How to Import Thunderbird Email to Thunderbird In Batch?

Mark Regan
Published: August 8th, 2025 • 5 Min Read

If you are also switching Thunderbird accounts, want to take a backup in a different account, or have any other reason to import Thunderbird email to Thunderbird then this is the blog that can guide to professionally. So, there are n number of situations which make a user seek a way to export Thunderbird to Thunderbird only. Hence, to do this transfer Thunderbird emails to another Thunderbird, read this blog post, which covers everything from the reasons, prominent manual ways, professional tools, pros, cons, and more related to this query. Therefore, without any further ado, let’s dive in and explore the best method that works for you.

Reasons to Import Thunderbird Email to Thunderbird

The most commonly found reasons to export Thunderbird to Thunderbird are as follows:

The primary reason can be switching the current device or operating system.
Apart from this, taking the Thunderbird email backup in another account also makes the user transfer Thunderbird emails to another Thunderbird.
Plus, most of the users who own multiple Thunderbird accounts also want to centralize all the data and hence, choose to import multiple Thunderbird accounts’ emails into one Thunderbird account only.
Not only this, but users also do this to access and view Thunderbird emails that have been archived in their system for a longer period of time.
Moreover, users also transfer Thunderbird email to Thunderbird in order to repair corrupt Thunderbird emails.

Import Thunderbird Email to Thunderbird Manually

The conventional method to export Thunderbird to Thunderbird guides the user to first export MBOX files from Thunderbird and then import MBOX to Thunderbird account. Thus, the user can skip the first phase if they have already stored the Thunderbird emails locally on the device. Hence, the quick and easy steps of this method are as follows:

Phase 1: Save the Data from Thunderbird

Run Thunderbird and click on Tools.
Now, click on Add-ons and Themes.
Search for ImportExportTools NG and hit the Add to Thunderbird button.
Next, restart Thunderbird and right-click on the folder that you want to save locally.
Then, from the drop-down, click on Export Message As and choose MBOX format.
Further, hit the New MBOX file and give a saving name as well as a destination.
Finally, click on Save to store the transferable Thunderbird emails locally.

Phase 2: Import Thunderbird Email to Thunderbird

Once done with the first step, the user has two options depending on their import needs or situation. It includes either sharing the downloaded Thunderbird emails to another device and then installing Thunderbird on it to import them, or letting them be in the same device and then following the below-mentioned steps to do the importing process in one device only.

Open Thunderbird and right-click on the local folder.
Then, choose ImportExportTools NG and click on the Import MBOX files option.
Further, select the Individual MBOX files option from the drop-down.
Then, navigate and select the Thunderbird profile or emails you want to import.
Finally, click on Open to import Thunderbird email to Thunderbird only.

What Makes the Manual Method Unreliable?

This solution to transfer Thunderbird emails to another Thunderbird is very confusing and complex for those who are new to this email client.
Also, it is very time-consuming, which ultimately affects the user’s productivity.
In addition to this, the manual way is very prone to errors which can lead to permanent data loss.

Professional Method to Export Thunderbird to Thunderbird

As the manual method to import Thunderbird emails to Thunderbird has lots of limitations, experts or professionals choose to rely on an advanced and automated solution. Thus, they choose the Thunderbird Backup tool to perform this drill with ease and originality. This tool is easy to use, has multiple data selection modes, offers advanced filters, maintains folder hierarchy, and whatnot, which makes it the best tool for this concern. The quick steps to use this tool are as follows:

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Install the mentioned tool and run it on your device.
Then, click on either selection mode to choose the Thunderbird data you want to import into another Thunderbird account.
Further, choose Thunderbird from the list of 30+ export options.
Then, click on the browse icon and select the path of the configured Thunderbird account.
Finally, hit the Convert button to import Thunderbird emails to Thunderbird.

Note: The user has to make sure that the data to import and the tool mentioned above are downloaded on the same device for swift data selection and output generation.

Benefits of Choosing the Professional Tool

This is a complete standalone solution, which means the user does not need to depend on any external plugin, email client, or software to import Thunderbird email to Thunderbird.
It has 30+ saving options which allow the user to import Thunderbird to Outlook, PST, PDF, DOC, JPG, HTML, EML, and other formats.
This solution supports batch mode to save user time as well as maintain the folder hierarchy after import.
Attachments and attributes of the Thunderbird emails are also being supported by this software.
It gives 99.9% accurate results and even supports mildly corrupted Thunderbird emails.
By the end of the process of exporting Thunderbird to Thunderbird, the mentioned software also gives a summary report that carries the gist of the entire process.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we highlighted the different approaches to import Thunderbird email to Thunderbird. Thus, after trying the manual way and learning about its limitations, we highly recommend going for the professional tool mentioned above. The best thing about this utility is that it also offers a trial edition, which is completely free of cost and has the identical features and layouts as the licensed one, so that the user can test the tool’s efficiency. However, the only limitation is that the demo edition only supports the first 25 files of each folder.