Archive Emails in Thunderbird Using Manual and Automated Solution

Mozilla Thunderbird is a popular desktop email client that helps users manage emails, contacts, calendars, and more. When users need to organize their inboxes or reduce mailbox size, they often want a solution that preserves important emails.

Archiving is a good option to achieve this. Thunderbird allows users to move emails from default folders to dedicated archive folders, ensuring better organization and storage without permanently deleting the messages. Therefore, in this technical write-up, we’ll explore how to archive emails in Thunderbird with complete details. So, without any delay, let’s begin the guide.

What is Email Archiving in Mozilla Thunderbird?

Thunderbird archive all emails is a process or need of the user that allows one to move or copy email messages from their inbox to a designated archive folder. This ultimately leads to a user freeing up space in their inbox and making it easier to manage their email. Hence, we can say that the process of Thunderbird archive emails locally makes a user segregate the important data and keep it aside for quick as well as long-term future needs.

Why Users Want to Archive Emails in Thunderbird?

There are various reasons available that define why users wish to archive Thunderbird emails and mailboxes. Below we have listed some of the common and main reasons that motivate users to archive emails.

• Archiving emails helps users to declutter their inboxes and reduce the number of emails displayed, which makes it easier to focus on new messages.
• Users create separate archive folders to categorize and organize their emails by date, topic, or project, making it easier to find specific emails later.
• Archiving emails helps to preserve old records and important emails that may not be instantly relevant but still require retention for compliance, auditing, or reference purposes.
• By archiving emails locally, users can free up their account storage space, especially for accounts with limited quotas or for users who receive a large volume of emails.
• Archiving emails allows users to search and retrieve specific emails more efficiently, as the archived emails are stored in a separate location and can be indexed individually in the inbox.
• Archiving emails provides a backup of Thunderbird emails, which can be useful in case of data loss or system failure.

How to Archive Thunderbird Emails Manually?

There are two different ways of Thunderbird archive all emails. However, they are very indirect and are not suggested by professionals at all. But, still to learn about them briefly, follow the methods.

Method 1: Thunderbird Archive Emails Locally Using Built-In Option

In Thunderbird, the user can also access the default archive option to quickly and easily archive Thunderbird emails. Thus, the steps for the same are as follows:

1. Start Thunderbird and find the email that you want to archive.
2. Now, right-click on it and choose the Archive icon.
3. This will create an Archive label with the year sub-label automatically.
4. And, finally, the selected email will move there effortlessly.

Settings of Thunderbird Archive Emails Locally

In a lot of cases, the user finds it complex to archive Thunderbird emails, and thus, the inaccurate archive settings are the most prominent cause of this. Therefore, to fix it, the user must follow the below mentioned steps:

1. Start Thunderbird and right-click the email ID.
2. Now, select the Settings options.
3. Further, click on the Copies & Folders tab.
4. Next, move to the Message Archive section to fix the settings.
5. After this, if you want to archive email in the local folder, choose the Archive folder on: Local Folders option.
6. On the other hand, to get the archive on the server only, select the email account option only.
7. And, this is one where you can fix the settings of Thunderbird archive all emails.

Method 2: Thunderbird Archive All Emails Using Move To

1. Open Thunderbird on your device.
2. Set up archive folders if not already done.
3. Click “Local Folder” in the left panel, then select New Folder.
4. Name the folder “Archive” and create it as a subfolder under Local Folder.
5. To archive emails, select a message, right-click, and choose “Move To” to move it to the Archive folder.

Drawbacks of the Manual Method 

• It is a very lengthy and time-consuming process.
• Not a beginner-friendly solution for Thunderbird archive emails locally.
• Because it is prone to errors, the risk of data loss and alteration is also high.
• Any inaccurate archive settings can lead to different output.

Read Also: Tips & Tricks to Save Thunderbird to Text File

1. Install and run the Thunderbird Archive Tool on your local system.
   
2. Upload your Thunderbird mailboxes using dual options.
   
3. Now, choose the required files and folders that you want to archive.
   
4. Next, select the saving option as per your requirements.
   
5. Then, specify a saving location and click “Next” to start the archiving process.
   

This method is highly reliable to archive emails in Thunderbird as it allows you to choose any local folder on your device to save your important emails safely. Additionally, if your account is running low on space, you can free up storage by archiving emails to your local drive using this expert-recommended automated software.

Features of the Thunderbird Archive Tool

• It is very interactive and has dedicated tabs as well as options for ease of use.
• This is more than just an email folder archiving tool since it has 30+ other saving options as well.
• One can not only convert Thunderbird to PST but also transfer Thunderbird to Office 365, Gmail, Yahoo, Zimbra, Exchange Server, etc.
• The tool gives 99.9% accurate results and ensures complete safety & data encryption throughout the process of Thunderbird archive all emails.
• There are file-naming and file-saving destination options that allow the user to manage the output in a more organized way.
• This tool also offers a demo edition, which is completely free of cost and allows the user to test the tool before getting the paid license.
• This software works on all operating systems and their respective editions, which makes it very versatile.

FAQs

Q1: Can I access archived emails in Thunderbird? 

Yes, archived emails remain accessible as they are stored in a separate archive folder instead of being deleted. You can search and recover them whenever needed.

Q2: What’s the difference between archiving and deleting emails? 

Archiving preserves emails by moving them to a separate storage location while keeping them accessible, whereas deleting removes emails permanently from your system.

Q3: How can I create an archive folder in Thunderbird manually? 

To create an archive folder manually, click Local Folder in the left panel, select New Folder, name it “Archive,” and create it as a subfolder under Local Folder.

Q4: Will archiving emails help with storage space issues? 

Yes, archiving emails to a local drive helps free up account storage space, especially beneficial for accounts with limited quotas or users who receive large volumes of emails.

Conclusion

In this write-up, we have discussed how to archive emails in Thunderbird with complete details. Here, we have discussed both manual and professional solutions to complete this task. However, as we have seen the manual solution comes with various drawbacks, which is not suitable for the users. Therefore, it’s a wise option to go with the professional solution to archive Thunderbird emails. Additionally, the professional solution provides a free trial version of the software for users to try the features and functionalities.