From Fossamail to SeaMonkey

Archived user self-help and discussion area.
Forum rules
This board is for people who continue to use FossaMail, whether the last official build or later unofficial (private) builds. Exchange ideas, tips, etc. -- users helping users.
No official support will be provided here, this is purely for those who continue using FossaMail for as long as it's still viable.
Katryne

From Fossamail to SeaMonkey

Unread post by Katryne » 2017-09-09, 12:18

Hello !
I am a little sad about Fossamail. But I must look ahead and a day will come when Fossamail will be really dead.
I am looking for tips to import my Fossamail settings and mails into SeaMonkey. Is there a way, please ?

snertev

Re: From Fossamail to SeaMonkey

Unread post by snertev » 2017-09-09, 12:48

Katryne wrote:Hello !
I am a little sad about Fossamail. But I must look ahead and a day will come when Fossamail will be really dead.
I am looking for tips to import my Fossamail settings and mails into SeaMonkey. Is there a way, please ?
I haven't tried this solution but if you rename Fossamail profile folder to "Thunderbird", Seamonkey should pick its content up for an automatic importation when you start SM for the first time after installation.

I remember it did so even if I didn't have TB installed and there was the profile folder only.

Katryne

Re: From Fossamail to SeaMonkey

Unread post by Katryne » 2017-09-09, 20:47

Thank you Snertev, but it did not work for me.
SeaMonkey says it is importing data from Thunderbird, but in fact nothing happens.
I tried too to copy /mail folder from Fossamail profile to Seamonkey profile, to no avail alas ...

My problem is not only the settings of my 40 mail boxes. I could do it. But I need also to browse through the 15000 messages which are stocked in my FossaMail profile. These messages, are my archives, my memories.
I need to recover my messages.

I am stuck with FossaMail, even if I am unsure of its future.

snertev

Re: From Fossamail to SeaMonkey

Unread post by snertev » 2017-09-10, 09:08

Katryne wrote:Thank you Snertev, but it did not work for me.
SeaMonkey says it is importing data from Thunderbird, but in fact nothing happens.
I tried too to copy /mail folder from Fossamail profile to Seamonkey profile, to no avail alas ...

My problem is not only the settings of my 40 mail boxes. I could do it. But I need also to browse through the 15000 messages which are stocked in my FossaMail profile. These messages, are my archives, my memories.
I need to recover my messages.

I am stuck with FossaMail, even if I am unsure of its future.
Messages in Fossamail are simple mbox files they must work in Seamonkey.

Are you using Pop3 or IMAP to access your accounts.

If Pop3, you should be able to copy your local folders to Seamonkey profile. I've done so a lot of times on several PCs.

mgagnonlv
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Re: From Fossamail to SeaMonkey

Unread post by mgagnonlv » 2017-09-12, 19:14

The problem is that the structure of Seamonkey's profile folder is slightly different as it combines the information of Thunderbird and Firefox. Fossamail has a profile folder which is structured virtually the same way as Thunderbird. But Seamonkey may use Windows registry to find Thunderbird profile, which would explain your insuccess.

Also because Seamonkey incorporates email and browser, you can't copy the entire profile folder from one place to the other and work from there. You need to copy selected portions of it.
I would therefore suggest the following:

1. Install Thunderbird on your computer.
It will create its own new profile folder, somewhere in C:\Users\your_user_name\Thunderbird\Profiles\alklj.default. (the profile name has random letters and numbers; the ".default" is the important part)

2. Quit Thunderbird and Fossamail
Open your Fossamail profile folder and copy the content of your Fossamail profile folder into Thunderbird default profile folder
(i.e. into "alklj.default")

3. Uninstall Seamonkey and its associated profile(s).

4. Reinstall Seamonkey. As it is a new installation, Seamonkey will ask you whether you want to import... from Thunderbird. Say Yes, and that should work.


If that doesn't work, or if you don't want to uninstall Seamonkey because you don't want to kill your existing profile, then there is only one trick: reconfiguration.

1. Reconfigure each of your email accounts in Seamonkey as they were in Fossamail.

2a. For IMAP accounts, you have nothing else to do: messages are on the server. So as soon as you log in, your messages will be downloaded. With that many messages, leave Seamonkey open overnight and your local folders will be populated.

2b. For POP accounts, you will need to note where each account is stored. Then you can copy the related folders.
– For each account, right-click on the account name, select "Parameters", then "Server Properties".
Note at the bottom the complete path to its "local directory" in Fossamail and do the same in Seamonkey.
– Quit both Fossamail and Seamonkey.
– Open said folder in your Fossamail profile (it could have many files and even subfolders, depending on how much mail you have).
– Open said folder in your Seamonkey profile. Throw away everything in it (there would be minimal content: the 2-3 default messages).
– COPY the content from said folder in Fossamail to said folder in Seamonkey.

Voilà, you're done.

******************
NOTES

It is possible in Seamonkey (and also in Thunderbird and Fossamail) to change the local directory from the default one to any other directory (click on "find" button to the right of your directory path).
If you do so, please do so from a copy of your Fossamail profile as it is not a good idea to use the same profile in both FossaMail and Seamonkey. Besides, I would also suggest that in the long run, it's better to have everything in the same Seamonkey profile than to have your email data elsewhere.

Basic account information is held in the preference file (prefs.js). There are also 1-2 files that contain other account information such as the structure. The preference names in the prefs.js file seem to be identical (as seen from both about:config), but I'm not sure of the rest. So you could try copying information from one "prefs.js" file to the other (while both programs are closed, of course), then the location of the profile folder, and proceed from there, but I can't vouch for the results.
Michel Gagnon
Montréal (Québec, Canada)

Katryne

Re: From Fossamail to SeaMonkey

Unread post by Katryne » 2017-09-12, 19:25

Merci Michel. I will try and give feedback.

MoonMadness

Re: From Fossamail to SeaMonkey

Unread post by MoonMadness » 2017-09-12, 23:52

Back when I used XP, I ran SeaMonkey. I wish the mail client was separately installable. It ran quite briskly. I don't think it indexes as much as Thunderbird or FossaMail.

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back2themoon
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Re: From Fossamail to SeaMonkey

Unread post by back2themoon » 2017-09-13, 09:29

You can always try TEBE, which works just fine with FossaMail but I don't know about SeaMonkey.

Katryne

Re: From Fossamail to SeaMonkey

Unread post by Katryne » 2017-09-13, 13:09

Thank you everybody ! I have got everything complete and in order in SeaMonkey.
The soluce that worked for me was #2 by Michel : https://forum.palemoon.org/posting.php?mode=reply&f=58&t=16643#pr121682
Rather long to settle, but quite efficient.
Merci beaucoup Michel.

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