Yesterday after fighting with Thunderbird yet again, I decided to take the plunge and switch my email over to GMail. Jeanine has been using GMail exclusively for over two years (I think it’s been that long now) ever since her last Outlook crash. I wasn’t ready for GMail then and GMail wasn’t ready for me. It’s come a long way in the past two years.
I don’t know if I like the idea of storing my personal emails on an online/public server. But I do like the idea of being able to access them wherever without having to know all my individual email passwords off the top of my head. I have always kept a folder of passwords to my various hosting accounts and clients hosting accounts in Thunderbird. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to move those emails over to GMail or not. I’m probably just being paranoid as everything is out there these days – much more bothersome than some hosting passwords.
I spent a good chunk of time researching yesterday how to move my existing email over. I periodically remove old e-mails (like once a year) where I go through a serious purge. But on a daily basis, I’m not so good at regularly deleting crap I don’t need. With GMail, I already see that changing – select ALL – DELETE – is a very nice option. LOL!
After going back and forth with a few “programs” that would import e-mail into GMail, I decided to opt for using Thunderbird to do the import. I setup an IMAP account for my GMail account in Thunderbird. I could see all the GMail “labels” and I was able to create new ones on the fly right from Thunderbird. Then it was a matter of drop/dragging the folders and e-mails right into the GMail labels. The process went rather smoothly. I created filters on the GMail side as I went along and this morning have been creating some new ones on the fly as I receive e-mails. The process has been remarkably painless for me.