New Fedora User - Mailspring Feature Questions

Help
1

After 20 yrs on Mac Mail, I have moved to Fedora and looking for an email client. I have tried Thunderbird for a few months but it’s just not up to the job (global search mainly, totally unusable). I have a few questions before trying Mailspring…

  1. Does it support LOCAL folders? I have 20 yrs of email nested in folders and nicely organised.
  2. Does the global search work?! (Will it search ALL folders, local and imap, for the query I enter?)
  3. How easy is to migrate Thunderbird to Mailspring?

Thanks

2

In order:

  1. Local folders: no. Mailspring is an IMAP client only: every folder you see is a folder on the server. There’s no local-only store and no mbox import. If your 20 years of mail are in Thunderbird “Local Folders”, the way to bring them over is to use Thunderbird to copy them into folders on the IMAP server first; once they’re on the server, Mailspring syncs and indexes them like everything else. Can I import mail from another email application? (.mbox, mail archive formats, etc) — Mailspring Documentation

  2. Global search: yes, and it’s fast — it’s a local full-text index, not a server-side search. It covers every folder in the account (select “All Accounts” in the sidebar to search every mailbox at once), with in:, from:, to:, subject:, has:attachment, before:/after: and AND/OR/NOT operators. The one limit to know about: headers (sender, subject, recipients) are indexed for all mail, but message body text is only indexed for messages whose bodies Mailspring has downloaded, roughly the last three months plus anything you’ve opened. For very old mail, search by sender or subject. Search with advanced, Gmail-style queries — Mailspring Documentation

  3. Migration: there’s nothing to import — connect the account and Mailspring pulls everything from the server. Thunderbird’s filters, tags and local folders don’t carry over; mail rules would need to be recreated in Preferences > Mail Rules.