This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Thunderbird IMAP "synchronize the most recent x days" not working

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Peter

Peter
Peter
more options

I am setting up an existing IMAP on Thunderbird, and synchronization is set to only sync the most recent 2 days. But Thunderbird is happily chugging along, downloading 90,000 message headers.

I have unchecked "Keep messages in all folders for this account on this computer" but Thunderbird seems determined to download all message headers regardless of date.

Is this a bug? Is it fixable?

I am setting up an existing IMAP on Thunderbird, and synchronization is set to only sync the most recent 2 days. But Thunderbird is happily chugging along, downloading 90,000 message headers. I have '''unchecked''' "Keep messages in all folders for this account on this computer" but Thunderbird seems determined to download all message headers regardless of date. Is this a bug? Is it fixable?

Chosen solution

Isn't this the same result?

Yes. To my understanding, if you tell Thunderbird not to download any message bodies, you can't limit the no. of message bodies to be downloaded to 'the most recent x days'. I haven't tried this, so I may be wrong.

Note, even if 'keep messages in all folders' is unchecked, you can still select individual folders for downloading message bodies.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (6)

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options
Thunderbird IMAP "synchronize the most recent x days" not working

Works as designed. Synchronization is about downloading the message bodies for offline use. It's not limiting the download of message headers.

Peter
Peter Question owner
more options

So unchecking the "keep message in all folders" setting essentially renders the "synchronize the most recent x days" option null?

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

It would prevent Thunderbird from downloading the message bodies for offline use at all. It would still download the message headers.

Peter
Peter Question owner
more options

So a couple scenarios to be clear:

Scenario 1:

  • uncheck "keep messages in all folders"
  • check "synchronize the most recent x days"
  • Result: you will always get ALL headers but no bodies during sync

Scenario 2:

  • uncheck "keep messages in all folders"
  • uncheck "synchronize the most recent x days"
  • Result: you will always get ALL headers but no bodies during sync

Isn't this the same result? I'd really love to know what I'm missing here.

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

Chosen Solution

Isn't this the same result?

Yes. To my understanding, if you tell Thunderbird not to download any message bodies, you can't limit the no. of message bodies to be downloaded to 'the most recent x days'. I haven't tried this, so I may be wrong.

Note, even if 'keep messages in all folders' is unchecked, you can still select individual folders for downloading message bodies.

Peter
Peter Question owner
more options

Thanks for taking the time to talk through this with me. I really appreciate it!