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When Thunderbird downloads emails from our server (Shaw) into any of our subfolders, the email is deleted from the server. Why??

  • 7 ردود
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  • آخر ردّ كتبه MelodyO

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If the emails go into our Inbox, everything is fine. But if we've set up a message filter to send the email into a subfolder, the email deletes off our server. I didn't even think that was possible with IMAP, but there you go. Halp!

If the emails go into our Inbox, everything is fine. But if we've set up a message filter to send the email into a subfolder, the email deletes off our server. I didn't even think that was possible with IMAP, but there you go. Halp!

الحل المُختار

I have several IMAP-connected accounts, all with subfolders and in none of them does moving a message to a subfolder in the same account delete it from the server. It does, of course, move those messages to the subfolder on both the server and in all my various email clients.

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All Replies (7)

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Where are the subfolders?

If they are under Local Folders then it is behaving exactly as it should for IMAP.

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Zenos said

Where are the subfolders? If they are under Local Folders then it is behaving exactly as it should for IMAP.

Oh ho, I did not know that! How can I tell and/or change if they ARE in local folders? Thanks for your help, as I'm new to Thunderbird and otherwise love the program. :0)

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It has a big Logo on the folder in the Folder Pane that says Local Folders.

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So, again, where are the subfolders?

IMAP shows you the folders (and their messages) as stored on the server. If you remove a message in Thunderbird, it will be removed from the server as well, to keep Thunderbird and the server synchronized.

Moving a message outside the IMAP account, for instance to Local Folders in Thunderbird, or to another email account, removes it from the IMAP account, so is regarded (by the IMAP-connected server) as a deletion.

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Zenos said

So, again, where are the subfolders? IMAP shows you the folders (and their messages) as stored on the server. If you remove a message in Thunderbird, it will be removed from the server as well, to keep Thunderbird and the server synchronized. Moving a message outside the IMAP account, for instance to Local Folders in Thunderbird, or to another email account, removes it from the IMAP account, so is regarded (by the IMAP-connected server) as a deletion.

It turns out they aren't in local folders, they're simply subfolders of the inbox. We're going to increase the times in between Thunderbird checking for new emails, to give our phones a chance to download the new messages before Thunderbird deletes them from our server.

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الحل المُختار

I have several IMAP-connected accounts, all with subfolders and in none of them does moving a message to a subfolder in the same account delete it from the server. It does, of course, move those messages to the subfolder on both the server and in all my various email clients.

more options

Zenos said

I have several IMAP-connected accounts, all with subfolders and in none of them does moving a message to a subfolder in the same account delete it from the server. It does, of course, move those messages to the subfolder on both the server and in all my various email clients.

OMG, our server had created subfolders and we just didn't realize it! Thank you for your help - the great disappearing email mystery is solved. :0D