Moving Messages in Thunderbird

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Mozilla Thunderbird must be installed on your computer. You must have an administrative account to install software on your computer. If you do not have administrative privileges, contact DECS and we will install it for you.

An alternative to deleting messages from the Inbox is moving the messages to folders on your M: drive. To do this, the destination folders will need to be created. If you already have a folder or folders in which to place the messages, skip the folder creation steps.

To Create New Folders:

  • Right click on the account you want to create the new folder within. This will be your e-mail address and should be located near the upper left corner of the Thunderbird window.
  • In the new menu choose "New Folder". (Click images below for a larger view)
    Screen image of creating a new folder in Thunderbird
  • Enter a folder name in the designated field. Finally, click "Ok" and the folder will appear under your account listing.

To Move Messages:

  • Go to the folder which currently holds the messages you wish to move. To select more than one message at a time hold down the Control key (abbreviated "Ctrl" on your keyboard) and then start clicking on each message to be moved.
    Screen image of second step in moving messages in Thunderbird
  • When all of the desired messages have been selected right click on any of the messages to open up a menu.
  • Within the new menu point to "Move to" and choose the folder you just created. This will move all selected messages to the new folder and erase the messages from the previous location.
    Screen image of third step in moving messages in Thunderbird