How to Save Thunderbird Emails to External Hard Drive on Mac

Written By
Amelia James

Published on
December 13th, 2021

Updated on
February 20, 2024

5 minutes Read

Mozilla group offers the open-source email service Mozilla Thunderbird. It provides various features like chat options, a newsgroup, and an RSS feed reader. Besides, it also consists of various security parameters to protect or manage the email account. Apart from the benefits, it also has some limitations like limited folder size, attachment size, and a number of accounts. When the Thunderbird mailbox size reaches its size limit, then it stops email communication. In such a scenario, users need to save Thunderbird emails to external hard drive on macOS.

In this blog, we will discover two methods to download Thunderbird emails to Mac drive. One is the manual method, which is quite lengthy, and another is the Thunderbird Backup Tool. Before proceeding further to save Thunderbird emails on mac, let’s consider the advantages of saving the emails locally.

Why Do We Need to Save Thunderbird Emails to External Hard Drives?

There are several factors due to which users want to backup Thunderbird emails on Mac. To know the factors more deeply, read this blog section carefully.

Prevents Data Loss: In case if the hackers get access to your Thunderbird mail account, they will create a lot of problems for the users. So, if you have a backup of your email account, it will save your data for future reference.
Data Deletion: Sometimes, users accidentally delete their crucial email data. In that case, having a copy of your email account data, users can restore their data effortlessly.
Enhance Performance: To increase the performance of the Thunderbird mailboxes, users want to remove their extra content from the Thunderbird profile and restore it to their hard drives.
Conversion of Data: There are several instances where users want to shift their data from one system to another and want to save their Thunderbird data on the external hard drive on Mac.

These are the reasons behind the Thunderbird email backup. Now, let’s proceed further to know the best possible way to backup Thunderbird email on an external hard drive.

Methods to Backup Thunderbird Emails to External Hard Drive

To backup Thunderbird emails on Mac, we will provide you with the best possible methods. First, we will talk about the manual method in which we use ImportExportTool, and then we will mention the direct automated method.

Method 1: Using Thunderbird Adds-On ImportExportTools

In this method, using the add-ons option, users can export the Thunderbird mailbox items to the local folder on macOS. Follow the step-by-step process to know-how.

Download the Mozilla Thunderbird application on your macOS.

Navigate towards Display the Thunderbird menu and click on Add-ons & Themes.

Now, search the ImportExportTools and Press the Add to Thunderbird button.

Click on the Add button to add the importexporttools.

After that, close the Thunderbird application and again restart it.
Then, right-click on the inbox on the left pane and select the ImportExportToolsNG and expand it.

Select the Export all messages in folder option to choose the EML format.

In the next step, select the file location from the system and then press the Open button.

At last, all the Thunderbird emails will be restored on your macOS.

Using the above method, users can save and view their Thunderbird emails on the Mac operating system. However, manual methods require some technical expertise and quality time to perform. So, if the users need to save Thunderbird emails to an external hard drive, then they can opt for the professional software i.e. suggested by experts.

Method 2: Automated Solution to Transfer Emails from Thunderbird to Hard Drive

MacSonik Thunderbird Email Backup Tool is specially designed software to backup and restore Thunderbird mailbox items to the external hard drive on Mac. The software allows the users to backup Thunderbird emails to PDF, PST, TXT, PNG, JPG, MSG, HTML, GIF, etc. Also, this utility enables the users to migrate their Thunderbird mailboxes to Office 365, Gmail, Live Exchange, Zoho Mail, and many more webmail clients.

Steps to Transfer Emails from Thunderbird to Hard Drive

Download and Run the MacSonik Thunderbird Backup Tool.
Tick the displayed Thunderbird mailbox items that you need to backup.
You can Preview emails, including attachments in the software wizard.
Tap the Next button and choose the PDF format from the given drop-down.
Click on the Path to Save button to choose the location for saving emails.
Finally, hit the Convert button to initiate the backup process.
Last, you can download your backup report by clicking on the Download Report button.

Key Features of Thunderbird Backup Tool

The software allows the user to migrate Thunderbird emails to Gmail, Hotmail, IMAP, AOL, Amazon Webmail, Office 365, Yandex Mail, etc.
It also converts Thunderbird emails to PDF, PST, OST, DOCX, TXT, JPG, MSG, HTML, MHTML, etc.
This utility removes duplicate emails from the mailbox based on to, BCC, subject, body, and received date.
It maintains the hierarchy of the folder as it is throughout the conversion process.
Users can opt to remove attachment files from the backup and migration process.

Also Read: Export Contacts from Thunderbird to CSV on Mac

Conclusion

In the above post, we have explained the best possible method to save Thunderbird Emails to external hard Drive. However, the manual process is having some limitations due to which we recommend users opt for the professional Thunderbird backup tool that backs up the entire Thunderbird data to multiple file formats and email clients. Also, users can check the working of the software by downloading the free trial version of the software, and if it meets the user’s requirements they can purchase it.