[Users] Switching from Thunderbird to claws-mail.

Lawrence London lfljvenaura at gmail.com
Wed Aug 12 06:49:19 CEST 2020 

On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 7:26 PM Rolf Turner <r.turner at auckland.ac.nz> wrote:

>
> Thanks for taking the time to answer me.  Sorry for being slow to
> respond.  I've been preoccupied with some other things.
>
> Please see in-line below.
>
> On 11/08/20 2:28 pm, Lawrence London wrote:
>
> >     1.  Will claws-mail allow me to get away from the flakiness I am
> >     currently experiencing with Thunderbird?
>
> >
> > Yes.
>
> Very good news indeed.
>

Claw is a must have  (with emphasis). I used all Mozilla's email products
including Thunderbird.
As I upgraded to new versions of TBird, wanting to keep the folder systems
from previous versions,
I ended up with a rather cumbersome installation but it served my needs, I
had all my folders and messages
for many years. I was backing up messages in batches as text files,
organized by topic. I also uploaded the folder files (Unix mailbox format)
to my Linux shell account
at the site where I have Mailman lists and websites. I then ran Mhonarc or
Hypermail on them to create webarchives for my friends to browse. They
really liked that.
Sp TBird was really useful....until I needed to reinstall it on a new
computer and it blew off my folder system. That is when I switched to
Claws. I am pretty sure Claws folder files are Unix mailbox format and
I can use them as I did TBirds.

>
> >
> >     2.  Does claws-mail have message filters, at least somewhat
> >     analogous to
> >     those provided by Thunderbird?
> >
> > I think it does but I have not looked for them yet.
>
> Others have said that it has such filters.
>
> I read that and yes it is probably robust.

>
> >     3.  How easy (or difficult) will it be for me to import my elaborate
> >     tree of saved message folders from Thunderbird into claws-mail?
> >     Impossible?  Possible but gruellingly arduous?  Piece of cake (said
> he,
> >     optimistically)?  Please note that since I have an enormous number of
> >     saved emails to which I'd like to retain access, I would need to
> import
> >     them in a fairly automated manner, and not in a kludgy one-by-one
> >     manner.
> >
> >
> > 1) just guessing about this one
> > Get a Gmail account then import the feed to your account you currently
> > use Thunderbird for.
>
> I'm sorry to be a thicko, but I don't understand this.  Specifically I
> don't understand what "import the feed" means.
>
> Use imap and the mail server login for your current email feed and it will
pick that up and add it to your Gmail folders (labels) so you can easily
identify it
within the Gmail folders (labels) you have already created.

I already have a Gmail account (that I don't use much). Different
> name (the bit before "@") from the account that I mostly use (the one
> that is "hosted" by the U. of Auckland).
>
> > Then install Claws and point it to your Gmail account. If you create
> > filters in Gmail I think Claws will pick these up and mirror them in
> > your Claws feed and folder.
> > or 2) install Claws and point it to your current email server(s)
> > 3) re-create your filters in Claws
>
> I don't think that this matters anyhow since it appears that claws-mail
> has adequate filtering capabilities.
>
> Paul says this indirect method using Gmail is a bad idea so just use Claws
directly to get your email from the host you currently use TBird for
and take the time to create new folders or use the downloadable tools to do
that for you as someone already mentioned.

I use Gmail because it gets email from a different mail host that I never
send mail through and only need to be able to read. Gmail is my primary, if
not only, mail host
so Claws gets its feed from there. Every change made in Gmail is mirrored
in Claws. I wish I could find another free email host that is reliable but
for now I will continue using only  Gmail.

>
> > Its confusing for me because I have a lot of old email accounts
> > including an active one I can not directly
> > access without installing Thunderbird so I indirectly access it with
> > Claws and it works fine; easily manageable.
> >
> >     4.  Are there any pitfalls or Traps for Young Players that I have not
> >     envisaged in the foregoing?
> >
> > :-)
> >
> > Do you want to run Claws on your boot drive with the entire Claws file
> > system existing there?
> > I do not run mine on my boot drive; doesn;t make sense. I run 3
> > computers with Win 7 to 8 to 10.
> > I Installed Claws on an external hard drive; all files exist there only.
> > I run it with a special string.
> > I can plug that hard drive into any of my computers and run it with the
> > same string. Works perfectly.
> > I recommend doing it that way.
> > Here is the string I use, change hard drive designation, folder names
> > and paths as needed: [maybe this will work for you]
> >
> > e:\CLAWS Mail\claws-mail.exe --alternate-config-dir e:\Claws Mail Config
>
> Again sorry to be a thicko, but again I don't understand.  Why would I
> not want to run claws-mail on my boot drive?  I'm pretty sure that I
> *do* want to;  I want my email to be immediately and conveniently
> available.  Your discussion seems to be Windoze oriented; I *don't do*
> Windoze.  (I'm strictly Linux; I run  Ubuntu 18.04.)
>

I should use Linux but because of the kind of work I do and the wide array
of apps I rely on I have to stick with Windows (7,8 and 10 on three
computers).
The advantage to having the entire Claws installation on a hard drive is
that I can make copies of it on lots of drives and plug any of them into
any of my computers and update Claws on all of them.
A very portable system. If it is just on the boot drive on one computer I
have to worry about keeping the filesystem backed up. This way I can run
Claws on three computers at once and update each one,
providing me with secure backups of all my email.

I need to reverse engineer how I set this up with the edited config file so
I can recreate it if I ever need to. For now the command I use to run it
works fine. I think it is just incredible that I can run Claws on an
external drive without it having to be installed on a boot drive, which it
is not. It is all in the initial install of Claws on a machine and telling
it where all the folders exist. It only creates a few files on each machine
it is installed on, like my .signature.


> >
> > good luck
>
> Thanks.
>

I hope you get Claws performing the way you want. I would try to use the
tools that will convert your TBird mail folders to Claws ones. I hope you
get that to work.
I will be interested in any feedback you get about that.

Cheers,

Lawrence
Chapel Hill, N.C.

>
> >
> >
> >     I hope that these questions make sense and are not inappropriate, and
> >     that one or more of you will be able to provide me with some useful
> >     answers.
> >
> >
> > I will be interested in the replies you get to your questions.
>
> I'll cc the list in answering the replies that I get.
>
> cheers,
>
> Rolf
>
> > --
> > Lawrence F. London, Jr.
> > lfljvenaura at gmail.com <mailto:lfljvenaura at gmail.com>
> > Avant Geared
> > walnut and oak serving and kitchen cutting boards
> > https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared
> > <
> https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared/avant-geared-products/woodworking
> >
> > https://www.instagram.com/avantgeared/?hl=en
>


-- 
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
lfljvenaura at gmail.com
Avant Geared
walnut and oak serving and kitchen cutting boards
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared
<https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared/avant-geared-products/woodworking>
https://www.instagram.com/avantgeared/?hl=en
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