Gmail labels don't show up in Thunderbird
I have constant trouble with folders/labels in Thunderbird that don't show up on a different machine or remain inaccessible after renaming them.
My setup is quite simple: I have one gmail account that I access via Thunderbird on two machines (Linux PC + MacBook).
I had a folder (let's call it "work") with a lot of e-mails and I just decided that I need to move a few of those into a (new) subfolder (let's call it "project1"). On my Linux PC:
1) I created the subfolder "project1" within the folder "work".
2) I moved a few emails from "work" to the new subfolder.
3) Everything looks good on my Linux PC.
Now going to my MacBook:
1) The new subfolder does not appear in the folder tree.
2) I click on my account and go to "Manage folder subscriptions" --> I find that the new subfolder "project1" is shown at the right location in the folder tree and is marked as subscribed (it is ticked).
3) Restart Thunderbird, no change whatsoever.
4) Out of options, I unsubscribe from "project1".
4a) Close the folder tree, and open it again. Then re-subscribe to "project1". Close/open folder tree. No subfolder appears.
5) I unsubscribe from "project1" again.
5a) Restart Thunderbird.
5b) Going to "Manage folder subscriptions", the new subfolder "project1" does not even appear anymore in the folder tree.
5c) I click on "Refresh". Nothing changes. The subfolder does not show up.
6) I unsubscribe from the label "work".
6a) Restart Thunderbird.
6b) My folder "work" disappears as expected.
6c) I re-subscribe to the folder "work" (the subfolder "project1" is still not listed).
6d) Restart Thunderbird and the folder "work" re-appears and the e-mails within it get downloaded.
7) Still, the subfolder "project1" is nowhere to be found in the folder tree under "Manage folder subscriptions".
On my Linux PC, I can easily work with that folder and all the e-mails within. On my MacBook, there is simply no trace of this folder. This is not the first time I have such a problem and my usual solution would be to
a) create a new subfolder with a different name on my MacBook and
b) hope it appears also on my LinuxPC
c) then move all e-mails from "project1" to "project-tmp" on my LinuxPC"
d) then remove "project1" and
e) then rename "project-tmp" to "project1".
But then, sometimes, when renaming folders, they become inaccessible and I have to do the whole recovery procedure again. Looking at the Gmail webinterface, I can't find any issues and all labels I created are there or are accordingly renamed.
The whole problem obviously happens also the other way around, i.e. I create a new subfolder on my MacBook and I cannot make my Thunderbird on the Linux PC make it display it.
I don't know what I am doing wrong. This is an incredibly frustrating thing, given that this is such an everyday procedure to do and the recovery procedure is very tedious and time-consuming (in particular if there are several hundred e-mails to be moved).
What can I do??
Modified by mangrove
All Replies (4)
I don't know. I use several Gmail accounts across various devices (Linux/Thunderbird, Windows/Thunderbird, Android/Gmail App, Android/Typemail) and I don't experience your problem. It seems to me that the missing link (for me) is the Mac part of it.
Some clients seem to make a distinction between labels and folders in Gmail. I don't understand this, as labels are the Gmail way of categorising messages and in IMAP these labels are necessarily presented as folders. But i wouldn't expect Thunderbird on a Mac to operate any differently to Thunderbird on Windows or on Linux.
I also couldn't believe that Thunderbird operates differently on a Mac.
A few weeks ago, I re-organised all my e-mails which came with creating/deleting/renaming lots of folders and moving forth and back thousands of e-mails. I did some of that on my Linux PC and I encountered the same issues.
I think one of the key issues here lies in the fact that the label/folder "project1" exists but for some dubious reason it is not shown in the folder tree under "Manage folder subscriptions" which makes absolutely no sense to me.
Is there any way of debugging this? Can I make the IMAP communication visible somehow?
If I could see what is transferred then we could find out whether Gmail is at fault (omitting this label) or sth is wrong in Thunderbird.
I have spent the last two hours digging through IMAP commands and I have learned interesting things but I still don't fully understand what's happening behind the scenes.
I got Thunderbird to write some log-files about its IMAP communication as described in https://www.lifewire.com/pop-imap-smtp-traffic-thunderbird-1173156 and I've talked on the command line to gmail's IMAP server with the openssl command.
In the TB log-files I saw that TB issues special IMAP commands that list all folders/labels that are "subscribed" to. The command is:
? LIST (subscribed) "" "*" return (special-use)
The last two words are unimportant in this case (they tell e.g. if a folder is marked as the trash), but the "(subscribed)" keyword makes GMail return only those folders that are subscribed to! If you omit this word and issue
? LIST "" "*"
then you'll get every folder and all (sub)subfolders.
The important news for me here is that the attribute "(subscribed)" is not handled per email-client, but rather for the whole gmail account. I.e. I cannot unsubscribe from my folder "work" on my Mac but still subscribe to it on my Linux PC. If I unsubscribe on my Mac, then the folder will also disappear in TB on my Linux... This was entirely new to me. Further, I could not find any indication in the Gmail web-interface if a folder is subscribed to or not (as you would expect if it really is a account-wide setting). The box "Show in IMAP" under "Labels" was always ticked for this folder.
So, I checked my Linux-TB: Despite the folder "project1" being displayed and usable, it was actually *not* subscribed to in the "Manage folder subscriptions" (I never checked this on my Linux-TB). Once I ticked that box on my Linux PC, it magically appeared including content on my Mac... :-)
This is good but there's a downside. The whole procedure is not as straight-forward as I wish it was. I created another test folder and eventually I could make it appear on both machines; but still, I had to play a bit in the subscription dialogue and restart TB a few times and I wasn't able to find a 'safe procedure' yet.
I also haven't figured out yet what IMAP command TB issues when I click "Refresh" in the Manage folder subscriptions box...
Aha.
The IMAP command
LIST "" "*"
gives you the whole folder tree. However, if you issue this:
LIST "" "%"
you'll get only the first level folders, and if you issue
LIST "" "%/%"
then you'll get all first and second level folders (but nothing below that).
The log-files tell me that TB issues only the two latter commands. It uses the "*" to get everything only in conjunction with the keyword "(subscribed)". So, it seems complicated for TB to find out about third (or more) level folders that are not subscribed to.
This is why the Refresh button in "Manage folder subscriptions" does not reveal my folder ("project1" is a third level folder) and I can easily reproduce this problem; i.e. the Refresh button does not do what it suggests!
However, I can reveal my third level folder if I collapse and then uncollapse the parent folder in the manage dialogue; and then things become easier. But I have to restart TB...
Two questions are left:
1) Why does the "Refresh" button not do what it should do?
2) Why do I have to restart TB (Mac as well as Linux) in order to have changes in folder subscriptions to take effect? Is there a possibility for them to take effect with no restart? (Collapsing/Uncollapsing does not do the trick)