Open MBOX Files in Windows OS Platform Using Thunderbird

MBOX file is a mailbox file format which is very famous nowadays as many email applications stores all the emails in this respective file format. There are some users those are kept on asking queries related to open MBOX files in Windows operating system and want to view contents of MBOX file. There are many Mac email clients like Eudora, Apple Mail, Eudora, etc also stores data in MBOX files. But, due to migration from Mac to Windows, people prefer to open their emails in Windows. Once a user asked:

“Recently I migrated from Mac to Windows and I moved my entire data to Windows system. There is a MBOX file which I am unable to open on my system. I have some important emails that I need to view on the daily basis. Can anyone suggest any effective method that can help me in opening MBOX files on Windows system.”

In the following article, one can know various efficient and effective methods that can help a user to open and view MBOX file emails on Windows platform and there will be no issue if any user migrates it data from any platform.

Manually Open MBOX Files in Windows

To open mailbox file, a user needs to download ImportExport Tool add-in and Mozilla Thunderbird email application. Both are free and online available and one can easily open MBOX files in Thunderbird email client. Let follow these steps:

1. In the Menu bar, click on "Add-Ons" in Thunderbird account to open Add-ons Manager tab.
2. Click on Gear icon >> "Install Add-on From File".
3. After that, find the downloaded .xpi file and install it.
4. Click on Tools >> ImportExportTools >> Import MBOX File.
5. After that, in Files MBOX Import, click on Import directly one or more MBOX files.
6. One can also import subdirectories at the time of importing MBOX files.
7. Click on Open button to import your MBOX file in Thunderbird application.

Limitations of Manual Approach

There are some drawbacks that restrict a user to open MBOX files in Windows with the help of manual procedures. Data is important to every user and one cannot afford to lose the data. Here are some limitations:

• If there are MBOX files from different profiles then, it is not possible to import MBOX emails.
• After transferring MBOX files, there is no assurance that all the folders, as well as the formatting of the email, remain same.
• With the help of this technique, one can migrate a single file at the time. It is not possible to migrate multiple MBOX files at a time.

Alternate Solution

To overcome the following limitations, one can go with the alternate or an expert solution i.e. SysTools MBOX Viewer that easily help a user to open MBOX files in Windows operating system. There is no issue if MBOX file belongs to any other platform. The tool can also open and shows the preview of multiple MBOX files at the same time. The simple user interface can also be used by non-technical users in order to view MBOX emails. Therefore, it is a complete tool that can open and read MBOX mailbox effectively.

The Bottom Line

In this blog, we have mentioned queries that are kept on asking by many users. They need to open MBOX files in Windows operating system. There are many solutions that one can understand and try with the help of this blog. There is a ImportExportTools add-in that can import MBOX files in Thunderbird. But if there are a bulk of MBOX files then it is better to go with the alternate solution that works more effectively and efficiently.