Practical & Helpful Method to Transfer Gmail Account to Thunderbird [Updated for 2025]

The most often-used email service worldwide is Gmail, offered by Google Inc. Wikipedia reports that 1.5 billion people subscribed in 2019 and that number is still rising. Still, lots of people are looking for a way to export Gmail emails to Thunderbird. Given those searches, I will present the best way to export Gmail emails to Thunderbird.

The best approach to guard your Gmail data from hackers and stop data loss is to forward your emails to another email provider. We should know why we are exporting Gmail emails to Thunderbird before we do so.

Some Reasons: Why Export Gmail Emails & Attachments to Thunderbird?

Desktop email client Thunderbird lets users access several email accounts from one platform. Thus, the main factor guiding your decision to copy data from your Gmail to Thunderbird:

• Easy storage of Thunderbird data on the user's machine lets users access the data whenever necessary.
• Emails coming from outside sources are unharmed.
• Moreover, should it be necessary, its data files can be distributed across several users.

Important Note: When using Thunderbird to access your Gmail account, the manual approach takes a lot of time. Because of this, users should use the trustworthy Mailvita Gmail Backup for Mac Tool. It is designed to export Gmail emails to Thunderbird without generating any data loss.

Utility Benefits: This utility sends directly from Thunderbird to Gmail. It features an easy-to-use interface that lets even novice users finish the operation without trouble.

Note: I will now walk over the various ways the transfer could be done.

Method 01: Export Gmail Emails to Thunderbird Manually

First, you have to follow these two actions before exporting Gmail emails into Thunderbird:

• Create an MBOX file.
• Import an MBOX file to Thunderbird.

First Step: Generate an MBOX file with Google Takeout.

1. Open Google Chrome and search "Google Takeout," first.
2. After deselecting all other groups, second pick the "mail" area.
3. Now choose the "MBOX" label and click on "OK."
4. Go down and click “Include all messages in mail.”
5. In the File Type, Frequency, and Destination column, under "Delivery Method," choose the download link.
6. After selecting "File type & Size," go on to the "Create Export" option.
7. Once your exported file is completed, you can download it last minute.

Second Step: Import MBOX files into Thunderbird

1. Your PC needs Mozilla Thunderbird installed on it.
2. You will locate it in Display the Thunderbird Menu >> Add-ons.
3. Under Extensions, find and download "Import Export Tools NG".
4. Click New Folder from the drop-down menu after right-clicking on Local Folders on the Thunderbird main screen.
5. Give the folder a name.
6. After the newly created folder, right-click it and choose "Import Export Tools NG". Use the context menu to bring in an MBOX file.
7. Pick out the word "MBOX" and click "OK."
8. Choose your MBOX file and tap Open.
9. This part shows how you can export Gmail emails to Thunderbird.

Method 2: IMAP Settings Exports Gmail Emails to Thunderbird

Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account through Chrome in

Step 2: Visit Settings and then Account to correctly extract your Gmail account. Examine all possibilities.

Step 3: Click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Access to IMAP. Allow IMAP>> Save Changes.

Step 4: Open Mozilla Thunderbird then, from the Thunderbird Menu, choose Account Settings.

Step 5: Create an email account by including your password, email address, and username. Just keep tapping the screen.

Step 6: Choose the "IMAP" protocol in step six; then, click on "Done".

Step 7: You may verify your Email ID and related folders last from the left panel of the Thunderbird main page.

Note: Using the above-described techniques, you might import a Gmail MBOX file into Thunderbird Emails. Still, using this approach might cause data loss. I have thus enumerated below the disadvantages of applying this method.

Several Drawbacks of this Approach

• Completing the process takes too much time; logging into an email account takes time as well.
• Many customers are not aware that deleting email data from Thunderbird would instantly delete it from their Gmail account, therefore causing a risk of data loss.
• These steps let users eliminate the privacy barrier separating the two mailing clients.

Last Word

In this essay, we will walk you through both manual and professional methods of exporting Gmail emails to Thunderbird. As we have explained, manual techniques have restrictions; so, you will want to use a third-party tool to receive 100% correct results.