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.

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

Èròjà atẹ̀lélànà yii ni a ti fi pamọ́ fọ́jọ́ pípẹ́. Jọ̀wọ́ béèrè ìbéèrè titun bí o bá nílò ìrànwọ́.

Where does Thunderbird store which emails it has already downloaded from the mail server

  • 1 èsì
  • 1 ní ìṣòro yìí
  • 5 views
  • Èsì tí ó kẹ́hìn lọ́wọ́ Chris Ilias

more options

Occasionally I copy my T-Bird profile from my PC to my lap-top so that I can see my emails as I travel. Sometimes when I do that and use the laptop T-Bird to get more mail from my POP3 server, it downloads a bunch of mail that I have already downloaded and were stored in the T-Bird files that I copied to my laptop. (Actually, sometimes I just backup up my PC profile and then restore it on the laptop.) How can I prevent T-Bird from downloading mails it has already downloaded?

Occasionally I copy my T-Bird profile from my PC to my lap-top so that I can see my emails as I travel. Sometimes when I do that and use the laptop T-Bird to get more mail from my POP3 server, it downloads a bunch of mail that I have already downloaded and were stored in the T-Bird files that I copied to my laptop. (Actually, sometimes I just backup up my PC profile and then restore it on the laptop.) How can I prevent T-Bird from downloading mails it has already downloaded?

All Replies (1)

more options

I think Thunderbird defaults to leaving messages on the POP server for 2 weeks. There's a setting for that, which you can disable.

  1. Right-click on the account name and select Settings.
  2. In the account settings window, select the Server Settings panel for that account.
  3. Uncheck Leave messages on server

Ultimately, I would recommend switching from POP to IMAP. This video explains the differences:

If you need help switching, this article should help: Switch from POP to IMAP account