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How to prevent accidently deleted emails (imap) from deleting from gmail?

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  • Last reply by Matt

Alancusa
Alancusa
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while in T-bird I accidently selected delete to more than 5000 highlighted emails in the Inbox of someone I was trying to help manage their mail. In response I immediatley disconnected the desktop from the network, uninstalled t-bird from the PC and rebooted the PC. It appears some messages deleted from gmail but the vast majority still exist.

Now I would like to reconnect my desktop to the web but am afraid there is a queue waiting to send the balance of the delete instructions. Is there? Can it be deleted? How?

For safety's sake: I have added Pop3 to the gmail account, but that only allowed me to download the last 30 days of emails. And I set up another imap account on a laptop.

Am I out of luck and have to copy all the messages in the 2nd imap account to a local folder, then let the delete happen and finally copy back all the messages in the local folder?

Please advise, thank you.

while in T-bird I accidently selected delete to more than 5000 highlighted emails in the Inbox of someone I was trying to help manage their mail. In response I immediatley disconnected the desktop from the network, uninstalled t-bird from the PC and rebooted the PC. It appears some messages deleted from gmail but the vast majority still exist. Now I would like to reconnect my desktop to the web but am afraid there is a queue waiting to send the balance of the delete instructions. Is there? Can it be deleted? How? For safety's sake: I have added Pop3 to the gmail account, but that only allowed me to download the last 30 days of emails. And I set up another imap account on a laptop. Am I out of luck and have to copy all the messages in the 2nd imap account to a local folder, then let the delete happen and finally copy back all the messages in the local folder? Please advise, thank you.

Chosen solution

have you looked in the all mail folder on gmail... when you remove an item from the inbox, the default moves it to trash, but in either case there is another in the "all mail" folder

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All Replies (3)

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
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For safety's sake: I have added Pop3 to the gmail account, but that only allowed me to download the last 30 days of emails.

Check your Gmail settings on the server or search Gmail help for how to download all messages from your account via POP. Note, the default POP setting is to remove messages from the server. That wouldn't be helpful if you still want to use IMAP again with your messages on the server.

uninstalled t-bird from the PC and rebooted the PC.

While it wouldn't do any damage, it was completely unnecessary to do that.

To restore your IMAP account back to normal operation I'd suggest the following:

  • Re-install Thunderbird. Make sure Thunderbird does not accidentally start after the installation, so pay attention what you click on.
  • Make sure you're disconnected from the network.
  • Start Thunderbird. It should pick up your existing profile and with your Gmail account with the deleted messages. Since you're offline, Thunderbird cannot connect to the Gmail server.
  • Delete the existing Gmail account.
  • Close Thunderbird.
  • Connect to the network.
  • Start Thunderbird.
  • Re-create your Gmail account as IMAP account. It should pick up whatever is left on the server. The messages already deleted from the server are gone, unless you do have a backup.
  • Create a backup of your profile. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profiles-tb#w_backing-up-a-profile
Alancusa
Alancusa Question owner
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Thank you. The solution sounds very good. I will try this and let you know.

Matt
Matt
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

have you looked in the all mail folder on gmail... when you remove an item from the inbox, the default moves it to trash, but in either case there is another in the "all mail" folder