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Have gmail. Want to have Thunderbird on two machines, accessing the same gmail account. It works for me and another person in another location. But not here.

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It works fine for one account that I use with a friend at another location. My wife cannot use TB on her machine with the accounts we have (3 others) that we share. We are in our house, of course. That is the only difference I know of compared to my friend down the street. The problem is that incoming emails go to one or the other computers, not both, from the gmail accounts that we have tested. First one to request email gets it; the other never gets it. Could it be something about our internet address being the same, at the same house? I am not a computer guru, but our computer guy could make changes to do whatever you recommend. thank you

It works fine for one account that I use with a friend at another location. My wife cannot use TB on her machine with the accounts we have (3 others) that we share. We are in our house, of course. That is the only difference I know of compared to my friend down the street. The problem is that incoming emails go to one or the other computers, not both, from the gmail accounts that we have tested. First one to request email gets it; the other never gets it. Could it be something about our internet address being the same, at the same house? I am not a computer guru, but our computer guy could make changes to do whatever you recommend. thank you

All Replies (3)

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You can access your Gmail-box using either a POP3 connection or an IMAP connection.

POP3 downloads copies of mail from your Gmail inbox, and what happens locally on Thunderbird stays local, including your Sent Items. Your options or account settings determine whether the message is left on the server or deleted when Thunderbird downloads it.

IMAP creates a mirror of your online folders, and what happens in Thunderbird is replicated back to Gmail on the server, including Sent Items and message deletions.

To create the most seamless sharing experience, consider which of these approaches makes the most sense for you, and if you use POP, make sure messages are left on the server indefinitely so both mail clients can get a copy.

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That response is somewhat helpful. It sounds like my TB account should be using IMAP. But if it is POP, how do I "make sure messages are left on the server indefinitely". Is that a TB setting, if so, what. Or is it a gmail setting? thank you

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The setting for POP mail accounts to leave mail on the server, and whether to leave it indefinitely or delete it after some period of time, is a Thunderbird setting. On that Server Settings tab, look at the large list of server settings.