and import emails and contacts from my old Win Live mail.

Thanks for the help - no doubt I will have more questions as I get used to it.

Garry

[AK83]

....
It sucked in all the inbox messages for the last 45 days from my ISP and I sent a message to myself from my phones Gmail account so it is receiving emails. I have found the outbox, trash and sent folders.
....

Your Gmail, is not your phones Gmail account, it's your Gmail account. I recommend you also set T'bird up to access that account too.
The whole point of a PC based email client, is that it helps manage all your email accounts(assuming you have multiple)


....
What is odd is that it has all the folders from my computer windows explorer listed down the left the Thunderbird main page - not sure how i get rid of them - am reluctant to just delete them in case it actually removes them from the computer.

So it is basically installed and running in a basic fashion - just need to read into how to set it all up, get rid of Windows Explorer down the left side and import emails and contacts from my old Win Live mail.

...

Now that is weird!
I've been using Tbird for a about 10 years or so now, and it's got better every few updates(like the calendar), but I've never seen that.
The folder list on the LHS should be of your email directory setup.

eg. you set up your email accounts whether that's one, or in my case 5 of them.
Up top of the list is the actual email account folders inboxes all setup under the inbox folder. then for each of the email accounts, it places all the draft, templates, sent archives, junk, trash folders for each account into those main headings.

So bascially, if you click on one of those main top folders, for example inbox heading, it then shows you all the mail in all the inboxes for each email account. If you open the inbox main heading, you should see each of your email accounts, and you can click on an individual account name and see just the emails in that inbox.
Same goes for all the other main headings.

All that info, which leads up to the Local Folders item are all your internet based email data.

Local Folders is where all your locally stored data is placed.
If you click on Local Folders you're viewing any locally stored data.
I reckon what you've done is set the Local Folders directory structure to be one of your drives or something.
The Local Folders is simply where you want to 'archive' all your emails that you want saved.

eg. I have many emails I keep as they contain important info such as program keys, and log in details or whatever. most of my email just gets dumped completely(it'll be junk).

So rightclick the Local Folder icon and go to settings. In the new window look for the Local Directory: path setting, and hit browse. You can browse to whatever location, my guess is that yours is set to C:\ or something.
Wherever you set to to via the browse feature just remember this is where all your stored emails will end up going too.
The default location will be User\username\Appdata\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles \<long-cryptic-string-name> .. but you don't have to store emails there.
You could just as well set up an Saved Emails folder in your documents area or whatever.

And like you said, don't delete nothing it may almost certainly delete stuff you don't want too.

Once you set up the Local Folder correctly and to your liking, rightclick the Local folder again and select create folder.
It now creates a new sub folder under the local folder. This is probably the best way to store emails, It can get convoluted if you have multiple email accounts, but it's worth it.
Basically this is like your windows directory, you can create fdolers as you wish.
eg. I have Home bills folders. I have Business folders. eg. Home invoices - Bills. All my emails from power/gas/rates/etc .. all get stored here. Every now and then(basically every other Eon!) I then clear them all out once I feel safe that billing company hasn't screwed me over on some issue.

and so on.

So when a new email comes through to your Tbird, it starts off 'on the internet' ina manner of speaking, and you first see it in the inbox under the mail account you're using.
From there, you want to either delete it or store it. To store it just drag it into the new folders you created under the Local Folders area.


Hope that makes sense.

[101RRS]

Hi Arthur - the only reason I have a Gmail account is because it was needed in my phone setup - I do not use it and the only messages that come into it are from google. I will not be connecting it to thunderbird.

Attached is a screenshot and you can see that Windows Explorer folders are all listed down the side along with email local folders, inbox etc.

I can delete the folders to leave the email folders but I am not sure whether I am just deleteing the folders from Thunderbird or from the entire computer - I will do a test later to see. (Edit - just tested the folders do go from Thunderbird and not the main computer but when you restart Thunderbird they all come back.)

144230

Ps - Arthur not visible in this pic are the local folders at the bottom, so the Windows Explorer folders are not in the the Local Folders section - this is how Thunderbird set things up as installed I have not touched or changed anything. I guess that somewhere in the system there is a check box that says include Windows Explorer folders that is part of the default settings but I cannot find it.

[AK83]

Very weird!

Try this in Tbird.

in the toolbar, look for Tools-> Account Settings.
Scroll down(LHS pane) to Local Folders. click on that.
on the RHS now, look for the Local Directory setting which shows you the directory string where the local folders are located.

For whatever reason, it seems that it got set to be your username(eg. Garry) under the User directory on the C drive.

On that directory string hit the browse button.

Now because you've set your user data to be non Windows standard, you have to locate the User/< your username, which I assume is Garry??>\AppData\ Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<cryptic folder name for profile.default>\Mail\Local Folders

The named bits in between the <> are the variables that will be specific to your installation.

eg. for my situation I have for <'your username'> Arthur
and for the cryptic Profile name mine has been set to 198bt2gu.default Why that default profile name is unknown that's what Tbird setup for me.

So as a guess for your situation, I'd say you sent your User Data to be on the 500Gig (possibly) D drive?
Look for the AppData path in there maybe.

Either way, where ever your AppData path is, the important part of it is the last couple of paths of the directory .. ie. the \Mail\Local Folders section.
This is where Tbird stores and archives all your mail that you saved to the PC.

Becasue I have 5 mail accounts that I use, my LHS folder/email structure looks very different to yours, as you only have one mail account to manage.

Here's a screen shot of how it looks on my Tbird interface

144235

Everything below the Local Folders, I created to separate the emails of various topics. rightclick on the area you want a new folder in, and choose new folder or sub folder kind of thing

eg. you see I have Business - Vodaphone- 3! folders where I've kept my mobile phone invoices. ATO rules require you keep business invoices for 7 years, and in a few years I no longer need to keep those records.
If I just kept them all in the one archive space, I have to then search/filter for them amongs the myriad of other emails when the time comes to clear them out.
This way I just delete the entire folder as is, as it's no longer required.

I'd say because you located your User data on the other drive, T-bird may have misunderstood where to keep it's record keeping structure or whatever.
This is why it's important to fully understand how a program installs itself when tweaking to a specific requirement.

If you look in the AppData folder for the Tbird mail structure, it's not a folder structure as Windows Explorer directory that we understand.
It's all .msf files, and .dat files and other cryptic stuff, basically internal Tbird settings files. Tbird just displays the folder structure to me in the Tbird interface window ..

Something else to be mindful of.
If you uninstall Tbird, for example to correct the Local Folders issue you got. It doesn't delete the emails you currently have on your PC now. It still leaves them all on the email server on your ISP too.
Tbird has a setting to configure if you want to leave the emails on your ISP server for a few more days(I think 2 weeks is the default), or if you delete them via Tbird, it then deletes them off the ISP server too.
You can configure this if you want/need too.

But if you reinstall Tbird again in the same way you did the first time, and you don't remove the Profile, it'll just do the same thing.

[101RRS]

Hi Arthur I really appreciate your efforts to assist - I thought Thunderbird was basically install and go but it would seem this is not so.

I uninstalled Thunderbird and reinstalled it on c drive and got exactly the same problem. The computer folders are installed under my email along with the inbox, send, drafts and trash not under local folders. I went into the menus that you suggested but no change.

It shouldn't be this hard [bigsad].

So I have uninstalled Thunderbird and gone with Outlook.

Thanks for your efforts - I really appreciate your help.

Thanks

Garry

[DAMINK]

Hi Arthur I really appreciate your efforts to assist - I thought Thunderbird was basically install and go but it would seem this is not so.



Your not having luck for some reason mate.
I just installed linux mint on my main pc (getting bored of windows) and got thunderbird running in about 30 seconds which is how long it should take to install from scratch.
Put your credentials in and done.
As to folder structure etc, i thought thunderbird downloaded that from your email provider meaning if you use lets say gmail and in gmail you have made 20 extra folders then when you install thunderbird and log in it should show said folders.
I dont know if this works for all email providers but it does for the ones i have tried which are gmail and my private servers.

If you have other email accounts try add them to your thunderbird setup. Gmail, live and all those ones if you have them and see if there is any difference.
Finally go to your email supplier directly and try change things there to see if thunderbird sticks.

Good luck man. It must be frustrating.

[AK83]

....
As to folder structure etc, i thought thunderbird downloaded that from your email provider meaning if you use lets say gmail and in gmail you have made 20 extra folders then when you install thunderbird and log in it should show said folders.
.....

Yeah it does that.
But Garry had trouble with the Local Folders structure.
The Local Folders directory was set to a strange location.

[101RRS]

Yeah it does that.
But Garry had trouble with the Local Folders structure.
The Local Folders directory was set to a strange location.

Not quite so - Local Folders setup fine with nothing in it except duplicating inbox etc - I did not create any folders and none were there - it was the folder structure under my email at the top that had sucked in my Windows Explorer folders.

Any way is all academic now as I installed Outlook and is working fine - straight forward installation.

Thanks for all the input has been very informative.

Garry

[101RRS]

Now using Outlook 2010 for my email and is working fine and no real issues.

However MS in their wisdom seem to be wanting people to use MS Edge as their default Web Browser and email system. Now happy with Firefox as my default web browser and Outlook 2010 as my email system.

However - when I click on an email address in a webpage, Win 10 does not open Outlook my default email system but opens MS Edge which I dont want.

So how do I tell Win 10 that when I click on an email address I want it to open in Outlook not MS Edge.

Thanks

Garry

[Graeme]

Go to 'default programs' and change as needed.

Sorry - default APPS these days.

[101RRS]

Well that was easy - thanks all fixed [bigsmile1]

garry