Why isn't Thunderbird saving my messages locally?
I have four accounts set up on Thunderbird. On all 4 of them I have set storage to delete messages more than 360 days old. On three accounts this works fine, but on one, the first one I set up, it never saves more than 30 days worth of messages. What could be going on that makes it different from the others? On all 4 accounts the email servers are set to delete messages more than 30 days old. As I understand it this shouldn't effect local storage and archiving of emails. But again, why would this work on three of the accounts, but not on the fourth?
Any help greatly appreciated.
Ted
Chosen solution
Imap mail accounts see a virtual copy of what is on server. Imap mail accounts emails are stored on the server. All imap folders synchonise with the server folders; they constantly update each other with any changes. So if you delete an email off server then when folders synchronise the same folder in Thunderbird will get updated to show same as server. Also, if delete in Thunderbird then synchronisation will update the server to show the same. Basically, you should the consider the server folders (as seen when you logon to webmail) and the folders in Thunderbird imap account as one and the same. Imap folders may contain only headers or full copies of emails; the latter facilitating the ability to view in 'offline' mode. Everytime you move, delete etc any email there will be communication with the server. As you say emails are removed off server, so only showing 30 days, then the imap mail account will also only show 30 days.
This is not the case if you have a POP mail account. Pop mail accounts only get access to server Inbox and download emails to pop mail account Inbox in Thunderbird where they are stored. The Inbox folder does not synchronise with server Inbox. So server may only have 30 days of emails, but the POP account in Thunderbird could have 365 days of emails.
All Replies (5)
The one which is only showing 30 days: Is this an imap mail account ?
Yes, it is an IMAP account.
Chosen Solution
Imap mail accounts see a virtual copy of what is on server. Imap mail accounts emails are stored on the server. All imap folders synchonise with the server folders; they constantly update each other with any changes. So if you delete an email off server then when folders synchronise the same folder in Thunderbird will get updated to show same as server. Also, if delete in Thunderbird then synchronisation will update the server to show the same. Basically, you should the consider the server folders (as seen when you logon to webmail) and the folders in Thunderbird imap account as one and the same. Imap folders may contain only headers or full copies of emails; the latter facilitating the ability to view in 'offline' mode. Everytime you move, delete etc any email there will be communication with the server. As you say emails are removed off server, so only showing 30 days, then the imap mail account will also only show 30 days.
This is not the case if you have a POP mail account. Pop mail accounts only get access to server Inbox and download emails to pop mail account Inbox in Thunderbird where they are stored. The Inbox folder does not synchronise with server Inbox. So server may only have 30 days of emails, but the POP account in Thunderbird could have 365 days of emails.
Modified by Toad-Hall
Thanks for your help. Maybe I can change it to a POP account.
You cannot simply edit the Account settings for an Imap account and swap them to pop settings. You would need to create a new existing mail account for that email address and make sure you set it up as POP.
You might need to logon to webmail account and select to use a POP forwarding option. Also, some servers require you to select to use a 'less secure app' option in webmail account in order to use POP eg: gmail, yahoo. It does not mean it is less secure providing you use a good password.