Import .pst files

From MozillaZine Knowledge Base

Microsoft Outlook .pst files use a proprietary format. Thunderbird not only doesn't understand that format, it has no idea that .pst files even exist. Thats why there is no import command that lets you browse to the location of a .pst file.

Normally you import the contents of a .pst file by setting Outlook as the default email client, and then use Tools -> Import -> Mail within Thunderbird. Thats makes SimpleMAPI calls to Outlook, which returns the contents of the personal folders (.pst) file. See this article for information on how to import from more than identity. If some of the messages aren't imported correctly a common workaround is to import the messages into Outlook Express, and then import the messages from Outlook Express into Thunderbird.

If you are running Windows there are several mail conversion utilities that support importing .pst files. However, they actually make SimpleMAPI calls just like Thunderbird does. If you just have the .pst file (and can't install Outlook on the PC) you could:

1. Install Thunderbird on another PC that has a compatible version of Outlook.
2. Make Outlook the default email client.
3. Copy the outlook.pst file to that PC and configure Outlook to use it. (may need to be in the default location)
4. Compact the .pst file using Outlooks File -> Data File Management commands to permanently get rid of any deleted messages. Don't confuse this with compressing or zipping a file.
5. Import the messages using Tools -> Import -> Mail. You can use Tools -> Import to also import the settings and address books.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 as necessary for any other .pst files.
7. Backup the Thunderbird profile. Mozbackup is a useful tool to do that.
8. Restore the Thunderbird profile on your PC.
9. Cleanup. (Uninstall Thunderbird on the PC with Outlook etc.)

Alternatives:

• If it is not practical to backup and restore a profile (perhaps one PC is using Windows and the other OSX) you could move it instead.

• If you already created a new profile on your PC you could copy the profile from the other PC to it and then import its folders using either the ImportExportTools add-on (recommended) or the Local Folders add-on. That way you won't lose anything in your new profile.

What type/version of .pst file and what version of Outlook you are using matters. You normally can't open an Outlook 2003 .pst file (it defaults to Unicode) in Outlook 2002 (which only supports ANSI). You could export it as a Outlook 2002 compatible .pst file in Outlook 2003 using the File, New, Outlook Data File command, and then choose Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders File (.pst) as the storage type.

Outlook doesn't care what the folders names are since it stores all of the folders within a .pst file. Thunderbird however stores all of the messages for each folder in a file named after the folder, so if you use characters in a folder name that are invalid filename characters it can cause problems. If you get an error message about Thunderbird being unable to create a folder you may need to rename all folders to use 7-bit alphabetical ASCII characters and try again. Another possibility is that you had two child folders with the same name under two different parent folders. Rename one of the child folders.

Thunderbird has no concept of Outlook identities or profiles so it only imports from the default identity or profile. If you have multiple identities or profiles you need to set one as the default, import it using Thunderbird, and then repeat.