If you open the Account Settings window and go to the Synchronization & Storage panel for the account in question, you can indeed direct Thunderbird to download only the messages within a discrete time frame.

Under Disk Space, switch to Synchronize the most recent: and then adjust the drop down menus to specify the time frame you wish to use then click OK. Now in the main window, go to the File menu and select Compact Folders. Once the operation has completed, close Thunderbird completely and once re-opened, it should be behaving as you wished.

Hi Peter:

 Thanks for your reply. As you can see from the image below, I don't
have "synchronize" for an option  under the "tools-disk space" menu.

This is an up-to-date version of TB 52.6 32bit, ON A WINDOWS 10 machine. AOL told me the problem I was having with downloading ALL messages on the server instead of just the current ones, was a problem with my VISTA machine and TB, using the same up-to-date version. AFTER 5 hours on the phone with AOL, with no resolution, I decided to transfer my TB emails to the newer Win10 machine. IS THERE A PROBLEM WITH VISTA AND TB?????? After 8 years of functioning properly, why would VISTA with Thunderbird stop working? If AOL has changed something, they won't tell me or THEY DON'T KNOW> Thunderbird on the Win10 machine is working fine, for now, but I had to download ALL emails stored on the AOL server. So far, I don't have a satisfactory answer as to why, OVERNIGHT, the VISTA machine stopped downloading ONLY NEW emails, as it had been doing. Thanks again. Please advise if you have an insight. Ken Barta

Hi Ken,

I do indeed see that you don't have the option that I directed you to, and I apologize for that wild goose chase. I haven't run TB52 in many months, and it has to be over a decade since I even glanced at a running install of Vista, but as I recall the absence of the Synchronization options is caused by having your account configured to use the legacy POP3 protocol as opposed to the current IMAP standard. Again that's an oversight on my part since you made that perfectly clear in your original post.

From everything you describe, it sounds like AOL must have switched their POP3 configuration in some way that has caused your client to feel the need to grab your entire mail folder contents, but not having used POP3 for so long I can't offer any ideas as to how to react on your end of things.

Perhaps it's worth making a new profile in Thunderbird and configuring your AOL account with the IMAP settings and seeing if you like that experience better? Then once you've drawn your conclusion it's a simple matter of deleting the profile you don't wish to continue using. Here is some information on both the profile creation and the settings you'll need for IMAP in the event auto-discover doesn't provide them as the default. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/using-multiple-profiles

https://help.aol.com/articles/how-do-i-use-other-email-applications-to-send-and-receive-my-aol-mail

• Note: I don't know whether your e-mail address is still verizon.net or is now aol.com, but either way, just type the address in full as both the incoming and outgoing username and you should be golden.

Hi Peter: I said "uncle" and migrated to my Win 10 machine. BUT.... it is still configured for POP---but working fine. When I downloaded Thunderbird and started it up with my email address, it automatically configured the whole thing, but as POP. . Go figure Thanks for you help and rapid response. I might need this info or other help in the future... Good to know someone is around beside AOL. They're hopeless!!! I might just go to Gmail and download to TB. Ken Barta