I have no experience with AOL but found this online http://www.grohaz.com/ExportAOLPFC.htm

I have no experience with AOL but found this online http://www.grohaz.com/ExportAOLPFC.htm

I did try the export utility called AOL Dump described in the link above and it does work. The directions tell you which option to click as it is in German. The only thing was it would not show my screen name in the folder until I typed it in the filename area and this it converted.

What you get is the screenname.mbx file which shows up in TB as 1 folder with all your emails. This is better than resending them after installing TB but it would be great if there was some way of keeping the local folder/subfolder structure I had in the AOL Desktop software.

I think if I has saved all my folders on AOL's servers instead of local than IMAP account would have brought them all in to TB.

Thanks for the help!

So its solved?

I would not quite call it completely solved. I can now successfully import the local emails but am left having to recreated the folders from scratch in TB and then sort them into their proper folder. At least I don't have to mail them all to my self but it would be ideal if someone had a utility or other method to import and preserve the folders. That my be wishful thinking.

Have aol's folders in your prefered directory-structure (window-wise). Excange them with the converted *.mbx, at the same time deleting the extension mbx. Place this directory-tree under MAIL\local folders\????. Delete panacea.dat Restart Tbird

You can try to run it from a batch-file.

SET up a new profile and test this, if it works it's easy to move it to your "live" profile.

A final warning, the aol-dump would delete all html- elements.

Here is a link to Mozillas help page http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_and_exporting_your_mail

What's the best way to duplicate a profile so you can experiment importing emails/folder? I tried starting TB from the command line with -p and you can create a new profile which has no accounts or rename. If I copied the profile folder and pasted and renamed would that work?

You just have to copy whats inside your old profile (default) and paste it inside your new profile ("new_profile"). (I assume you call it new_profile)

If you look at your %appdata%\thunderbird\profiles there are two directories with odd names. One extension is default, one has your "new_profile" -name. (Unless you put it somewhere else when creating it)

Keep the -p and choose to open your new_profile offline. Or make a shortcut:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -P "new_profile" -offline 

If you keep it offline you can still use your .default to download and manage your daily mail. And if something goes wrong, just do another copy from default to new.

When your finished you can (make a safety copy of default first) move MAIL\Local Folders to default. (or import it)

And please compact your folders regularly

I'm sorry but i put the profiles and the program in directories for a win 7 (64 bit) You have xp?

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird#Windows_2000_and_XP

The program-shortcut should start with "C:\Program Files\ ......"

Yes, I have XP Pro SP3.

When you said 'A final warning, the aol-dump would delete all html- elements', do you mean clickable links in the emails imported from AOL PFC using AOL Dump? I just tried adding a .mbx file from AOL Dump and if I click on a link from one of its imported emails it opens in Firefox as expected.

I read it on the German AOL-Dump site: A Google translation : .... AOL Dump extracts all mail- and news articles to an ASCII file. Possibly existing HTML elements are automatically removed.

The program AOL Dump need not be specially installed. Simply copy the EXE file and the ZLIB.DLL in an empty directory and run it.