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Stop synchronizing the "All Mail" folder in a GMail account

  • 6 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 27 views
  • Last reply by eamondaly

eamondaly
eamondaly
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I'm using Thunderbird 38.2.0 with a GMail account via IMAP. My email account is fairly massive, so I've been trying to avoid synchronizing the "All Mail" folder locally, since I really don't need a local copy of everything. However, no matter how I unsubscribe from the folder, it re-subscribes and re-synchronizes any time I try to archive an email.

I've changed the archive folder in "Copies & Folders" to an alternative folder ("Archive" in the GMail account), and when I archive an email it /does/ go there as expected, but then Thunderbird /also/ re-subscribes and re-synchronizes "All Mail", too. Is there any way to prevent this?

I'm using Thunderbird 38.2.0 with a GMail account via IMAP. My email account is fairly massive, so I've been trying to avoid synchronizing the "All Mail" folder locally, since I really don't need a local copy of everything. However, no matter how I unsubscribe from the folder, it re-subscribes and re-synchronizes any time I try to archive an email. I've changed the archive folder in "Copies & Folders" to an alternative folder ("Archive" in the GMail account), and when I archive an email it /does/ go there as expected, but then Thunderbird /also/ re-subscribes and re-synchronizes "All Mail", too. Is there any way to prevent this?

All Replies (6)

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
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no matter how I unsubscribe from the folder

Can you describe in detail what you did?

eamondaly
eamondaly Question owner
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- Right-click on the account, click "Subscribe" - Scroll through Folder List to Gmail/All Mail, uncheck box - Click "OK"

Also:

- Right-click on the account, click "Subscribe" - Scroll through Folder List to Gmail/All Mail, select folder, click "Unsubscribe" - Click "OK"

Zenos
Zenos
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I'd check for "synchronise" too. If the All Mail folder is chosen for synchronization, this may override the subscription setting.

Subscribe lets you see a folder. Synchronization makes a local copy, which is what I think you want to avoid.

eamondaly
eamondaly Question owner
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I've unchecked "Select this folder for offline use", but that setting does not survive after I unsubscribe from the folder. It is reset to a checked state once Thunderbird automatically re-subscribes to the folder as described above.

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
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I don't know why the setting wouldn't stick. This may be a long shot, are you using CCleaner or something similar and do you let it mess with the Thunderbird profile?

eamondaly
eamondaly Question owner
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I'm not. I suspect the setting doesn't stick because once I unsubscribe to the folder it deletes the local store entirely. I presume the synchronize preference is stored there rather than in a global setting.

For now, I'm subscribing to the folder and disabling synchronization; that's less than perfect because it still downloads 100k headers, but it's better than attempting to resync the entire folder.