Ubuntu
thunderbird package

Migrate (import) settings and messages from Evolution

Bug #975054 reported by Alexander Kallenbach
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Mozilla Thunderbird
Confirmed
Unknown
evolution (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned
thunderbird (Ubuntu)
New
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

I want to migrate to migrate from Evolution to Thunderbird, the new standard mail-application in Ubuntu. I installed the addon ImportExportTools (2.7.0.3) and have chosen the Inbox mbox in /home/user/.local/share/evolution/mail/local_mbox and imported the mails (already not really user friendly!)
But in fact I've lost a lot of my Emails. In fact I've got all my Mails up to October 2011 (I think I've updated there to Oneiric Ocelot) but mails I received and send afterwards were not imported.
I then opened Evolution again and my mail was still there. I tried to save my Inbox as an mbox-file but it seems to produce enormous files (in my sent-folder there are 1500 mails and my free available disk storage of 170 GB wasn't sufficient to store and produce this mbox). What can I do? How can I import my mails?

From my point of view there should be, after a decided change of a core application, a migration tool which makes it easy to continue to work with the hole system.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: thunderbird 11.0.1+build1-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-22.35-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-22-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 2.0-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
BuildID: 20120402171722
CRDA: Error: command ['iw', 'reg', 'get'] failed with exit code 1: nl80211 not found.
Channel: release
Date: Fri Apr 6 13:20:51 2012
ForcedLayersAccel: False
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=de_DE:en
 TERM=xterm
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 LC_MESSAGES=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=11.0.1/20120402171722 (Running)
RfKill:

RunningIncompatibleAddons: True
SourcePackage: thunderbird
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 10/16/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
dmi.bios.version: ASUS IPN73-BA ACPI BIOS Revision 0105 Targa
dmi.board.name: IPN73-BA
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: 1.XX
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 123456789000
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologies,LTD:bvrASUSIPN73-BAACPIBIOSRevision0105Targa:bd10/16/2008:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnIPN73-BA:rvr1.XX:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer

Revision history for this message
In , Kristof Vansant (de-lupus) wrote :

I would like to see it possible for thunderbird to migrate messages and
configuration from evolution 1.4.x and 2.x.

I choose all OS because evolution win32 is in the making :)

Revision history for this message
In , Rjwalsh (rjwalsh) wrote :

I guess it goes without saying, but migrate addressbooks, too.

Revision history for this message
In , Gervase Markham (gerv-mozilla) wrote :

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Revision history for this message
In , Gervase Markham (gerv-mozilla) wrote :

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.

Revision history for this message
In , P-jordan (p-jordan) wrote :

I use Fedora Core 5, with the GNOME desktop environment. Evolution is the default mail client, and is deeply integrated.

I want to use Thunderbird again, and would like to make a smooth transition to it. Unfortunately, other than a "Duct tape and bailing wire" solution found on the Internet, there doesn't seem to be any way to do this.

Revision history for this message
In , Adam Guthrie (ispiked) wrote :

*** Bug 354208 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Revision history for this message
In , towsonu2003 (towsonu2003) wrote :

(In reply to comment #4)
> I use Fedora Core 5, with the GNOME desktop environment. Evolution is the
> default mail client, and is deeply integrated.

I wish I could save the 2 hours I spent today migrating from (and dealing with incompatilbilities between) evolution to thunderbird... + time to file bugs even though this was known for 1,5 years.

Revision history for this message
In , Rod-whiteley (rod-whiteley) wrote :

*** Bug 428272 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Revision history for this message
In , Joshua Cranmer (jcranmer) wrote :

I'm going to tentatively take this patch on--I already have a prototype address book settings import working, although getting the build system fu in place is probably a bit beyond me.

Revision history for this message
In , Joshua Cranmer (jcranmer) wrote :

Created attachment 377506
Patch, version 0.2

This is a very alpha version of the patch. All it supports at the moment is address book import, but, in the meantime, I had to patch configure.in and a few other things to support that much. I'm still playing around with the namespace stuff (dmose suggested mozilla::messaging, so I'm seeing how that works out).

I still need to tackle mail import, and I want to add some tests as well. Since I've learned a lot about import, I'll also write up documentation, so don't expect to see a comprehensive, review-ready patch for a while.

Revision history for this message
In , Joshua Cranmer (jcranmer) wrote :

*** Bug 627218 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Revision history for this message
In , cameleon (el-cameleon-1) wrote :

I think this bug need to be solve if Thunderbird wants to be the default mail app in Ubuntu... Because easily importing old mail and contact of Ubuntu user is necessary...
Note that Thunderbird 5 will natively import vcard file, which is also the format used by Evolution, so this point should not really be a problem anymore.

Revision history for this message
In , Joshua Cranmer (jcranmer) wrote :

Some discussion from IRC today with respect to Thunderbird-Evolution migration:
1. As far as Ubuntu is concerned for now, "importing" address books amount to adding an e-d-s address book in Thunderbird, so we don't need to actually import data.
2. Most of the settings are basically gconf (at least for now), so importing settings is fairly easy.
3. We have not started worrying about message import. If mbox is the storage backend, that is very easy to import (cp/ln the file to the profile directory). If it's mh or maildir... we'd have to have a better system.

Revision history for this message
In , cameleon (el-cameleon-1) wrote :

(In reply to comment #12)
> 3. We have not started worrying about message import. If mbox is the storage
> backend, that is very easy to import (cp/ln the file to the profile
> directory). If it's mh or maildir... we'd have to have a better system.

My 2 cents:
- Evolution 2.32 (default for Ubuntu 11.04) use mbox storage.
- Evolution 3.0 (default for Fedora 15) use MailSir storage (as indicated here: http://live.gnome.org/Evolution/Planning30 )

So it need to be defined if this bug only address import from Evolution 2.3 (mbox), or also try to cover Evolution 3.0 (maildir).

Revision history for this message
In , cameleon (el-cameleon-1) wrote :

Note that I find a very simple script (less than 15 lines of code) which allows to convert maildir to mbox: http://yergler.net/blog/2010/06/06/batteries-included-or-maildir-to-mbox-again

Revision history for this message
Alexander Kallenbach (kallenbachalex) wrote :
Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)
Changed in evolution (Ubuntu):
status: New → Invalid
Changed in thunderbird (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
Revision history for this message
In , Ludovic-mozilla (ludovic-mozilla) wrote :

Joshua what's the status on this one ?

Revision history for this message
In , Vseerror (vseerror) wrote :

*** Bug 697033 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Revision history for this message
In , Ludovic-mozilla (ludovic-mozilla) wrote :

Removing myslef on all the bugs I'm cced on. Please NI me if you need something on MailNews Core bugs from me.

Paul White (paulw2u)
summary: - Migration from Evolution to Thunderbird
+ Migrate (import) settings and messages from Evolution
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in thunderbird:
importance: Unknown → Wishlist
status: Unknown → Confirmed
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in thunderbird:
importance: Wishlist → Unknown
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