How to Migrate Office 365 to Thunderbird with All Data?

A mid-sized company owner once enquired, “What is going to happen if I discontinue paying for Office 365? Will I be losing all my emails forever?” This kind of fear encourages many people towards a safer email program, and then they search for a reliable process to migrate Office 365 to Thunderbird.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Thunderbird provides safer offline email access unlike Office 365.
• Unfortunately, O365 doesn’t provide a direct Thunderbird export option.
• Manual migration mostly proves to be risky, and it is too lengthy.
• The professional tool guarantees safe migration in almost all types of such migrations.
• The choice for the most ideal migration way is based on your mailbox size.

Many people these days wish to gain better control over their emails, so they are most likely to settle for a desktop-based email platform. This is the reason why many O365 users plan to migrate Office 365 to Thunderbird. Here, in this blog, we will be discussing why such a migration is required anyway, the issues faced by users, the manual process of doing this migration along with its fallbacks, and how a professional tool makes the whole process so much safer & reliable!

Wondering Why to Migrate Office 365 to Thunderbird?

Office 365 happens to be a productivity suite providing advanced features to help businesses. This tends to be a cloud-based service, wherein users can access from any of the devices.

Thunderbird, on the other hand, happens to be a desktop email client, allowing users to manage their emails, contacts & calendars.

Both these email programs are totally different from each other. But, many people wish to migrate Outlook 365 to Thunderbird for attaining better access and gaining more offline control.

Many users have similar types of queries, as given underneath:

Q: How to move my Office 365 emails to Thunderbird in a safe way?
A: You can either make use of the manual migration method or check out a professional tool for having a much safer process.

Q: Can Thunderbird work with Microsoft 365 emails?
A: Yes! Thunderbird supports O365 through proper configuration as well as correct migration steps. Picking a professional tool can never go wrong in any case.

Can We Directly Migrate Office 365 to Thunderbird?

Microsoft 365 tends to work in a fully online mode, while Thunderbird happens to be a desktop email client. The real issue starts when some people wish permanent offline email access, local email storage, or a free mailing platform. People usually struggle as O365 doesn’t give any direct export option that’s compatible with Thunderbird. Such a gap encourages people to look for options to transfer Office 365 emails to Thunderbird reliably with no loss of any folder and/or email attachment.

Useful Statistics

As per Microsoft’s official blog & Statista, Office 365 had more than 345 million paid seats internationally in the year 2023. Concurrently, Thunderbird reports millions of active desktop users globally. This indicates a growing trend where people combine cloud services with local desktop-based email clients for more flexibility & greater safety.

Read a Real Case! 

A certified freelance consultant had been managing multiple clients. He required offline access to his emails while traveling, which was the demand of his work.

He said, “As a freelance consultant, losing access to any of my emails can really make me lose crucial projects, which means losing my bread and butter.”

Thus, many such freelance professionals and other individuals too choose to migrate Outlook 365 to Thunderbird for staying productive always, wherever they are!

Sounds Familiar?

When Should You Migrate Outlook 365 to Thunderbird?

Before looking at the migration process, let us check the scenarios where people have to move their Office 365 email data to Thunderbird:

• While switching from a paid email client to a free email platform.
• When internet connectivity is mostly unstable.
• When long-term email backup is required
• When a company closes its Microsoft 365 subscription.
• When people wish to have local email control.
• For flexibility as Thunderbird is available in Mac, Windows, & Linux OS.
• To avail the free, open-source email client.
• To reduce too much reliance on Microsoft services.

Let us now move on to the methods to migrate data from Outlook 365 to Thunderbird.

Manual Ways to Migrate Office 365 to Thunderbird

Manual migration is certainly possible but it needs technical understanding & patience.

Manual Method Using IMAP Configuration

This process involves Office 365 Thunderbird configuration using IMAP settings.

STEP 1: First, You Must Enable IMAP & OAuth2 in O365

To enable IMAP:

1. You need to sign in to Office 365’s admin center.
2. Now, click on the mailboxes option.
3. Then, you must select your mailbox, for which you wish to enable IMAP.
4. After that, you have to press the Manage email apps settings option and enable the IMAP.
5. Lastly, you should save the changes.

To enable OAuth2 (if you are an O365 admin):

1. You have to log in to the O365’s admin center.
2. Now, you must go to the Settings option.
3. Here, you have to click on Org Settings.
4. Then, you should select Modern authentication.
5. You now need to enable modern authentication.
6. After that, you must save the changes.

However, IMAP & OAuth2 are by default enabled in O365. But, if by chance, it is not enabled, then you have to follow the steps given above. Now, you can move O365 to Thunderbird using the below given steps.

STEP 2: Migrate O365 to Thunderbird

You can complete Office 365 Thunderbird setup, and then move your email data using the following steps:

1. Firstly, run Thunderbird on your device.
2. Now, go to the three bars at the top-right corner.
3. Here, click on the Account Settings >> Account Actions and Add a Mail Account.
4. After that, enter your Microsoft 365 username, email address & password.
5. Then, click on the Continue button.
6. Afterwards, choose the IMAP option.
7. Subsequently, the program will automatically sync your account.
8. Thereafter, while configuring an account, you will see a Microsoft login window.
9. Here, you can type the Microsoft 365 email ID.
10. Now, hit the Next button.
11. Next, give the password or you can even use MFA (if enabled).
12. Finally, grant permission for accessing your mailbox.

Once completing the OAuth2 authentication, Thunderbird will finish the setup procedure. Then, your O365 emails would be in your Thunderbird account that you can access. If the authentication & IMAP doesn’t configure properly or if there come any MFA conflicts, then you will not be able to connect your account.

Some Benefits of This Manual Way

You certaining get some benefits out of this process to migrate Office 365 to Thunderbird if your task is small.

• No software cost has to be paid here.
• There is direct access through Thunderbird so the process is worth giving a thought.
• This process is good for very small mailboxes.

Limits of This Manual Mechanism

You will find this method quite difficult to migrate Office 365 to Thunderbird if you have a big task at hand.

• This method just syncs email; it doesn’t transfer calendars, tasks, or contacts.
• This process takes a lot of time so you need a lot of patience for carrying this out.
• There is always a risk of data loss with such manual procedures.
• There is no guarantee of full folder sync.
• Email attachments are not likely to download properly.
• Such a process isn’t quite suitable for big mailboxes.

• You need technical knowledge to go ahead with such steps.
• There is no selective migration option given here.
• There is no automated backup option either.
• The syncing process is very slow.
• This ain’t a good approach for business users, who should avoid putting critical data at risk.

Instead of using a manual method that has so many pitfalls to migrate Office 365 to Thunderbird, you can better opt for the automated tool, which can directly transfer your email data from Office 365 to Thunderbird.

Prime Features of This Software

There are a whole lot of beneficial features of the tool, which help you a great deal.

• You will have complete mailbox export from Microsoft 365 to Thunderbird.
• Folder structure would be fully maintained.
• There is 100% surety that email formatting would be preserved.
• Big mailboxes are also supported with equal ease and reliability.
• Easy user-interface pleases beginner-level, non-technical people.

How to Migrate Office 365 to Thunderbird with Pro tool?

The process of doing this Office 365 to Thunderbird migration is very simple, just follow the steps below:

1. Download and Install: Launch this reputable Office 365 to Thunderbird migration software on your machine.
2. O365 as Email Source: Select Office 365 as the email source and then enter your Office 365 credentials and after that, login.
   
3. View & Select: On the left side, view the folder list. You can select the specific folders (Inbox, Sent, etc.) that you wish to migrate.
   
4. Saving Option: Select MBOX as the saving option and export Office 365 to MBOX, as this format is natively supported by Thunderbird.
   
5. Destination: Pick a destination path on your machine.
6. Migration: Press the Backup button to initiate the migration.
7. Import to Thunderbird: Open Thunderbird, and then use an add-on such as “ImportExportTools NG” for importing saved MBOX files.

Manual Way Lags Behind the Professional Tool 

The manual way lags behind the automated tool, for obvious reasons, as under:

FAQs: Migrate Office 365 to Thunderbird

The question-answer session is a never ending process as different people come with different questions. Here’s answering some of them.

Q 1: Give a hint about migrating O365 emails to Thunderbird with total ease?
A: Always prefer using a professional migrator if you are looking at process ease.

Q 2: Is manual migration process safe enough for Microsoft 365 emails?
A: Manual way works only for smaller mailboxes and carries many risks. So, better not go for it; choose a dedicated desktop too instead.

Q 3: Can Thunderbird save O365 emails permanently?
A: Yes! Once migrated properly, Office 365 emails can be stored locally in Thunderbird, which are going to stay there permanently.

To Summarize the Discussion Above

To have complete control, useful offline email access, and long-term email safety, you must choose to migrate Office 365 to Thunderbird using a smart tool. The professional tool will serve your purpose well!