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deleting attachments on IMAP server

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I use gmail IMAP server with Thunderbird. I "save" attachments to my local drive and the "delete" them. The intention is to save space on the server. While Thunderbird shows the attachment has been removed (a line across the file name followed by the size "0 bytes"), on the sever (login directly with browser) I see two copies of the email, one with attachment and a second without it.

Same behavior if I try to "detach", instead of "save" followed by "delete".

It does not change even after I compact the folder (Inbox), nor if I restart Thunderbird.

I have tried to check/uncheck Message Storage>Server Settings> Clean up ("Expunge") Inbox on Exit. No difference.

Is there a way to accomplish what I need? It seems Thunderbird creates a copy of the original email with the attachment removed, but doe snot delete the original (except that locally it is invisible??) Thanks.

I use gmail IMAP server with Thunderbird. I "save" attachments to my local drive and the "delete" them. The intention is to save space on the server. While Thunderbird shows the attachment has been removed (a line across the file name followed by the size "0 bytes"), on the sever (login directly with browser) I see two copies of the email, one with attachment and a second without it. Same behavior if I try to "detach", instead of "save" followed by "delete". It does not change even after I compact the folder (Inbox), nor if I restart Thunderbird. I have tried to check/uncheck Message Storage>Server Settings> Clean up ("Expunge") Inbox on Exit. No difference. Is there a way to accomplish what I need? It seems Thunderbird creates a copy of the original email with the attachment removed, but doe snot delete the original (except that locally it is invisible??) Thanks.

All Replies (4)

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Just an observation here... If you also use the Allmail folder, remember that it is a duplicate. If you do not need it, I suggest you unsubscribe from it and delete from profile. That will reduce your disk usage and improve overall performance.

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Hi David, The Allmail folder is just a listing of all items, regardless of tags. Deleting from Allmail deletes the item-- it is not really a duplicate. But thanks for the suggestion. Ben

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I suggest you review the size of allmail on your harddrive. In gmail, there is only one copy of all messages, but to imitate gmail, thunderbird creates a second copy of all messages. This doubles downloads, sends, and deletes.

Helpful?

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David,

Gmail may save a whole email thread as a single entity, but that does not mean that parts of the tread cannot be removed. When Thunderbird creates a second copy of an email with the attachment removed, it does not delete the original copy with attachment from the gmail server. Deleting the original copy -the one with attachment- from gmail can be done manually on the browser interface.

The question is whether there is a way to do this automatically: removing an attachment on Thunderbird would (1) create a copy of the email without the attachment (2) copy this to the email thread in the sever and (3) *delete* on the server the original email with attachment. Since it can be done manually, it should be doable via software (and in fact it is surprising that it was not designed to do this in the first place).

Thanks again

Ben

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