Over the years, with the popularity of Outlook growing exponentially, a lot of people have exported their existing email accounts to Outlook. But no one denies the fact that email migrations are quite tedious and challenging to complete even when they involve two popular email clients like Thunderbird and Outlook. So what prompts users to undertake them and is there any simple way to Import Address book in Outlook from Thunderbird without any loss?
.for Thunderbird, the easiest way to address an email is to type the name of the recipient in the To: field and let Thunderbird auto-complete. But there are other ways to do this, including selecting addresses from the Contacts Pane and creating a 'mailing list' for a group of recipients, as explained here: Addressing an Email Thunderbird Help.
Why do users feel the need to migrate from Thunderbird to Outlook?
- Outlook is far superior to Thunderbird when it comes to features and compatibility with different platforms
- Managing users’ personal information is much easier with Outlook
- Outlook is more user-friendly and flexible than Thunderbird
- Outlook allows configuring multiple email accounts within a single interface simultaneously
A few interesting facts to note about Thunderbird to Outlook migration
![Thunderbird outlook calendar Thunderbird outlook calendar](http://www.vgsglobal.com/wp-content/uploads//2013/02/vtiger-outlook-pluin-300x160.png)
If you need to switch your emailing client due to any of the above reasons, here are a few points you should keep in mind:
- Thunderbird uses MBOX format data file to save mailbox contents whereas Outlook uses PST for the purpose. Hence the migration basically involves converting MBOX file to PST format
- There is no direct manual method to convert entire MBOX file to PST format. Emails and Contacts need to be exported separately
- To export MBOX format contacts to PST, first the contacts need to be exported to CSV file and then that file needs to be imported into Outlook
To know how you can import Thunderbird contacts in Outlook, read the manual procedure discussed in the next section.
Manual method to export contacts from Thunderbird to Outlook
- Launch Mozilla Thunderbird and click on Address Book option from the menu bar
- When the Address Book screen opens, select the appropriate address book to be exported
- Click on Tools -> Export
- Pick a destination folder to save the exported address book
- Also, pick the format in which you wish to export the contacts (CSV/VCF/TXT/LDIF). In this case, select CSV
Note: Once the CSV file has been saved, you can proceed with importing it into Outlook
- Launch MS Outlook
- Go to File -> Open and Export -> Import/Export
- From the screen that opens, select Import from another program or file
- Click on Next button
- Select Comma Separated Values (Windows) from the list that comes up
- Click on Next button
- Browse to select the CSV file you previously exported
- Select the radio button that says Do Not Import Duplicate Items
- Click on Next button
- Select the desired folder where you need to import contacts and click on Contacts
- Click on Next button
- Click on the Finish button to start the procedure
Limitations of the manual method
While the above mentioned manual process to export Thunderbird address book to Outlook is free of cost and simple enough to perform, it suffers from a few limitations:
- The process takes a lot of time
- It doesn’t cover exporting emails
In order to overcome these limitations, we suggest that you use a much more efficient automated method to export contacts from Thunderbird to Outlook. Along with the obvious method of being fully automated and safe method to perform the export, this software lets you export complete MBOX data to PST format in one go.
Automated solution to export Thunderbird address book to Outlook
Stellar Converterfor MBOX is an extremely powerful application that helps you export all mailbox contents like emails, attachments, contacts, notes, journal, etc. from Thunderbird (and other email clients which use the MBOX file format) to Outlook PST format. The software is backed by advanced algorithms which make it the ideal choice for performing a procedure as complex as MBOX to PST conversion in a simple and efficient manner. Equipped with a highly interactive GUI, this product is the best alternative to manual conversion techniques.
Conclusion
When undertaking a procedure as complex and risky as email migration you should always take a full backup of the file being migrated. Additionally, you should accustom yourself with the platform to which you are migrating and perform. Though manual methods are almost always available, the safest and most hassle-free way is often through reliable software like MBOX to PST Converter by Stellar.