# Question for e-mail gurus



## mefizto (Oct 7, 2020)

Greetings all,

I started to locally archive my e-mail since it appears that several e-mails were lost at my on-line server.  I use mail/isync to download it to Maildir format on my computer.  I like the format as it allows search _via _mail/notmuch

I also have an backup of my old e-mails in the Eudora format.  I sometimes need to re-visit some of the e-mails, so I use the Eudora program to open and read it.  However, there are two issues.  One, It is rather difficult to retrieve the correct message, as the search is not very good, and two, I am worried that eventually Eudora will fail to work, and since Eudora was storing the e-mail in proprietary format, splitting the e-mail body form the attachments, what will I do.

Thus, I was wondering if I could use a similar strategy as described in the first paragraph to convert the proprietary format to the {FILE]Maildir [/FILE] format.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Kindest regards,

M


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## scottro (Oct 7, 2020)

I just did a really cursory google search and this one, https://www.recoverytools.com/eudora/migrator/ for a commercial product, probably for Windows made me wonder if Eudora uses mbox format. If so, you could use mutt to read them, and I think, save them and convert to maildir (though not positive how to convert mbox to maildir and if it can be done. I know you can convert a mbox to a maildir, but not sure if it works with actual emails in the mbox. (If in the mbox is the correct term, as mbox is just a file).  Alas, everything else I saw in my search was to convert it to Outlook pst file. If you have a Windows box though, that might be worth it. Again, I did a VERY cursory search, just convert eudora to maildir.

Sorry I can't be of more help. I do have fond memories of Eudora, back in the Windows 95 days, I think it was the only mail client I could get that could do Japanese, when I was just beginning  to learn it.


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## mefizto (Oct 7, 2020)

Hi scottro,

thank you for looking into it.  I had already done a rather exhaustive search and found a very thorough review of several of the convertors, but the conclusion was that none of them really worked.

Since it appears that Eudora can be configured for IMAP, and the mail/isync does IMAP I was wondering if they can talk together.  But, I do not have enough knowledge to understand whether there is not an additional component that I would need - (IMAP server?).

The other idea I had, was to upload to any IMAP provider and then download it back by mail/isync.  The problem is, that there might be some proprietary information in some of the mailboxes.

I so not think that Eudora is pure MBOX format.

Kindest regards,

M


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## obsigna (Oct 7, 2020)

mail/thunderbird can import from Eudora.





						Importing from Eudora - Thunderbird - MozillaZine Knowledge Base
					






					kb.mozillazine.org
				




Thunderbird has a basic Maildir storage plugin.





						Thunderbird/Maildir - MozillaWiki
					






					wiki.mozilla.org
				




So even if you don't like Thunderbird, you could use it to import from Eudora into a Maildir and then continue to use that with another mail client of your choice.


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## mefizto (Oct 7, 2020)

Hi obsigna,

thank you for the reply.  I had already found the links, but was rather reluctant to use the Thunderbird import tool, since I read some negative remarks.  Nevertheless, I tried, and, indeed, although many of the folders/e-mails were correctly converted, many attachments were not, there is a link to them, but the attachment is missing.

I also found a tool called Aid4mail, which converted the Eudora *.fol to *.sbd, but I cannot figure out, how to import them to Thunderbird, to check, whether the conversion was successful.  All the instructions want me to have a Thunderbird profile, associated with the converted *.sbd, which I, of course, do not have.

So, all in all, it is not a success.  Thus, I am afraid that the IMAP solutin is the remaining viable option.  Is it difficult to configure a (local) IMAP server?

Kindest regards,

M


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## Birdy (Oct 8, 2020)

This: Eudora2Unix ?


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## mefizto (Oct 8, 2020)

Hi Birdy,

thank you for the recommendation.  Did you try it?

Kindest regards,

M


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## Birdy (Oct 9, 2020)

found it through a search and posted it


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## mefizto (Oct 9, 2020)

Hi Birdy,

thank you.

M


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