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Thunderbird won't download sent messages from my Outlook 365 account. How can I convince it to do so?

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  • Last reply by joynercn

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My organization recently switched from Zimbra to Office 365. I imported all my old emails, inbox and sent, from Zimbra to Office 365. So, Office 365 has all my emails.

I then reconfigured up my email address in Thunderbird to point to Office 365.

It downloaded my entire inbox, but it did not download my Sent messages. What's more, now messages I send through Thunderbird do not appear in Outlook 365, and messages I send through Outlook 365 still are not downloaded to Thunderbird's Sent folder.

I've done some research on this problem, and I know that Thunderbird has its own local 'sent' folder while Outlook 365 has a 'sent' folder on the server -- I need Thunderbird to look at Office 365's Sent folder. The problem is that while for other services (e.g. gmail), Thunderbird shows both its local Sent and the server's Sent, Thunderbird is only showing the local Sent for this account. So, I have no other Sent folder to point it to.

How can I make the server's Sent folder appear, such that I can download its contents and have Thunderbird put messages in it from now on?

My organization recently switched from Zimbra to Office 365. I imported all my old emails, inbox and sent, from Zimbra to Office 365. So, Office 365 has all my emails. I then reconfigured up my email address in Thunderbird to point to Office 365. It downloaded my entire inbox, but it did not download my Sent messages. What's more, now messages I send through Thunderbird do not appear in Outlook 365, and messages I send through Outlook 365 still are not downloaded to Thunderbird's Sent folder. I've done some research on this problem, and I know that Thunderbird has its own local 'sent' folder while Outlook 365 has a 'sent' folder on the server -- I need Thunderbird to look at Office 365's Sent folder. The problem is that while for other services (e.g. gmail), Thunderbird shows both its local Sent and the server's Sent, Thunderbird is only showing the local Sent for this account. So, I have no other Sent folder to point it to. How can I make the server's Sent folder appear, such that I can download its contents and have Thunderbird put messages in it from now on?

All Replies (4)

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Is the account configured as IMAP?

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Yes -- or, at least, under Server Settings for the account, 'Server Type' is listed as 'IMAP Mail Server'.

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ok, right click the account in the folder tree. Select the settings entry. In server settings for the account, select the advanced button. Make sure the show on subscribed folders is NOT ticked.

In the copies and folders for the account make sure the send folder for the account is set to whatever passes as send on Office 365. It is probably something like "Send Items" rather than just sent.

Save those settings. Right click the account again in the folder tree, select subscribe Ensure whatever sent folder is listed for the account is set to a subscribed start (has a tick)

Now you can go back to the advanced settings and turn on the show only subscribed folder is you do not want to see them all.

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This worked from that day until today.

Today, Thunderbird stopped seeing any server folders. I went through these steps again to try to restore it and it worked. However, when I unchecked 'Show Only Subscribed Folders' again, it removed them again. Checking it again brought them back.

The only problem is that Office 365 shows a dozen folders I never use when that's checked, so I'd rather they disappear while Sent Items stays visible. Any idea why Sent Items isn't staying visible when I uncheck it this time around?