Having problems with Thunderbird + Gmail : Want copying behaviour, am getting moving instead
I access a Gmail account with Thunderbird from browsers on differing machines. I also tried using Thunderbird itself to access the mail in Gmail.
So we have three different pieces here: A) Gmail account itself B) Thunderbird's view of the gmail account C) Thunderbird's local folders
What I was expecting was:
1) Thunderbird would pull copies of info on gmail (A) to Thunderbird's view of gmail account (B).
2) I would drag and drop folders or emails into the local folders (C) from Thunderbird's view of gmail account (B)
3) I would end up with gmail itself (A) having the email, Thunderbirds view of gmail account (B), and a copy in local folders (C).
You'll ask "Was it IMAP or SMTP/POP?". I entered the info in TB for the IMAP. There is SMTP information too that I see in TB. However, on gmail's settings on gmail itself says IMAP is disabled. POP is not disabled.
What I've got is confusion and things not where I expected.
1) I had Thunderbird pull info to its version of the gmail. 2) I dragged and dropped things (folders and emails) into local folders thinking I was making copies
Instead of what I expected, I ended up with:
Gmail account (A): All the tags somehow got pulled and the email is all sitting (I think maybe) in 'All Mail'. Not sure as there are hundreds of emails to look at an I think some things have been taken out of gmail.
Thunderbird's version of gmail account (B): Had a lot of email from gmail that had identical folders under the account in TB. Now those folders under TB's version of the email from gmail are empty.
Thunderbird's local folders (C): I think all the missing email from both gmail (A) and Thunderbird's version of the gmail account B) are now in local folders.
That's very much not the outcome I was looking for. I also was unclear was whether folders under the gmail account in Thunderbird were (in fact) local... the presence of the 'local folders' separately left me unsure.
I haven't used a mail client for personal use for a decade or more now. I use webmail (gmail). However, I wanted to do what I would have done in the old days - I wanted to pull down a copy of everything in gmail and save it (back when, it would have been as a .PST).
Mostly I was hoping for: I) Gmail mail is left on gmail. II) TB's version of the gmail account holds a copy of everything in gmail III) and I can backup, with a structure similar to gmail being preserved, a local repository (in whatever the right export format is these days) IV) If I'm in Thunderbird, I can send an email via gmail
I believe I can get every email that was messed up on gmail back there with some work. What I don't know is how to do what I want to do , as described immediately above. (Items I, II, III, and IV)
How can I do those things?
And are the folders under the gmail account representation in Thunderbird actually local? If so, why is there also local folders?
All Replies (3)
Perhaps you need to start over. Google use an all mail folder to hold all of your mail. Any folders in their web interfaces, and in IMAP really are generated on the fly from labels google add to each email in the all mail folder.
So without reading all of your stuff, you can not just move a message from gmail to local folders as if it is in the inbox, it will have the inbox label removed on the gmail site and remain in the all mail folder. That is how Gmail works. It is unlike any other IMAP server in that regard.
Empty folders are more likely indexing issues caused by antivirus than anything else. Try right clicking the folders, selecting properties and then the repair button should see them populated the same as on the web.
We generally recommend an exemption in the antivirus for the Thunderbird profile folders as AV causes just so many issues.
Initially, I got to the point where the email from the other provider's mail was in gmail.
Then I setup Thunderbird for what I thought was IMAP (Google currently says IMAP is disabled but I may have done that after the mess). Thunderbird brought a lot of stuff (all that was in gmail at that time for which there is was a synced tag/folder). Let's say anything left in gmail ended up in 'gmail in thunderbird'.
From what you said, I understood this: If Thunderbird using IMAP pulls from Gmail to put in Thunderbird, the original one in Gmail is gone (it's in Thunderbird). That would make sense for what I observed.
Maybe I should have used SMTP/POP instead. I was not aware that Gmails IMAP is different than most (all) others - that's Google... sigh.
What I need to understand now:
If I disable IMAP and move files currently in my 'Local Folders' in Thunderbird, can I then mail them one at a time, using SMTP, back into gmail or to another gmail account)?
The data (a few hundred emails) needs to be back in the gmail again. I need to repopulate the content now in Thunderbird back into gmail as the most important requirement!
Have you read this article? it may be a little dated, but the fundamentals of gmail and Thunderbird have changed only in very minor ways in a decade. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-gmail