Quick Overview – Do you need to download attachments from Thunderbird emails? This blog will delve into the methods for downloading attachments from multiple Thunderbird emails. If you’re wondering how to download email attachments from Thunderbird, this blog will definitely help you. It provides an overview of the techniques explained here, including using an attachment extractor plugin and an automated tool to accomplish the task successfully.
Overview of Thunderbird:
Thunderbird is an open-source email client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It is very popular due to its free availability and its ability to manage email, calendar, and contacts all in one place. Thunderbird supports plugins, enabling users to enhance its security, performance, and functionality to suit their specific needs. Today, Thunderbird remains a popular choice for both personal and professional email management.
User Query:
Mr. Frans, my family friend is an archaeologist and they use Thunderbird for their emailing sometimes they receive PDF and Excel files as attachments with their emails and now he wants to download these attachments offline to read for the research. So, I want to know, is there any utility or a way to download attachments from Thunderbird emails? If so, please suggest me.
Why Need to Download Attachments from Thunderbird
There could be multiple reasons why users would want to save all attachments from Thunderbird.
Archiving important documents: Archiving important documents, such as important email attachments, is a good practice. Archiving ensures that the documents are safely stored on a secure device for future use.
Accessing files/documents offline: Downloading attachments from emails enables users to access documents even without an internet connection.
Sharing Attachments: Once you download the attachments, They can be easily shared with colleagues, friends, or collaborators.
Further Analysis: Researchers and professionals often need to download attachments from Thunderbird email for in-depth analysis or documentation purposes.
Backup Purpose: Creating backups of emails, including the attachments or separately, is beneficial in case of accidental deletion or loss of emails.
Free Methods to Save Thunderbird Email Attachments
Method 1) How to Save or Download Attachments from Thunderbird Emails Manually
Every email client provides the ability to download attachments from emails, and Thunderbird offers the same functionality. To download attachments from Thunderbird emails, follow the steps below:
- The first initial step is to open the Thunderbird email client on your computer.
- Next, open the email message containing the attachment.
- Click over the attachment file
- Then, click the “Save” button and choose the location to save the attachment.
- Finally, Thunderbird will provide a confirmation message; click the “OK” button to complete the process.
Method 2) Use of Add-on in Thunderbird to Download Attachments
In this process, we will explain the use of the Thunderbird Add-on “Attachment Extractor”. This plug-in enables users to download attachments from Thunderbird emails. Take below the steps properly-
- Install the plug-in “Attachment Extractor” from the “add-ons” store.
- Once the installation is completed. Restart the Thunderbird.
- Select the folder from where you need to extract the attachments from the mailbox.
- Right-click on that folder and choose the option “Extract All Attachments”.
- Choose the location to save the downloaded attachments from Thunderbird.
- Finally, you will get all the attachment files in your desired location.
Limitations and Drawbacks of Manual Methods:
For Method 1) The process is only applicable for one attachment file at a time. Therefore, if you have multiple or thousands of emails with attachments, you will need to repeat the same process thousands of times. This repetition makes the process time-consuming.
For Method 2) The plug-in “Extract Attachment” can only be operated on Thunderbird 2.0 to 16.0 versions. The higher version of Thunderbird will not be supporting these plug-ins.
Professional Way to Download Attachments from Thunderbird Emails
It is a highly recommended tool for downloading attachments from Thunderbird emails in batches with the help of eSoftTools Thunderbird Attachment Extractor Software. The tool can download attachments from multiple Thunderbird accounts in one go.
Through this software, users can also extract email addresses and attachments from MBOX files, MBOX Folder, and Thunderbird Profile. There are several options available for downloading attachments such as-
- Download attachments Folder wise
- Download the attachment Message wise
- Download attachments of any specific file extensions.
Steps to download Attachments from Thunderbird
- Launch eSoftTools Thunderbird Attachment Extractor to your computer.
- Click on “Add file / Folder” button from the toolbar.
- Choose a file-adding method from the options: –
- Select MBOX File: – Manually add an MBOX file to the software from the known location.
- Select MBOX Folder: – Select folders that contain multiple MBOX files and add all of them in a single process.
- Auto-Load Thunderbird Profile: – The software will automatically detect the Thunderbird profile location and add all Thunderbird accounts mail folders with just a single click.
Here, you can choose the option “Auto-Load Thunderbird Profile” and go ahead.
- Now, the software loads all the mailboxes with folders and sub-folders as below screenshot.
- Select required folder/sub-folders & click on Extract Attachments button from the toolbar.
- Choose an Attachment Extraction option from the options: –
- Extract Attachment Folder-Wise: – Software will create the folder as the name of the original mail folder and extract attachments folder-wise.
- Extract Attachment Message-Wise: – Software creates the folders by email subject and downloads attachments in it.
- Select and apply other needed attachment filtering and email filtering settings-
- Predefined File Extension: – Through this option, you can extract attachments from predefined file extensions.
- Custom File Extension: – Input file extension manually to extract attachments of specified file types.
- Email Filter: – Filter emails by dates and extract attachments from emails of only chosen dates.
- Click on the “Browse” button to provide the location for downloading the attachments from the Thunderbird.
- At last, click on the “Convert” button to start the thunderbird attachment download process.
As a Closing Remark:
Mozilla Thunderbird is a free-to-use email application that supports attachment extraction through Add-ons or by clicking on attachments to save them one by one. In the above blog, we cover both the manual steps to download attachments at no cost. While this is a time-consuming process, we also recommend a professional Thunderbird Attachment Extractor Software. This tool offers limitless features to easily extract attachments from Thunderbird emails in just a few simple clicks.
