Question

Import .PST into Thunderbird

Asked by: dgooding

Recently gave up on Windows.  Backed up all important information.  Installed Slackware.  Currently looking for a way to import my .pst files from Outlook2K3 into Thunderbird (or something else, if necessary).  I currently have no Windows machine.  

As far as I know, there is no way to directly import .pst into Thunderbird (Linux).  I found a utility that is supposed to convert .pst files to mbox format, http://sourceforge.net/projects/ol2mbox , but I can't seem to make it work.  

The end result I would like is to have my mail (.pst) imported into Thunderbird without having to install Windows anywhere.  Any ideas?  Maybe some help getting that utility to work?

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Asked On
2004-06-14 at 10:56:08ID21024960
Tags

pst

,

thunderbird

,

import

Topics

Linux

,

Linux Distributions

Participating Experts
6
Points
500
Comments
10

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Answers

 

by: PeteLongPosted on 2004-06-14 at 11:04:58ID: 11308991

well if you can persuade a friend to convert your .pst file to an eml file (in windoze) then you can convert it to mbox format with http://www.broobles.com/eml2mbox/

 

by: PeteLongPosted on 2004-06-14 at 11:08:20ID: 11309018

or (though Ive not tried this) installing netscape on the Linux box and importing the pst is supposed to convert it to an mbox file (Like I say Ive not done this myself so work on a backup of your pst)

 

by: khkremerPosted on 2004-06-14 at 14:39:30ID: 11310829

The Windows version of Mozilla (and potentially also Thunderbird) can access PST files. So if you still have access to your Windows box, just install Mozilla on it, read the PST files and copy the mails from these files to local mailbox files. Once you are done, just copy these Mozilla/Thunderbird mail files to  your Linux box. Done.

 

by: blentzPosted on 2004-06-15 at 09:10:32ID: 11316763

This may not help at all but....

If you have/had access to an IMAP server, you could open your PST in Outlook and move all the messages back up to an IMAP server. Once everything was moved off of the PST and up to IMAP, you should very easily set up Thunderbird to access all your messages from the IMAP server.

I know this isn't desirable because it requires a windows machine, but the truth is that all your super-important email is trapped in a Microsoft-propietary formatted mail file. Your only course of action may be to "go back to the lion's den" and get that email exported.

Good luck!

 

by: dgoodingPosted on 2004-06-18 at 09:44:03ID: 11346303

I suckered a friend into converting my PSTs into CSVs (I found another Util) but no luck.  Then i conviced him to convert them into MBXs, and found that Ximian Evolution imports MBX files with no trouble.  Problem solved.  I'll spread the points around soon.  

 

by: dgoodingPosted on 2004-07-01 at 06:25:09ID: 11446418

Turns out, converting to MBX, you loose alot of data.  The attachments, the timestamps, etc.  Same friend offered to upload to an IMAP server and worked great.  

IMAP is the solution, thanks blentz.

 

by: PeteLongPosted on 2004-07-01 at 09:34:25ID: 11448663

ThanQ

 

by: JasemElayebPosted on 2008-02-04 at 10:48:51ID: 20816884

 

by: d00dmanPosted on 2008-06-27 at 03:39:34ID: 21882280

what if there is no IMAP server???? is there anyway out ? what about wine? can i just install outlook 2k to resolve this issue?

using windows vista + Ubuntu linux 8.04

 

by: doug-jensenPosted on 2010-04-10 at 17:12:36ID: 30347290

PST Walker is a great way to deal with PSTs in Windows without having Outlook installed at all. I have it installed on a USB drive along with important off-line PST's, so I can read emails from those while traveling at hotels, etc. where public PC's don't have Outlook installed. I don't know how to use it to import PST's into Thunderbird.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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