Google@UH - How to Move Emails to Local Storage using Thunderbird

Overview

This article provides you instructions to back-up your Google@UH Emails to a local storage device using Thunderbird. Instructions to set up Thunderbird can be found at Google@UH - How to Set-Up Gmail@UH on Third-Party Email Clients (link).

Creating Local Folders in Thunderbird

Thunderbird has three "panes".  The list of folders you have on the server will display in the left side pane.  Your Inbox index of messages will appear on the top right side.  If you click on a message, its contents will be displayed in the lower right side pane.

The first step in moving your email to your hard drive is to create local email folders:

  1. In the list of folders on the left side pane, right-click on Local Folders and select New Folder...
  2. In the Name field, enter UH Email Archive, or a description of your choice
  3. The Create as a subfolder of should already be set to Local Folders
  4. Click Create Folder
  5. If necessary, click on the arrow next to Local Folders to expand it and display your newly created folder.
  6. Right-click on UH Email Archive (or the name you made in Step 2) and select New Subfolder...
  7. In the Name field, type Inbox
  8. Make sure the Create as a subfolder of is set to UH Email Archive (or the name you made in Step 2)
  9. Click Create Folder
  10. Repeat steps 6 - 9 and create subfolders for all the different folders that you wish to copy off of the server (e.g. Drafts, Sent, Trash, etc.)

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Moving Emails to Local Folders

After creating all the local folders you want to back up to your local storage device, we can now move your emails into them:

  1. In the list of folders on the left side pane, select the folder than contains your UH emails (e.g. username@hawaii.edu section)
  2. Select the message(s) you wish to archive
    • Use Shift+Click  to select a number of messages in a row
    • Use Ctrl+Click (Windows) or Cmd+Click (macOS) to select multiple individual messages spaced apart
    • Use Ctrl+A (Windows) or Cmd+A (macOS) to select all messages in a folder. Selecting all messages in a folder with a large amount of email may result in slow performance.
  3. Right-click any of the selected messages and select Move To > Local Folders > UH Email Archive > and finally, the subfolder you want to move the emails to (e.g. Inbox)
    • Move To will move messages from one folder to another, while leaving an archived copy on the server
    • Alternatively, use Copy To to make a local copy while leaving the message on the server in its original location
    • Selecting Copy To or Move To will not reduce your storage quota usage unless you later delete the messages from the server (i.e. delete the messages from your Google@UH Gmail or from Thunderbird under the username@hawaii.edu section)
  4. The highlighted messages will be moved to the selected subfolder
    • Depending on how many messages you selected to move, this could take some time
  5. In the list of folders on the left side pane under UH Email Archive, select the subfolder that you moved your emails to and verify the messages you selected are there
    • If you used Copy To, once you have verified that the messages were successfully moved, you may delete them from the server (i.e. delete the messages from your Google@UH Gmail or from Thunderbird under the username@hawaii.edu section)
  6. Repeat steps 1 - 5 for each of the folders that you wish to move off of the server

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Backing Up Archived Emails

Now that you have an archive of emails stored on your local storage, you may want to make a backup to store on an external hard drive, thumb drive, other external media, or an alternative cloud storage account:

  1. In the list of folders on the left side pane, right-click on Local Folders and select Settings
  2. To the right of Local Directory, select Browse...
  3. Copy the entire local folder you created (e.g. UH Email Archive) to your external storage media
    • Windows: ​​​​​​
      1. Copy the folder by clicking and highlighting it, then pressing Ctrl+C
      2. Open a File Explorer window and navigate to where you want to back up saved
      3. Paste the folder by clicking into the window you just navigated through, then pressing Ctrl+V
    • macOS:
      • Right-click on the folder and select Show in Finder
      • Copy the folder by clicking and highlighting it, then pressing Cmd+C
      • Open a Finder window and navigate to where you want to back up saved
      • Paste the folder by clicking into the window you just navigated through, then pressing Cmd+V
    • You may need to exit Thunderbird for the copy operation to complete
      • Be sure you are only copying the Local Folders and are not moving it, as moving the folder will result in you being unable to view the archived emails in Thunderbird

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Restoring a Backed Up Archive

Should you need to restore archived emails that you had previously backed up, you will need to take the archive backup you have stored on your external hard drive, thumb drive, other external media, or cloud storage account, and copy it back to your local storage.

  1. In the list of folders on the left side pane, right-click on Local Folders and select Settings
  2. To the right of Local Directory, select Browse...
  3. Find the Local Folders backup (e.g. UH Email Archive) that you created and backed up from the instructions above
    • You may want to rename the folder in order to better distinguish between the items you are restoring and the items that may already exist in your Thunderbird's Local Folders (e.g. UH Email Archive Backup)
  4. When prompted, restart Thunderbird and click on the arrow next to Local Folders to expand the folder and show your restored email

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