topic How Can I Back Up Thunderbird Emails Safely? in Discussions

How Can I Back Up Thunderbird Emails Safely?

sharmahrsh137 — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 12:18:06 GMT

Hi everyone,

I have been using Mozilla Thunderbird for managing my emails and now I want to create a complete backup of my Thunderbird emails before moving to another computer. I have a large number of emails stored in different folders, along with attachments, so I want to make sure the folder structure and email data remain intact.

I know Thunderbird stores mailbox data locally, but I am looking for an easier way to back up the emails and save them in formats that can be accessed later.

Has anyone used a Thunderbird backup tool for this? I came across the SysTools Thunderbird Backup Tool, which supports backing up Thunderbird emails and exporting them into formats such as PST, MBOX, EML, MSG, and PDF.

I would appreciate recommendations from anyone who has tried it or has another reliable method for creating a Thunderbird email backup.

Re: How Can I Back Up Thunderbird Emails Safely?

davidmithen — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 04:57:03 GMT

The safest way to back up Thunderbird emails is to keep the original Thunderbird profile unchanged and create a separate copy before migration or conversion.

For a basic backup: copy the Thunderbird profile/MBOX data to another drive and keep the original as a recovery copy.
For a large mailbox: batch export can make the backup easier to access and manage.
Before exporting: preview important emails and check attachments, headers, and folder structure.
For wider access: save Thunderbird emails as PST, EML, MSG, HTML, or EMLX depending on where you need to use the backup.

For bulk Thunderbird email export, Softaken Thunderbird Converter supports batch processing, attachments, folder hierarchy, preview, and selective filtering, so you can review the data before creating the backup.