Tuesday, May 08, 2007
How to Import Your Email to Gmail
The Wi-Fi community FON is switching over to an all open source diet, ditching Windows for Ubuntu Linux as well as backing up all documents online. This includes all the email messages stored on their computers so FON has launched a website called Gmail Uploader that anyone can use to upload their email into Gmail.Gmail Uploader uses an application called GML, or Gmail Loader, to transfer mbox files to Gmail. All you need to do is locate your mbox file, enter your Gmail address, and click on the link in the validation email to begin uploading. mbox files are just a way for your email application to hold a collection of email messages. Clients like Mozilla Thunderbird and Eudora use variants of the mbox format.
If you are running Thunderbird on Windows XP, the mbox file can be found in C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\Mail where xxxxxxxx is a string of 8 random characters. Inside the Mail folder, open the folder with the name of the email account you want to upload. The mbox file is named Inbox and has no file extension. You can find ways of locating the Thunderbird mbox file in other operating systems here.
If you are worried about privacy issues, you will probably want to download and install GML. If ease is your concern, then Gmail Uploader may be the right choice although the uploading process is slow. It takes a minimum of 2 seconds to upload a message to Gmail.
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Labels: Technology
