Hi there,

Is there a way to export mails from Kmail 4.7.3, in order to import them back in any other email client (Evolution, Thunderbird or Claws)?

I cannot find any suitable solution here...

Running LinuxMint 11 Oneiric.

Thanks for your help

http://artipc10.vub.ac.be/wordpress/201 ... evolution/

another - untested link:
http://mandrivausers.org/index.php?/top ... on-solved/

I have not tried the above. What I tried is - see my other thread - to copy/paste the mailfolder contents (curr new tmp) to the same structure which I opened before in Evolution. This is time consuming (but actually time saving if I consider my time spent with this Kmail nightmare). This worked perfectly in theory. But the one BIG problem: I am loosing a considerable amount of emails during this process and now get the feeling that this Kmail 4.7.3 mess has actually corrupted my data. Not sure however what really happend, except that right now I am still stuck with this now truly hated Kmail2.

Addendum: Maybe - for a change - it's not 4.7.3's fault. I noticed that I have a mixture of Maibox and Maildir files in my email folders, so copy/paste will probalby only work for the maildir ones and the rest needs to be converted somehow.


Any working solution to get rid of Kmail is welcome

Ubuntu 11.10 -64 with Kmail/Kontact 4.7.3

Hi,

thanks for your reply, and for the links.

I had seen your post, but was looking for a more "universal" method, since I was hoping to move to Claws mail.
I tried importing from Evolution, with the idea of then exporting and re-importing in Claws.
I also tried your copy - paste method, with both Evolution and Claws Email folders, but it did not work with me.

Finally, I have been searching for a mdir to mbox converter, and found this:
http://yergler.net/blog/2010/06/06/batt ... box-again/

I could convert (one by one, a bit time consuming...) the mdir folders of KMail and then import them in their respective folders in my email client.
I guess it should work with Evolution as well, given that Evolution also accept mbox format (doesn't it?)

Thanks again for your help!

I am glad it worked for you.

In the meantime I found out - once again, never give credit to Kmail for anything - that it is again Kmail which is giving me headaches, this time with likely email losses.

However, anybody wanting to convert from Kmail to Evolution, this is truly very easy but needs some time invested:

Step 1: You start Evolution and create exactly the same folder structure in Evolution as you have in Kmail

Step 2: Copy and paste one by one the folder contents in Kmail (curr, new and tmp) to the respective newly opened same folder in Evolution and replace the empty curr, new, tmp folders. Tmp is usually empty. It's as easy as that.

Step 3: close Evolution and the folders are updated

ONE BIG WARNING: I though I had lost thousands of emails during this process and maybe I have. Just: I noticed now that Kmail 4.7.3 shows me the mails in the folder structure, but in fact they are not in the respective email account so this is where my missing emails have vanished. They are just not there. Anymore? All available emails are however properly transferred. Of course, I only see the vanished?? emails in the folder tree because I have lost access to see any emails and only get this bloody "retrieving folder contents..please wait"..

It's obious that this dam....Kmail mess is responsible for the vanished emails. Now the question is only, am I able to recover them again somewhere. So far no luck.
But for sure am I never going to touch Kmail ever again, this program should be doomed.

swissinvestor wrote:Any working solution to get rid of Kmail is welcome

thunderbird

Alternatives to Kmail

For the mail client Kmail alone Thunderbird is an alternative

For someone using a PIM (Kontact/Kmail) however, Thunderbird ist not an alternative

I have now made the switch to Evolution and it works fine and I have access to my mails again. I am missing about 2000 mails (not lost during the transfer because the mails are visible in the folder tree of Kmail but not in the folder containing the mails) which Kmail probably lost in its 4.7.3 mess, but I can investigate that later

Altogether it took me two full days to convert 5 computer to Evolution and 7 to Thunderbird. But that is time saved really, when I consider the time I was forced to spend because of this Kmail nightmare.

So I can really recommend this step to get rid of this broken Kmail mess and would recommend Thunderbird for email client users only and Evolution for PIM users.

Thunderbird has (google) calendar, tasks and address book capabilities. It can also tag RSS entries which makes it superior to akregator imho. afaik it doesn't have time logging but I'm sure there is a way round that, too.

toad wrote:Thunderbird has (google) calendar, tasks and address book capabilities. It can also tag RSS entries which makes it superior to akregator imho. afaik it doesn't have time logging but I'm sure there is a way round that, too.

Agreed. But I do NOT want to have my calendar and addressbook in the cloud, and Thunderbirds own addressbook is not usable. So for me only Evolution is an alternative to Kmail (or Outlook)