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How to only save opened emails locally to machine

  • 3 replies
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  • Last reply by Matt

Gon_F
Gon_F
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So I have been using Thunderbird for many years now, and when I first started was able to set an option to only save locally to my computer emails which I had opened with Thunderbird (as well as sent emails). However, recently my email account provider changed many settings, and so I had to re-setup my account within Thunderbird, and as soon as that happened all the emails I had ever gotten started downloading unto my machine.

I looked around, but cannot figure out which new options to set. How can I have Thunderbird only save locally 1) opened emails, and 2) sent emails?

Thank you very much in advance.

So I have been using Thunderbird for many years now, and when I first started was able to set an option to only save locally to my computer emails which I had opened with Thunderbird (as well as sent emails). However, recently my email account provider changed many settings, and so I had to re-setup my account within Thunderbird, and as soon as that happened all the emails I had ever gotten started downloading unto my machine. I looked around, but cannot figure out which new options to set. How can I have Thunderbird only save locally 1) opened emails, and 2) sent emails? Thank you very much in advance.

All Replies (3)

Matt
Matt
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I think you are referring to a pop mail account. I know of one US based ISP that is lying to their customers and forcing them to use IMAP. Might you be in that camp?

Gon_F
Gon_F Question owner
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No, I am not having problems with my ISP (aside from lower-than advertised speeds, but everyone deals with that). I think I wasn't clear with my question; is there a way to only save emails one opens with an IMAP gmail account through thunderbird? Or is that the default option?

Matt
Matt
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Right click the account in the folder pane and select settings in synchronization and storage uncheck the box for "keep messages in all folders on this computer" this will make email viewing much slower as the email body must be fetched on demand from the server.