Complete Guide to Archive Email in Thunderbird on Mac & Win​

Are you someone with larger mailboxes and need to archive emails in Thunderbird for better organisation, faster search, or to keep Thunderbird safe from accidental deletion? Then follow this guide till the end for quick, easy, and built-in archiving in Thunderbird.

What Does Thunderbird Email Archival Mean & Why Archive?

In Mozilla Thunderbird, archiving emails means moving emails from active account folders like – Inbox, Sent, Draft, etc to the local archive folder.

Archiving emails in Thunderbird does not delete your emails. These emails are still readable, searchable, and manageable in Thunderbird.

Why is it Suggested to Archive Emails in Thunderbird?

• It lets the user retain old data without hampering the organisation.
• Large IMAP Mailboxes in Thunderbird can slow down Thunderbird’s performance.
• Users also archive email in Thunderbird to save up storage space on the server.
• Archiving is often compulsory for businesses due to data retention policies.
• Helps for easy distinctions between the latest & old(less required) emails.

There is a restriction on the number of emails that can be archived in Thunderbird; however, since the emails are stored in the local folder, it depends on the storage space available in the disk drive.

How to Quick-Archive Email in Thunderbird Locally?

It is the fastest, simplest, and official way to archive Thunderbird. You can also archive multiple messages in one go using this method without requiring any technical knowledge.

Exact Steps to Follow:

1. Select all the emails to be archived. (Use Ctrl & Shift for Bulk Selection)
2. Right-click and click on the Archive icon, or you can simply press A from the keyboard.
3. You can also archive by opening emails one by one and clicking the option for Archive in the menu bar at the top-right.

How to Archive Emails in Thunderbird Manually?

Although quick archiving is a widely used option of Thunderbird due to its features, such as auto sort & folder structure organisation. It lacks the option to choose where your emails are archived and how they are organised. Thus, many users manually drag and drop folders to the specific location/folder for better control.

Tip:
You can also move complete custom folders to archives in Thunderbird.
Right-click on the Folder >> Move To >> Select your archival folder as destination.

Enable & Disable Archive Email in Thunderbird Option

Thunderbird provided you with an option to enable or disable Thunderbird’s archiving of emails, as not everyone needs auto-archiving, and it also blocks accidental transfer of emails to the Thunderbird archive folder.

Don’t worry if your Thunderbird email archive option is not working. Follow the steps below to resolve the issue:

1. Click on the Navigation Menu(three lines).
2. Go to Account Settings.
3. Go to the desired account >> Copies & Folders.
4. Navigate to Message Archives.
5. Keep the checkbox “Checked” to enable and “Unchecked” to disable the option.

After you have checked the box, you can easily auto-archive emails in Thunderbird.

Where is the Thunderbird Archive Folder Location?

Thunderbird archives emails in the Local folder by default. The archive folder is only created and visible after the first archive.

However, you can change the archive folder location in Thunderbird to the email account itself using “Account Settings”.

Thunderbird also lets you customize the location specifically for each configured account.

Here is how to do so:

1. Click on the Navigation menu(three lines) on the top right.
2. Choose Account-Settings.
3. Go to the account for which you want to alter the archive folder location.
4. Go to Copies & Folder & Scroll down to Message Archives.
5. From the “Archives Folder On” drop-down, choose whether you want to archive in the email account or in the local folder.
6. With “Others”, you can choose where in the local folder you need to archive emails in Thunderbird.
7. You can also access the archived email in Thunderbird via the profile folder location.

Thunderbird’s archived emails in Local Folder are located in the Mail Folder >> Local Folder >> Archives.

If you have moved the location, go to IMAPMail option >> Your configured account >> Archives.

Note for Gmail Accounts: 

The archive in the account folder may not be automatically visible in Thunderbird when working with Gmail. Gmail sorts data by labels, not folders. Gmail does not have a dedicated archive folder. Instead, Gmail archives mean removing emails from all the labels and moving them to All Mail.

How to Manage Auto-Archive Settings in Mozilla Thunderbird?

Thunderbird, as an email client, enables you to modify the auto-sort settings to some extent to have better control of how you archive your emails. It auto-sorts emails in specific subfolders based on Year/Month and can even help you keep them all in a single folder.

Here is how you can customise the archive folder structure in Thunderbird:

1. Go to Navigation Menu >> Account Setting >> Copies & folders.
2. Scroll to the Message Archive.
3. Make sure the message archive is enabled.
4. Click on the archive option.
5. Choose how you want to keep the folder stored from the multiple options available.

How to Retrieve Archive Email in Thunderbird?

It is very easy to quickly restore archived emails in Thunderbird. You can simply go to the archived folder, select the emails, and right-click to move to the desired location.

You can also drag & drop an email to the desired location to restore it from archives.

FAQs: Thunderbird Archiving Emails

Q1: What happens to emails in the Thunderbird archive folder?

When you archive an email in Thunderbird, it is simply moved to a dedicated archived folder either inside Local Folders(sorted by Year/Month) or in your account-specific folder. They are not deleted; they are still searchable and can be replied to.

Q2: Why is the archive email in Thunderbird not working?

It is likely because auto-archive using Ctrl+A or Right-click >> Archived is disabled in account settings. Go to Account Settings>> Copies & folder >> Message Archive to enable it.

Q3: How to archive Thunderbird emails older than a date?

To archive emails in date-by-date order in Thunderbird. Go to Tools >> Message Filters >> New. Apply filters using Date | Is Before | Enter the date. Select all the emails and press A to archive Thunderbird emails older than a date.

Conclusion

Thunderbird email archiving is a native free feature offered to organise & retain emails simply. When archiving email in Thunderbird paired with filters & advanced archive options, it helps users to manage their data better.

However, archiving must not be replaced with data backup for better security and easy restoration.