Hotmail backup without POP3 crap?

[MilesAhead]

Seems like the easy way should be to copy email folders to SkyDrive, then download.  But I see no clue anywhere how to do it. I've wasted about 3 hours screwing around with POP3 AddOns that claim to access hotmail but don't work.

Has anyone found the easy way?

[40hz]

Have you tried using Windows Live Mail?

[MilesAhead]

Have you tried using Windows Live Mail?

-40hz (December 22, 2012, 02:42 PM)

Isn't that another online deal? I'm trying to get my stored email to my PC without forwarding one by one.  I tried setting up Thunderbird to access hotmail following guides but I get not accept password.

I don't know why they don't just have right click on folder to move it in one shot.

[40hz]

I take it you don't have Outlook?

[Attronarch]

Have you tried using Windows Live Mail?

-40hz (December 22, 2012, 02:42 PM)

Isn't that another online deal? I'm trying to get my stored email to my PC without forwarding one by one.  I tried setting up Thunderbird to access hotmail following guides but I get not accept password.

I don't know why they don't just have right click on folder to move it in one shot.

-MilesAhead (December 22, 2012, 03:03 PM)

You could try to add it as IMAP account to Thunderbird and then use Import/Export Tools add-on. That's how I do it for one of my e-mail accounts which is IMAP only, but I haven't tried it with Hotmail. It should work if you can add it as IMAP account.

[MilesAhead]

I take it you don't have Outlook?

-40hz (December 22, 2012, 03:04 PM)

Nope. I use Thunderbird.  I read all these articles how I can stick these addons and proxies on TB to use it. None of them work. I can't believe I've wasted 4 hours on this already. There should be a way to just zip up the whole folder and download it.

[MilesAhead]

They only do POP3. It's hard for me to believe that a technology company that puts a menu for cloud storage on your email page whether you want it or not, doesn't have a command in the menu to copy a folder over.  Geez! It would take like 1 millisecond to go over the backbone.

Guess I'll have to go through the messages and forward the important ones 1 at a time. I'd be done by now if I did that at the start.

[Attronarch]

Wait, what is the problem? I just added Hotmail account to Thunderbird and exported all e-mails.

[MilesAhead]

Wait, what is the problem? I just added Hotmail account to Thunderbird and exported all e-mails.

-Attronarch (December 22, 2012, 03:25 PM)

Won't let me log on. What settings did you use?  What version of Thunderbird?  Are you using an AddOn?

[Attronarch]

Thunderbird 17.0, added the account via: Tools - Account settings - Add mail account. Filled in required fields, Thunderbird set up everything else (screenshot of server settings attached), and I just confirmed. It took it some time to kick off the download since it had to grab around thousand messages. Once the messages were downloaded I exported them using the add-on. It even has the option you mentioned - export as zipped folder.

If it doesn't let you log on it might be that you mistyped your password or have inadequate server settings?

[MilesAhead]

I tried thunderbird 2 3 16 17 with and without WebMail AddOn. It won't accept password.  All I can think is the POP3 is not enabled on my account.

[MilesAhead]

I think I found the issue.  I use [email protected]

I have another account with no underscores in the name.  Set up and worked first time.  Looks like I'm screwed unless I can figure out how to get around that problem.


Edit: that wasn't it.  Somehow my password got killed. I was getting in via the browser because of the cookie. Boy I really love Captcha'. Only took me 1/2 to get it to accept it.  What fun they've made of the web now!

[f0dder]

Perhaps MailStore? Only briefly played with it years ago, but if you like using hotmail as the main interface, perhaps this is decent as a backup?

[MilesAhead]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have it working now. Only took 7 hours to do a 15 minute job. 
Also I turned on forwarding for awhile. Just to make sure I don't lose emails until I see everything is stable.

I really don't like web mail. Might be great for traveling salesmen or support people who are on the road. But to me it seems flaky.  Just awhile ago I backed up in Thunderbird by moving stuff from a folder where I save mails to Inbox.  Thuderbird downloaded them all fine.  But even though you select all the items in Hotmail with the blue link to really really select everything, when you move to another folder, they don't always get moved.  But by then I already had them backed up so I deleted.

That one page at a time web access just bites in my estimation.

[f0dder]

I really don't like web mail. Might be great for traveling salesmen or support people who are on the road.

-MilesAhead (December 22, 2012, 07:22 PM)

*shrug* - the company I'm at uses gmail for infrastructure, works pretty well. Parts of it is definitely has better UX than any normal client I've used. I'm pretty skeptical of basing corporate stuff in the cloud, though, and I'd never trust it for my (all things considered, less important) private emails. I mean, it works super well, but they can index my stuff and patriot-act it and I have no guarantee it'll be there when I wake up tomorrow... but for daily work, it does work great.

Still wondering what to do about personal mail, though. Current thoughts gravitate around dovecot on my linux box along with a imap-pull script, but I'm not really sure.