How to download and reupload all mail/contacts from a mail server on thunderbird

Question

Hey so a friend of mine's company is apparently resetting their mail servers and they asked all the employees to download their mail tonight and re-upload in the morning. He forgot to and his IT department is closed for the day so he's asking me for help.

He uses Thunderbird which I haven't used before, however all he needs is a way to download and then re-upload his mail/contacts (I will say I don't know if contacts are usually stored on the server as well or if their separate, do you guys know if there's a norm for that).

I'm not sure if the current mail server is using POP or IMAP and if that matters. I'm meeting up with him later today so if there's a way to check that on Thunderbird I'll know by then. (I'll just look that one up you guys don't need to answer that).

Thanks in advance, obviously if you need any additional info just ask.

Answer 1

The employees can of course backup everything to the local folders on their machines. Once the work on the mail servers is done, they can simply move the emails back to the mail servers.

I recommend that they copy the emails to local folders instead of moving them. I have seen cases in a previous job of archives on the machines getting corrupted. Thunderbird did that several times. Better be safe than sorry.

Good luck.