Forward all emails into a Gmail account

Question

I have 1600 mails (with attachments!) in the email account which will close in several weeks, therefore I need to save the mails locally.

I know I can forward a single mail, but now I'd like to forward all 1600 mails in a single step.

I'd like to export somehow this mails (including the date information, when I received the mail) into a new email account (probably I'd like to create a new email account with Gmail).

The 1600 mails (server type: IMAP) are listed in my Thunderbird program.

I've tried to find a freeware solution:

• ImportExportTools
• MailStore Home
• MozBackup

Do you know these programs? I think they will either save all mails from all mail adresses in a software or they will just save a backup file.

Because the email address will be deleted after a few weeks I'm not able to recover the mail under the same mail-account, therefore I'll create a Gmail mail account.

Additionally to saving mails in the inbox with attachement, I would also like to forward my mails in the Sent folder in the newly created Gmail account.

Do you know a simple solution how I can transfer my mails?

Answer 1

"Forwarding" is not what you want to do. Neither you need a program to migrate all your messages.

Instead, simply set up a new account in your existing Thunderbird installation with your new email account credentials, then drag & drop all emails from your Thunderbird old account to the Thunderbird new email account.

Edit: if you're using Gmail as your new email provider, it's even simpler. Via the Gmail menu option Settings / Accounts and Import you can import all messages from your old email account. I did that once to migrate an account that contained > 10'000 messages and it worked flawlessly.