Thunderbird keeps downloading all my hotmail emails
Hello everyone,
I just installed Thunderbird and linked to it my hotmail account with the IMAP setting. I had no idea of the Synchronisation & Storage settings which was set on "Synchronize all messages locally regardless of age".
Once I finished setting up my account Thunderbird downloaded all my messages going back 20 years. I then saw the option to synchronize only the most recent up to 30 days but it was too late and so I went ahead and deleted my hotmail account and tried to add it again while this time, before any synchronization happens, I specifically chose to fetch messages only up to 30 days but I noticed that even now Thunderbird again downloaded all my messages going back 20 years and I don't want this. I just want the latest ones.
What is happening and I can't stop Thunderbird from keep fetching everything? What I want is just emails from the last 30 days to show up not everything.
Thanks in advance folks!
All Replies (8)
One way is to access the account in webmail, create a new folder and move mail there that is older than 30 days, then add the account to TB. Right-click the account in the Folder Pane, Subscribe, and uncheck (unsubscribe) the folder with the old mail to it's never downloaded. Or, in the Synchronization & Storage settings, allow the folder to only download headers, not full message bodies.
Is it not then possible as things stand now to stop TB from downloading all email in my inbox? I would like to add more email accounts and it would be nice if it didn't download everything.
What is the point of the time period setting in Synchronization & Storage if TB will download all regardless?
I haven't used the time period setting before, so I can't say why it doesn't seem to work as expected. Maybe it only takes effect after the account is added and downloads everything. I generally add accounts in Offline mode so I can adjust the sync settings, to e.g. download headers only, before connecting to the server.
Will try the offline mode as a work around, thanks.
Hopefully someone else can comment on why the time period setting doesn't work for me.
I tried the aforementioned method and no luck. TB keeps downloading all messages in my inbox ignoring the setting in "Synchronisation & Storage settings". This is driving crazy. Can anyone shed any light here?
Is TB downloading the full message bodies or just the headers? If it's just the headers, that shouldn't take much time. Adjust the Retention Policy by right-clicking Inbox, Properties, to keep only the last 30 days.
It is downloading the full messages which I don't mind so long it doesn't download all of them. I tried adding another email account when I was on offline mode, and then setting the retention policy however upon coming online again it downloaded the entire inbox. Why does it ignore my up to 30days old setting?
the list of mails is independent of the local synchronization of the message bodies is my understanding of how imap works. YOu will always see all mail in a particular folder, but only the last XX days will be stored locally.