On Friday, 26 December 2025 02:17:20 Greenwich Mean Time Dale wrote: > On 12/25/25 9:39 AM, Eli Schwartz wrote: > > On 12/25/25 6:24 AM, Dale wrote: > >> On 12/25/25 3:33 AM, Michael wrote: > >>> On Thursday, 25 December 2025 08:32:15 Greenwich Mean Time Dale wrote: > >>>> Update. I found a add-on that imports old emails. It's named > >>>> "ImportExportTools NG" and it's available by searching for it in the > >>>> add-ons Tool menu. You just find the directory for your old email and > >>>> let it do its thing. It took a few minutes so I was pretty sure it was > >>>> working this time. Do expect read messages to appear as unread after > >>>> it > >>>> is done. I'm going through and marking some older threads as read. > >>>> > >>>> This is a LOT like Seamonkey but it is different enough that it's going > >>>> to take some getting used to. Still, at this point, I'm switched and I > >>>> think Thunderbird is going to be around a while. > >>>> > >>>> I do have one thing that is annoying and I can't figure out how to get > >>>> rid of it. I don't know what it is for one. In the message pane, > >>>> right > >>>> below From, To, Subject and such is a section that starts with > >>>> "autocrypt" with a lot of stuff that looks like a encryption key or > >>>> something. Since I have no idea what it is, no need in me seeing it > >>>> and > >>>> it taking up so much space on my screen. Anyone have a clue what it is > >>>> so maybe I can figure out how to make it go away? I've tried making > >>>> things visible and invisible but that part stays there. It seems to > >>>> only show on my own messages tho, my replies to this list for example. > >>>> > >>>> Thanks. > >>>> > >>>> Dale > >>>> > >>>> :-) :-) > >>> > >>> I'm not sure what you're describing - it doesn't show up here, but I > >>> have not > >>> enabled message encryption. > >>> > >>> T'bird is using a different encryption tool to Enigmail, which was > >>> abandoned > >>> some years ago. You can set it up under Settings > Privacy & Security > >>> > >>>> Email > >>> > >>> End-To-End Encryption. You can read about it here: > >>> > >>> https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:OpenPGP:Migration-From-Enigmail > >>> > >>> You can export/import your GnuPG keys to Thunderbird's RNP tool, or > >>> set up new > >>> keys using RNP. > >> > >> I think that article is about a much older version of Thunderbird. > >> Nothing it says to go to seems to exist. > >> > >> I did find the import tool. Thing is, every time I point it to my keys, > >> I get a error. I've tried secret and public keys. Neither work. > >> > >> I'm not sure what it is looking for because I have OpenPGP keys. It just > >> refuses to use them. I need them because I have old email that I might > >> need to access some day. I really need all the keys. If possible. > > > > Account Settings -> End-To-End Encryption > > > > Select "Add Key" and import existing key (from file). What's the error > > you get? > > I get: ERROR! Failed to import file. That's it. I've tried different > things, including the steps Michael mentioned. Same error. I'm sure > I'm missing something. I'll keep beating at it.
Have you set a 'Master Password' on Thunderbird, or whatever they call it these days? When you export your private key, GnuPG will ask for a passphrase to encrypt the file with. Thunderbird will then ask for the same passphrase to decrypt it before importing it. The passphrase for the private key will be secured with Thunderbird's master password and stored in Thunderbird's profile directory. This is one of the criticisms on Mozilla's choice for RNP - the Thunderbird master password is cryptographically weaker than GnuPG's passphrase. I followed these steps some years ago and it worked after some experimentation. I'm sure the public keys needed armor file format, or Thunderbird would not import them. I can't recall if the private key needed to be in armored, or in binary format. You can try both and see what gives. There's also an RNP log file you could look into for any detailed error message and there's an RNP CLI to run some basic commands - but you'll have to search the interwebs for the details. > I'm also looking into converting the email format. Convert from mbox to > maildir. I've read some possibly old articles that maildir isn't stable > or has some other issues. It's the other way around. Mbox is a single large file, where all your messages are stored. Every time you read or fetch a message this file has to be accessed, locked, edited, saved, unlocked. With Maildir, each message is stored in a separate file. The probability of Mbox becoming corrupted and causing loss of ALL your messages is proportionately larger than Maildir, where you could lose a single message when something goes wrong. > I wish people would date what they write so > we know when something is outdated. Anyway, is there any problems with > switching to maildir? I found a tool to do it. A little harder for > pop3 but doable. Plus, it copies to a new directory so no loss if it > fails. POP3 is a legacy protocol, at the time when Internet/network connectivity was intermittent (think dialup) and messages were received by your mail server, but fetched and stored locally in your single PC. Storage was expensive, so messages were fetched and deleted from the server, but if desired some of them could be kept longer on the client, or printed in hard copy for ... archiving! The IMAP4 protocol has taken over from POP3 for many decades now. The messages are stored and organised into folders on the mail server. More than one client device can be used to access the server and synchronise their local storage of messages and folder layout with the server - bidirectionally. Messages can be downloaded and stored locally, but they don't have to be. With Internet connectivity always-on, the client can access a message on the server on demand - if so configured. Unless you have some unspecified reason to persist with POP3, e.g. email provider limitations on message storage, it should be time to move on to IMAP4 (and Maildir). Just make sure both server and client are set up to use the same protocol. > Oh, one added improvement. It auto fetches emails now. Seamonkey > stopped doing that ages ago. Now, it fetches new emails without me > having to hit the button manually. See, it's different, gonna take some > time to get used to but there is positive points to this switch. >From where I'm seated I can only see positive points to switching from poorly maintained, out-of-date client software and legacy protocols, to a fully functioning modern email system. ;-)
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