Move Local Mail to Gmail for non-Mac users

By: John Dorner

If you are using Thunderbird on a Windows computer and would like to move the mail that is in your local folders to your Gmail account, here's how:

1. Recreate your folder structure with labels using the Gmail web interface (manage labels).
2. Update Thunderbird.  http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/
3. From your Thunderbird, make sure you are connected to your Gmail account.
   http://oit.ncsu.edu/email/google-email-computer-thunderbird
4. Show "All Folders" (View -> Folders -> All) in the left hand pane.
5. Select all the files in a folder (in your Local Folders) with Ctrl+A or Edit -> Select All and use "Copy To" from the Message dropdown menu or the right-click menu to the appropriate label on your NCSU Gmail account (probably named "your_name@ncsu.edu).
6. You can also copy individual messages or groups of messages from your Local Folders by selecting and copying those to the desired label under your Gmail account.
7. After you are done, check to make sure all the messages successfully copied.
8. If you continue to use Thunderbird, just stop putting new mail in the Local Folders - use the Gmail Labels.

It's probably best to do a folder or two at a time.  

Depending on your network connection speed, it may be best to do this when fewer people are in the office or the network is less busy. If you have Gigabytes of messages, this may take many hours.  You might want to start a large folder and leave going when you go home for the night.

Keep in mind that these messages will not be archived in Postini.
You are still responsible for maintaining these messages for email retention compliance.

If you have a personal Gmail account, you can add that account to Thunderbird and move personal messages/folders to your personal Gmail account or move work related messages from your personal account to your NCSU account.

Note: If you have questions or need help with this, contact me.