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As forums tell it should be possible to use GNUS for reading maildir created by Thunderbird. I did not find, however, any working implementations posted. And in my own experiments I could not make GNUS to list groups (folders in maildir) to subscribe to.

This is what I did:

  • Manually set up gmail account in Thunderbird and selected the option Message Store Type as File per message (maildir)

  • Checked Thunderbird's directory where it should store emails in maildir format. In my case it is /home/username/.thunderbird/some-id.default/ImapMail/imap.gmail.com which contains the following:

    drwxr-xr-x  4     4k 01-26 10:36 Archive
drwx------  6     4k 01-26 10:49 [Gmail].sbd
drwxr-xr-x  4     4k 01-26 10:36 INBOX
-rw-rw-r--  1 196.7k 01-28 12:28 Archive.msf
-rw-rw-r--  1   1.1k 01-26 10:30 Drafts.msf
-rw-rw-r--  1   2.5k 01-26 11:00 [Gmail].msf
-rw-rw-r--  1 973.4k 01-28 12:22 INBOX.msf
-rw-r--r--  1     25 01-26 10:30 msgFilterRules.dat
-rw-rw-r--  1   2.8k 01-27 12:28 Outbox.msf
-rw-rw-r--  1   1.1k 01-26 10:30 Sent.msf
-rw-rw-r--  1   1.2k 01-26 10:36 Templates.msf
-rw-rw-r--  1   2.8k 01-26 10:59 Trash.msf

  • Then I set the following GNUS options:

    (setq gnus-select-method
     '(nnmaildir ""
         (directory "/home/username/.thunderbird/some-id.default/ImapMail/imap.gmail.com")
         (get-new-mail nil)))
(setq mail-sources nil)
(setq gnus-secondary-select-methods nil)
  • M-x gnus and press ^ (gnus-group-enter-server-mode)
  • Select {nnmaildir:} (opened) and press RET
  • ... and see nothing (there are no groups)
  • ... also nothing to subscribe to in *Groups* buffer when I press U (gnus-group-unsubscribe-group)
  • Tried to change permissions for imap.gmail.com/ (Thunderbird's maildir directory) with chmod -R +w+r+x imap.gmail.com/. Same results.

What is wrong? Why does not GNUS see the groups (mail directories)? How should I set up GNUS to read and edit Thunderbird mails?

(I am on ubuntu 16.04 LTS with Emacs 25.1.1 and Gnus v5.13)

Stas
  • 191
  • 5

1 Answers1

1

You need to tell gnus to turn your Thunderbird account into a new group by running the command `gnus-group-make-doc-group'. Try this:

  1. M-x gnus (Return)

  2. G f (Return)

  3. Enter the full path to your mail box then hit return.