RIP Postbox ... well got a year or two left!

[Richard Worthington]

Hi,

Just received the below link saying Postbox will be discontinued next year since they've just been bought out by em-client

Link

This is a real shame since Postbox is the only app I have found (so far) that has the features I need. Hopefully it will last a year or two without upgrades and will share any issues I see in future on this forum.

Cheers,

Richard

[Gérald Tenenbaum]

It's a nightmare. I tried to import my Postbox settings and the result was a complete mess.

I guess the best way out for PostBox users will be to use Thunderbird.

Regards,

Gérald

[David Kirk]

My suggestion is to avoid emClient and go directly to thunderbird. I just spent almost an hour trying to download and stablize emClient. The good news about thunderbird is that you can keep your profile with minimal disruption. My suggestion: exit postbox, locate the profile on  PC and copy to external media. THEN, install thunderbird and exit. Next, copy profile to c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles

Next, start thunderbird, click alt key if menu bar doesn't show, then click help>troubleshootinginformation, scroll down to 'profile folder' and click 'open folder' , then exit thunderbird, backup one folder,  and copy your backed up profile to be within the profile folder itself. Now, restart thunderbird. click help>troubleshootinginformation, scroll down this time to 'profiles' and click 'about:profiles'. then, click the 'create profile' button, then click next, then enter a short name for profile, such as Postboxprofile, then click the 'choose' button and locate and select the profile you copied in, then click finish and then click launch. you should now be in thunderbird. 

[Joe O'Leary]

I am a Mac user. Don't like Apple Mail at all. What's my best bet, Thunderbird??

[Richard Worthington]

Thanks for the suggestion and detail! I used to use Thunderbird many years ago so I'm really interested to see how it's progressed so will give it a try!

[Steve Tyler]

They say Tbird has had major upgrades and such, but that's probably behind the scenes.  The front end still looks the same as it has for years and years.  I'm using it (and have been for years amid searching for something else), but I haven't really noticed anything "new and improved".

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[Bryan Smith]

Although I have a long-standing Postbox license, I have continued to use Thunderbird as my default mail client since Adam was a lad—well, since the dawn of TBird, anyway. Yes, really - I'm 86. It works now as well as it ever has, with lots of features. Does emClient do mailmerge, for instance? Does it import and display Google shared Calendars in the calendar feature? Thunderbird even looks good, with display configurations to suit the individual user.

I installed emClient some years ago and it was a disaster;  lots of 'features' but so buggy it was unusable. It also costs money! If you have money, better to give your money to Thunderbird imho.

[David Kirk]

I respect that some people may not care for Thunderbird, but it is significantly new from how it was just two years ago. The app is on a new codebase, having retired the original that was 20 years old. The first phase was called Supernova (2023) and the second phase is called Nebula (2024). I am enclosing the announcement page for each here to give an idea of the enhancements:

 Here is the 2023 announcement: https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/115.0/whatsnew/  

 and the 2024 announcement:  https://blog.thunderbird.net/2024/07/welcome-to-thunderbird-128-nebula/

and for an idea on how active development is, this URL shows releases to date:  https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/releases/

Support for Exchange is coming, and the Thunderbird app for Android is now in beta test.

The good news is that it is free, although donations are encouraged. And the best news is that the Postbox profile works out of the box for Windows, Mac and Linux. Thunderbird will shortly have two release levels available, the existing release 128 extended support release, and the soon-to-be announced monthly release (which will have the latest new stuff) and that is currently release 131 (still not official, but it works). Both are available at thunderbird.net .

No, I get nothing for posting this; I happen to be an active volunteer on the Thunderbird support forum, and I felt I would be remiss in not sharing this info to assist you in making the decision on your next move. 

[David Kirk]

Okay, I don't mean to annoy people, so I'll make this my final announcement:  In addition to Thunderbird, there is also Betterbird, at https://betterbird.eu/  Proponents of Betterbird argue that it has fewer bugs, has more features, yet is 100% compatible with thunderbird (because it is a fork of thunderbird) and also 100% compatible with Postbox. Betterbird is also free and relies on donations. Everything that Thunderbird does is also done by Betterbird. If stability is a top priority, I suggest version 115, only because version 128 is the latest release and receiving regular updates as features are added and bugs fixed.

Observation: I see that only 37 people have viewed this thread, so my inference is that this forum is not actively followed. Anyway, if interested in moving to thunderbird or betterbird, you're welcome to post questions to the thunderbird help forum at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/thunderbird   State that you're moving from Postbox and that will signal the assistance category you would like. 

[Richard Worthington]

Hi David, 

Thanks again for the detail - really useful!

I must admit I prefer the cleaner card layout of 115 vs 128 - do you know if this will return/be an option in future versions?

I did google and tried some general custom css but it didn't work - think this might have been old guidance I found - is it possible to tweak the style elements? I saw a few possibilities in the config settings but seemed only a few elements.

I'll move over to the TB forums next!

Thanks again,

Richard 

[davidb...@gmail.com]

I'm definitely curious about Betterbird, but I'm concerned about migrating 15 years and hundreds of thousands of emails in Postbox over to a new system. Has anyone tried this? 

I'm also wondering if it might be better to just keep Postbox around for archival purposes, and try to start fresh with a new email client.

[Richard Worthington]

I've actually spent some time this morning looking at emClient and it might actually be an "ok" alternative to Postbox IMHO. In particular on my wish list:

• You can configure the look and feel in detail with quite a good theme editor. It has a lot of display settings in the main setup e.g. altering the spacing of the folder list
• It doesn't seem to have keyboard shortcuts by default but it has Quick Actions so you can define your own e.g. Press A to archive to a particular folder
• I can't put favourite folders in a toolbar at the top but they are displayed in the left hand pane so can drag and drop there
• You can create smart folders to combine emails from different accounts/folders - these are called "Search Folders" BTW

It's also free for person use - the paid version had extra features but none were of particular use to me.

I'll continue to explore this and also Thunderbird and report back.

[David Kirk]

Just as an example, I did this:

install thunderbird or Betterbird and when it starts, click the ALT key to show menu bar

Next, click tools>import>import from a thunderbird installation

Next, click 'choose a profile folder'

At that point, locate and click your Postbox profile (Postbox must NOT be running)

Thunderbird or Betterbird will then import the profile and prompt for passwords

That's it.

I saw a question about CSS styling. Yes, that is possible, but only for styling. It's not needed. There are also many addons that can be used to supplement the application and Thunderbird and Betterbird share the same. And they update at almost the same time and use same release level numbers. A nice feature of both is that they retain most of the postbox look and feel. I spent two hours this morning with eM Client and, although it seems powerful, there is a steep steep learning curve. Just my two cents...

[David Kirk]

First, I apologize for over-hyping Thunderbird. I like it's easy transition and the similar look and feel. But the current release (128) is still evolving with new features. The stable version is 115, if interested. Betterbird's is still on their website at betterbird.eu, but to get the thunderbird 115, you would need to download your preferred version (e.g., Windows, Mac) at https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/115.16.2/    Betterbird defaults to UNthreaded message folders, but Thunderbird defaults to Threaded. Changing from threaded to unthreaded is doable, but not simple. I suggest not upgrading to 128 for now (and that is also stated on the Betterbird site).

I said yesterday that the migration was easy. It was, but another person shared that his filters didn't migrate automatically, but that everything else did.

After experimenting with eM Client, I found it stable and with possibilities. There is a website of tutorials at https://www.emclient.com/tutorials that were informative, and an active user forum at https://forum.emclient.com/  There is an interesting thread there that you may find useful:' 

https://forum.emclient.com/t/from-postbox-to-em-client-worth-it/101685     I like the simple backup and restore, but transferring to another email client may prove problematic, as the transfer media appears to be XML.

Finally, I did a web search for 'best email client' and many sites popped up with reviews of top clients. Most included a review of Thunderbird, but few mentioned eM Client - but that may not be relevant. 

Ok, put a fork in me; I'm done.

[Richard Worthington]

Hi David,

No need to apologise - appreciate your insight and advice.

I also continued playing with eM Client and also installed Betterbird - the latter seemed ok to me and I liked the simpler card layout. I prefer unthreaded so no probs on this front.

Whilst I was researching em Client I saw this thread on their forum about Postbox vs eM Client

em Client forum

There was some negative feedback on this that has maybe tipped the balance towards Betterbird.

I might go into denial mode and continue with Postbox for now until it stops working!

[Olen Myhre]

Figured I'd throw my experience in here for you as well.

Over the years, I've been using most all the options that people have mentioned.  I've been Thunderbird for a decade, I've tried Mailbird for a short stint, and I think maybe another in there but I don't remember what it was.  I found Postbox a few years ago and have been loving it.  I had no intentions of going anywhere.  
When this notification came out a few days ago about Postbox, I did a quick look into eM client and decided to give it a try.  So far, I've not had any major complaints.  Don't get me wrong, there were things that fell in the "that ain't gonna fly" category but I was surprised how easy it was to fix the issues I was having.  They weren't really issues so much as they were layout/design/functionality preferences that I wanted changed.

I'm still messing around with it so I can't tell you for certainty that I will be staying with it be as it stands right now, there are good chances I will.  I'm happy to see they have an android app!  I'm not going to invest the time to mess with it yet till I'm more certain about the desktop version.

Best wishes to you in whatever route you take.

[Rita Marques]

Hi all, I'm jumping on here to share my suggestion. I've been searching for an alternative over the last few days, and while doing that yesterday, I came across this exclusive offer from Mailbird to Postbox users on X, so I decided to give Mailbird a go!

Their paid plans are not cheap in my opinion, but I got a good deal with this promo! They're offering a substantial discount on their paid plans and also created an exclusive free version for Postbox users. So it does not hurt to try! :) 

I'm on Windows and, so far, the app seems like the perfect alternative for me. And they recently released their Mac version too.

I hope this information helps you all with your decisions, I'd recommend checking their offer here: https://www.getmailbird.com/postbox/. All you need to do is insert your Postbox license key, name, and email address to see the offer.

Best wishes,

[Gérald Tenenbaum]

Thanks for sharing.

It's too bad that Mailbird does not support POP3 for Mac. Otherwise, it would have been a good solution.

Regards,

Gérald

[Bryan Smith]

Thank you for your message of Tue, 29 Oct 2024 03:09:06 -0700 (PDT):

I see there's a New Outlook Mail for Windows that looks cool and in terms of features and functionality appears to be an MS version of Thunderbird. Has anyone tried it?

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/postbox-discussion/285e215b-b67a-491f-bccc-70f9e98432fbn%40googlegroups.com.

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Best regards,
Bryan Smith

[Rita Marques]

Happy to help! This is still the first version of their Mac app.

I've asked their support team about POP3, they're working on it and will support it very soon! 

[David Kirk]

Just an update. Being retired, I had time to do some basic evaluation. The Mailbird item has promise, as it eliminates much of screen clutter, letting one focus on content. On the technical side, it does not do plain text, just HTML, but maybe that's a concern I need to let go of. And the price is just $10 a year for life and personal support is real, as I was able to write and get a personal response.  I also tried eM Client and found it closer to the look and feel of Postbox and Thunderbird. If you may like Mailbird, I suggest downloading the free trial and not exercise your Postbox license discount until you see how it works. I saw that because the discount is significant if you buy the discount ($10) and also add lifetime support at $10 a year.  I will probably stay Thunderbird because of the many addons I depend on, such as grammar correction, punctuation prompting, mail merge and the many other addons. BUT, what I do like about both is they seem very solid. Paying an occasional update fee ensures long-term support. And , eM Client has the best backup and restore of all, far above Thunderbird. Mailbird backup and restore is almost identical to Thunderbird's (it's easy, but totally manual and not done unless you do it - em Client's is automatic).