Both macOSXHints and mozillaZine carry the same tip for importing email messages into Mail.app from Thunderbird. It involves copying the relevant mailboxes to the Desktop, adding the “.mbox” extension to the files and then importing them via Apple Mail‘s Import feature.

Contacts can be exported from Thunderbird‘s Address Book in either CSV (Comma Separated Value) or tab delimited format.

You can then import them into OS X’s Address Book using its native import feature or using a third-party app like Address Book Importer (which is free for a “one-off” use).

UPDATE: In the comments to this entry, Andreas Amann points out some problems with the tip on masOSXHints and MozillaZine. He notes that Eudora Mailbox Cleaner now handles the importing of Thunderbird mailboxes as well (and better). Thanks.

Going the other way? (Shame on you!) CosmicSoft’s emlx to mbox converter looks promising for Mail 2.0 users on the way out. Use it, then follow the second half of the instructions for importing emails from kmail in the Thunderbird FAQ.thunderbird, emlx, mbox, converter, switching, address book

CosmicSoft has written an app that will convert emails in Mail 2.0′s new emlx format back into the standard mbox format.

The app’s readme file claims that,

…if you need to recover from a hard drive crash, it’s almost impossible to recover your mail messages easily since Mail won’t import emlx files and you can’t add them to your mailboxes any other way.

It is true that importing emlx messages is not one of the default options in Mail.app’s “Import” menu, but there is a simple work-around that will import your emlx emails without the trouble of converting them into the mbox first.

Still, this app could be useful if you are thinking of abandoning Apple Mail for some other email client. Perish the thought!

You can download it from CosmicSoft’s website.

UPDATE: New version (1.0.3) released, 23 December 2005.emlx, mbox, converting, mail.app, apple mail, utilities, switching, mailboxes

Reports (and Slashdot commentary on them) that we are in danger of entering a Digitial Dark Age due to a lack of legacy support for formats and media may be overwrought.

All the same, Emailchemy is a life-saver for people who have been using email for a long time and have moved through many clients and platforms.

Emailchemy will convert emails from popular and obsolete email clients into formats that Apple Mail and other clients can read. It converts email from an astonishing range of formats (listed after the jump):

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