Thunderbird - Self Setup Instructions

All steps below are safe and reversible.    As long as you don't purposely delete your the Mail folder inside of your "My Documents" folder (x:\mail or d:\mail), you should not have to worry about losing any old mail.  Once thunderbird has converted your mail and address books correctly, we will remove/archive your old x:\mail or d:\mail folder.  Thunderbird will be set up to view your UCI e-mail only. (No personal e-mail accounts are supported)

Important Updates to read after you complete the instructions below:

• If you convert your Eudora Nicknames/Address Book to Thunderbird: (9/17/2008)
  • Drag your converted Eudora Nicknames to "Personal Address Book" to ensure they are stored/backed up on your x: drive. 
  • Details:  If you imported your Eudora Address books into Thunderbird
• Thunderbird attachment handling:  (9/5/2008)
  • Attachments are handled differently in Thunderbird.  There is NO "x:\mail\attach" directory.  If you need to edit an attachment (word, excel, etc) that someone has e-mailed you, be sure to to to a File > "Save As"  (Not "Save") to avoid losing any data. 
  •  11/4/2008: Because of the way Eudora handles attachments, e-mails in your Eudora "out" box do not convert over to Thunderbird.  All attachments in folders other than the "out" box will convert over.  If you need to re-forward an attachment from your outbox, you must create a new e-mail and re-attach the file from the original location.
• Eudora Filters:
  • Eudora Filters do not convert over to Thunderbird.  If you have any e-mail filters set up, you will need to re-create them after Thunderbird is set up.
• Vacation Message/Out of office:  With NACS' server there is a different website to set up your vacation message...
  • http://www.nacs.uci.edu/email/options/index.php

Prerequisites

1. Adcom's custom Thunderbird package should already be installed on your machine.  If you do not see a Thunderbird icon on your desktop, please put in a request to Adcom Desktop Support to have the "Thunderbird package" installed on your system.
2. You must have a folder in your "My Documents" folder called "thunderbird_profile" (See Step 1 below)
3. You will need approximately 30 minutes - 1 hour of your time (more if you have several years of e-mail) to convert your old Eudora mail to thunderbird. 
4. Thunderbird will convert your old Eudora Mail, and Eudora Address Book. Thunderbird will not convert previously set Eudora Filters.
5. Adcom users with pager setups only (username-page@apollo...):  E-mail or call Jeremy Paje before converting to Thunderbird to make sure the proper forwarding is set up to your pager.

Instructions

1. Create a folder in your "My Documents" folder called "thunderbird_profile" (do not use quotes)
   1. Double click your "My documents" folder on your desktop.
   2. Click the File Menu, click "New" then click "Folder" to create a new folder 'in the root directory (top level).
   3. Rename the folder to "thunderbird_profile" (x:\thunderbird_profile for desktop users or d:\thunderbird_profile for laptop users'.)
2. Check mail once with Eudora, then CLOSE Eudora.
3. Change your e-mail delivery point to NACS by completing the following steps:
   1. Log on to http://phwww.cwis.uci.edu/cgi-bin/phupdate.
   2. Select "NACS Mailbox Services"
   3.  
   4. Click "Submit Change Request" 
4. Click Start, Programs, Mozilla Thunderbird Mozilla Thunderbird to open Thunderbird.  Enter your UCInetID password.
5. Click Tools >Import  to import Eudora mail into Thunderbird:
6. This step may take a long time (anywhere from a few minutes min - 1 hour (in rare cases more)) depending on the amount of e-mail stored in Eudora:
   1. Select Eudora and Click Next.
   2. 
7. After mail is imported, import your old address book (if applicable)
   1. In Thunderbird, go to Tools\Import
   2. Select "Address Books" and click "Next
   3. Select "Eudora" and click "Next"
8. Do NOT import Eudora Settings.   The server settings will automatically be set when you start Thunderbird.
9. In Thunderbird click the "Tools" Menu, Account Settings, and type in your Full Name in the "Your Name" field
10. **Laptop Users only:  Click Tools, Click Account Settings, Click "Offline & Disk Space" on the left side.
    1. Check the two boxes that say "Make the message in my Inbox available when I am working offline" and "When I create folders, make them available for offline use"
    2. Click "Select Folders for Offline use" and check the folders you would like to be able to read when you are not connected to the network.
    3. This ensures previously read e-mail is available anytime you are off the network, (on the plane, in the car, etc)
11. *Important*  Please send an e-mail to Jeremy at jpaje@uci.edu to confirm you have switched over to Thunderbird.  You will need to enter your UCInetID password the first time you send e-mail for that session.  For security reasons, we discourage password saving as we did in Eudora.

Please visit the Thunderbird FAQ for Frequently Asked Questions:

Main Article: Thunderbird FAQ