In my case, I’ll enter “Ask Leo! – ” as my name, as my email address, and the password for that account. (Screenshot: )Įnter your name, email address, and password. Setting up an existing email account in Thunderbird. Thunderbird proceeds to the “Setup an Existing Account” dialog. When you first install Thunderbird, there are no email accounts configured. Configuring Thunderbird for a Hotmail account

Our goal is to use Thunderbird simply for backup, so there’s no need. Thunderbird may offer to import settings from another mail program if one is installed. When the installation is complete, leave “Launch Mozilla Thunderbird now” checked, and click Finish. If there are additional options, read them carefully to make sure you understand what you are agreeing to.Ĭlick Install on the last page of the Wizard to install Thunderbird. The installation location for Thunderbird.Create icons on the Desktop and Start Menu.Click Next through the subsequent settings, and accept: Even though we’re going to accept all suggestions made by the installer, choosing Custom is an important habit to avoid malware and PUPs. The first choice is whether to accept the Standard settings or use Custom. (Screenshot: )ĭownload and run the Setup Wizard. Download Thunderbird from the official download site here 2. The first step is to download and install Thunderbird. In this example, I’ll use Thunderbird as my desktop email program, but any desktop program supporting IMAP can back up your email, including Microsoft Office’s Outlook and others.

The good news is that IMAP is common almost all email services support it. For this technique to work, the account must support a protocol called “ IMAP”. The technique I’ll use applies to almost all online accounts, including Gmail, Yahoo!, and others.

Our example: and Hotmailįor this article, I’m going to use a Hotmail account - I’ll continue to access that account as I usually do, using the website, but we’ll back it up to my PC using Thunderbird. You’ll also need to periodically manually export and download your contacts to back them up as well. Leave Thunderbird running (or run it periodically) to make sure your backups are up to date. Configure Thunderbird to access and download your email using your email service’s IMAP settings to back up.

Backing up mozilla thunderbird