Broobles Forum

[Alexander]

Hi,
I've tried using IMAPSize to covert from Thunderbird (mbox files) to .eml files, ultimately aimed at Outlook. However, the conversion is extremely inaccurate.

For example, one folder (Inbox) that contains approximately 1100 mails in Thunderbird results in 4000+ .eml files, MANY of which are long since deleted spam. I can clearly see that the mail is deleted in Thunderbird, but it still reads them from somewhere?

Other folders are missing some, or up to 70% of emails.

Any clue what's going on? I've tried both version 0.2.0 and 0.2.2. I can give you more info about my system if you wish.

Thanks!

[Ivan]

Looks like the messages have just been marked as deleted in Thunderbird, not actually removed from the message store. So even though you don't see them in the message list, the deleted messages are still present in mbox files. You can change this setting in the Account Settings/Server Setting in Thunderbird ("When I delete a message", move to Trash).

As for the missing messages, are you trying to convert messages from local or IMAP folders?

[Alexander]

I'm converting from local folders, mail gotten from a POP3 server. Isn't that intended to work?

[Ivan]

Yes, that should work. Looks like a bug. Let me look a little into this and see if I can find the cause.

It would greatly help if you could locate one of the messages that were not converted in the mbox file and copy-paste that and the previous message from the mbox file to a regular text file and send it on to me. Any message will do (even spam) and you can remove all sensitive information from the messages, as long as you leave the first word of every line. You can send this to imapsize at broobles dot com. This would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Ivan]

Are the messages that are not being converted missing a subject?

[Ivan]

I've uploaded a bug fix release (0.2.3). Hopefully it will solve your problems with missing mails.

To resolve the problem with "non-existant" messages appearing after the conversion, you have to compact the folders in Thunderbird prior to performing the conversion. You can do so by right clicking on the folder and selecting "Compact this folder".

[Alexander]

The compact folder trick worked for a large inbox, but it has 1 less eml file than my Inbox, a bit worrying . Same with some other folders, 1-5% of mails missing, extreme in the case of one where 259 turn into 93. No messages are missing a subject in the offending folder.

I'll try putting a sample email folder together for you tomorrow when I get home from work, containing various mails that do and don't get converted. 0.2.3 sadly didn't change anything.

[Ivan]

I was hoping the empty subject was the only problem. Worked fine here on quite a big archive. I'll try to fix the problem once I get your samples.

Thanks for your help.

[Alexander]

Hi,
I've setup a sample mail folder for you. It's seemingly just ONE mail that screws it up and stops the entire conversion.

If you could give me your email address, I'll mail you the mbox file and some more details .

[Ivan]

You can send it on to imapsize at broobles dot com

[Alexander]

Just an update for the curious: The problem was invalid binary chars somewhere in the mail files, usually just one or two places. I removed them (automatical by metapad, a notepad replacement), saved the mbox files, and they converted fine.