Migrating off of Thunderbird
Q: Why do I need to migrate off of Thunderbird?
A: Microsoft has announced that at some point in 2020, The Office365 mail environment will cease supporting the industry-standard protocols used for transferring e-mail (POP/IMAP/SMTP)...only Micrsoft's proprietary ActiveSync protocol (sometimes called "Exchange format") will be supported. This means that any mail client that doesn't support ActiveSync, including Thunderbird, will no longer be compatible with Office365. As such, current users of Thunderbird will need to find a different way of accessing their O365 accounts.
Q: What are my options regarding new mail programs?
A: All users, irregardless of what operating system their computer uses, can use the O365 webmail interface at http://owa.ur.rochester.edu
If you prefer/need to use a locally-installed mail client on your computer, the recommended applications are:
Macintosh: Apple Mail
Windows: Microsoft Outlook
Linux: Evolution Mail
Q: How do I decide which method to use?
A: When deciding what method you'll use for accessing O365, it's important to understand that Office365 does not make backups of your email. If you have archives of your old e-mail and you want to ensure you don't lose them, then I strongly suggest you (a) use a local e-mail client on your computer, and (b) you make sure that computer is getting backed up by the BCS/CVS central Retrospect backup server.
Q: What is the process for migrating to a different mail client?
A: Irregardless of the client used, there are three basic steps to the migration. First, you need to install the new mail client on your computer(s). Second, you need to configure it to work with your O365 account. Third, you need to migrate your data from Thunderbird to the new client. Each client works differently so the process is unique for each mail client listed above.
Q: Ok, I'm going to install a new mail client on my computer. How do I do the migration:
A:
For Mac users: AppleMailMigration
For Windows users: OutlookMigration
For Linux users: EvolutionMailMigration