Office 365 to Thunderbird

How to Move from Office 365 to Thunderbird? Step-By-Step

For its emailing and several advanced features, Office 365 is being used among users. However, it has been observed that several users demand to switch from Office 365 mail to Thunderbird. Mozilla Thunderbird being one of the best and free email clients has been the prominent choice of users for a long time. Due to several advantages offered by this desktop email application, users wish to move their O365 user account to Thunderbird. In this section, we will discuss how to configure Office 365 account to Thunderbird so that the users can easily access their O365 emails and other data items in the Mozilla Thunderbird application. Let us discuss the user queries regarding the export of Office 365 to Thunderbird.

Free Download Purchase Now

User Queries on Connect Thunderbird to Office 365

“I work for an MNC and I am having a meeting with my remote clients and I won’t be having any internet connection. I am currently using Office 365 for emailing purposes. I need to export important emails from O365 to my local drive or laptop. Please suggest what I should do.”

— Paul Loki



“How do I migrate my entire mailbox from Office 365 to Thunderbird? I need a quick & easy approach to do so. I am in a hurry for a solution as I have been looking for one for ages!! Please help me with the relevant procedures! Thanks in advance!”

— Lizzy Done



“I am using Microsoft Office 365 and I like using OWA but I was wondering if there is any way to access my mailbox even if I am not connected to the internet? It would be great if I could view or access the emails of O365 offline! ”

— Andrew Gartner



Why Switch from Office 365 to Thunderbird?

Many users attempt to move to Thunderbird so that they can easily access their data on the local desktop location. Some of the possible reasons for using Thunderbird with Office 365 are:

  1. Since Office 365 account needs to be renewed after a specific period. So, the users prefer to switch all their emails and other data to freely available Thunderbird accounts. It allows them to access the emails free of cost. Thus, the free availability of Thunderbird is one of the major reasons behind migration.
  2. Office 365 being a web-based service maintains a repository of data on the server end. Sometimes, due to unexpected breakdowns or shutdown of the Exchange server, it becomes difficult for the users to access data from the mailbox.
    However, Thunderbird being a desktop application stores entire data at the local location. The user can easily access mailbox items without depending on additional platforms. Thus, this platform's accessibility allows user to move their data from Office 365 to Mozilla Thunderbird.
  3. Office 365 provides access only in the online mode. The users cannot access the existing mail from the mailbox in offline mode. However, Thunderbird allows the users to access the mailbox data even in offline mode. Thus, users find it more convenient to use Thunderbird as it does not impose any restrictions on accessing the mailbox without an internet connection.
  4. Thunderbird allows users to share data easily as all the files are located at a local location. So, the users can easily share data even without internet access. However, sharing data through Office 365 requires an internet connection, which makes its use limited.

How to connect Thunderbird to Office 365?

There are two possible solutions to connect Office 365 to Thunderbird. One is the manual and another is the automated solution. Let’s discuss each one in detail.

Manual Procedures to Configure Thunderbird for Office 365

While migrating to an alternate email application, the major concern of every user is to retain the existing mailbox. The user always desires to access the emails and other data items from Office 365 in the Thunderbird account. The following manual method helps with Office 365 Thunderbird setup.

  1. Under Thunderbird, Account Settings > Account Actions > Add Mail Account.
  2. Enter your name, which is to be viewed by others. Also, provide your email ID & password and click Continue.

  3. Manually configure the account under the mail setup wizard.
    4. Enter the following credentials to configure Outlook 365 to Thunderbird:
    → For Incoming Settings
    Incoming Server- IMAP
    Server Host Name- outlook.office365.com
    Port Number-993
    SSL- SSL/TLS
    Authentication-Normal Password

    → For Outgoing Settings
    Server Host Name- smtp.domain
    Port Number-465/587
    SSL- SSL/TLS
    Authentication- Normal Password


  4. Select Done option to save the manual configuration and to connect Thunderbird to Office 365.
  5. Enter your password for Office 365 to authenticate and download all data into Thunderbird.

    Using this Office 365 to Mozilla Thunderbird export method, the user can download emails from the Microsoft O365 account and access them in Thunderbird.

Limitation of Manual Method

It has been reported that the manual procedure does not download all the messages to the new account and often leads to loss of data. This is not an efficient solution to connect Thunderbird to Office 365. This makes it problematic for users who wish to maintain data integrity and consistency while they export Office 365 mailboxes to Thunderbird.

Automated Approach to Migrate Office 365 to Thunderbird

Now we have analyzed the limitations of the manual approach. It’s time to go ahead and look for an efficient solution. The Office 365 Export Tool is the one that can generate the Thunderbird supporting file. This tool is easy to operate and completes the task without any errors. Along with the Date Filter for the selection of data, this tool also has some advanced features such as Delta, Re-retry migration, and many more. You just need to execute the below steps to create the Thunderbird supporting file that can be imported into Thunderbird easily. You can Export Office 365 mailbox to PST it required by selecting the option of Outlook.


The tool carries out migration of Office 365 data items in the following steps:

Step 1. Download the tool. Select Office 365 as the Source and MBOX as the destination.


Step 2. Tick the checkbox of the Email and apply the date as per the requirement and Next


Step 3. Now, complete the Source credentials such as Office 365 Admin Email & Application ID. Validate all the details and Next.


Step 4. In the Destination window, choose the path to save the resulting MBOX file and Next.


Step 5. Now get all the users into the tool using the Fetch Users, Import Users, and Download template options.


Step 6. After the completion of validation of the users hit on the Start Export button to get the MBOX file for setting up the Office 365 to Thunderbird.


After completing the above steps, an MBOX is file generated having all the emails of the Office 365 account. Now it’s time to connect Thunderbird to Office 365 by the resulting MBOX file.

Steps to Import MBOX to Thunderbird

  • Step 1.Launch the Thunderbird application on the system.
  • Step 2.Now go to Tools > Import.
  • Step 3.Select the option of Import from a file and Continue.
  • Step 4.Click on the ZIP file option and browse the file and Next.
  • Step 5.Click on the Start Import button.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this third-party utility help to directly configure MS Office 365 contacts to Thunderbird?

No, this tool does not allow you to import contacts from O365 directly to Thunderbird.

Is it possible to add account of Office 365 to Thunderbird on the Linux system?

Yes, you can readily link Office 365 to the Thunderbird application on Linux.

Does Office 365 allow to sharing of news articles through NNTP?

No, O365 does not support the NNTP protocol. So, you cannot share articles using this application. You can migrate to Thunderbird for sharing the files using NNTP.

Conclusion

Understanding the need to connect Office 365 mail to Thunderbird, we have discussed the manual method as well as the automated approach for mailbox transfer. The users can easily switch within client applications without any data loss by using these methods. We have also discussed the limitations of the manual method & an alternative method to configure Thunderbird for Office 365.