How to keep local folder copy even when deleted from inbox
I often copy an email to myself as a tickler, and delete it later from inbox. I also want to keep all my sent mail, no matter what, so I can look for history (much) later. But, if I delete my copy from inbox, that also deletes (IMAP) the sent mail, and the copy in All Mail for gmail. I initially tried setting Account Settings, Copies and Folders to place a copy in a local folder, but that is also deleted when the inbox copy is deleted. I tried a filter to copy message to the local folder After Sending, but that didn't work by itself.
But, if I set *both* Account Settings, Copies and Folders to place a copy in a local folder, *and* a filter to copy message to the local folder After Sending, then the local folder copy is created, and not deleted when the inbox copy is deleted, although the Gmail Sent Mail copy and the All Mail copy are both still deleted.
Does this make sense? It works if both methods are set, but not with either one by itself, which wasn't intuitive.
Also, searching other questions, there were a number asking how to do something similar (keep a permanent local folder copy), so this may prove useful for others.
I'm using Thunderbird 45.2.0 on Windows 10 with IMAP to Gmail.
All Replies (7)
Google IMAP is a weird thing. But in this case you are dealing with Google SMTP. Even weirder, but should be easy to do what you want.
In copies and folders set Thunderbird to place a copy in sent on local folders. Due to a quirk of the gmail world, gmail will place a copy of the sent mail in the gmail sent folder as it passes through their servers. So the email will appear in your sent folder on gmail as well as the local copy. No filter required.
As for mail disappearing from all mail when deleted, that is not the way it should work. I suggest you restart Thunderbird with add-ons disabled from the help menu and see if it works better in that safe mode. I think you might have an add-on that is messing things up.
1) Restarted Windows 10 for updates, restarted Thunderbird (updated to 45.3.0), disabled ImportExportTools and QuoteAndComposeManager addons (left Lightning enabled). Restarted Thunderbird and confirmed both addons were disabled. 2) Unchecked “Place a copy in:” for Account Settings, Copies and Folders. 3) Unchecked filter to copy message after sending to local folder. 4) Opened Gmail in Chrome to show Google server state. 5) Sent “test a” email from Thunderbird to myself. a. Verified “test a” present in Inbox, Sent Mail, and All Mail on Thunderbird on PC and Gmail in Chrome. 6) Deleted “test a” in Thunderbird Inbox, confirmed also deleted in Sent Mail and All Mail in Thunderbird and in Chrome Gmail window. 7) Checked “Place a copy in:”, Other, LocalSent on LocalFolders, in Thunderbird Accounts, Copies and Folders 8) Sent “test b” email from Thunderbird to myself, verified present in in Inbox, Sent Mail, and All Mail on Thunderbird on PC and Gmail in Chrome, and LocalSent folder under Thunderbird. 9) Deleted “test b.” Still present in LocalSent, but deleted from other six folders. (different than what I thought I saw yesterday) 10) Checked to enable filter to copy message after sending to LocalSent Folder. 11) Sent “test c” email. Deleted from inbox and other Thunderbird and Gmail folders, but not from LocalSent folder. 12) No copy of email in LocalSent folder. 13) Enabled filter log and tried again. No entries in log, so maybe filter isn’t getting triggered? Filter set to be applied After Sending, Match all messages, Copy message to LocalSent folder. 14) So, seems like a. Deleting email in inbox also triggers deletion in Sent Mail and All Mail for both Thunderbird and Gmail. (Makes send that IMAP syncs each folder, but not sure why some agent thinks deletion in inbox should also delete copies in Sent Mail and All Mail) b. Setting “Place a copy in:” under Copies and Folders seemed to make a copy that inbox deletion does not delete. I’m really puzzled about that. The reason I started looking at that was not finding some email copies in the LocalSent folder, and I was pretty sure I saw that happen in yesterday’s testing. Not sure if there is some intermittent condition, but will watch for now.
I said try with all add-ons disabled for a reason. Safe mode itself can at times fix issues, and lightning is a known troublemaker, so much so that a complete re write is underway. Safe mode also affects the theme.
Backed up Lightning data, then tried again, both by just disabling Lightning and the other two, and after seeing your reference to safe mode, using the Thunderbird Safe Mode dialog. Same behavior still - deleting copy in inbox results in deletion in Sent Mail and All Mail. Can't tell if the Sent and All Mail copies are being deleted by Thunderbird or at Google, and then sync'd to the other.
log into your gmail account with a browser.
Perhaps this link will work https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/fwdandpop
check your settings under When a message is marked as deleted and expunged from the last visible IMAP folder: Archive the message (default) Move the message to the Trash Immediately delete the message forever
Archive is the default. I think yours will be immediately.
Was set for [Auto-Expunge on - Immediately update the server. (default)]
under
[When I mark a message in IMAP as deleted:]
which causes gray out of
[When a message is marked as deleted and expunged from the last visible IMAP folder.]
Tried changing to
[Auto-Expunge off -- wait for the client to update the server];
left
[When a message is marked as deleted and expunged from the last visible IMAP folder:]
on
[Archive the message (default).]
Same behavior after that change.
In TB, Server Settings, I had [When I delete a message} set to move it to Gmail\Trash. Changing that to [Just mark it as deleted], leaves it in All Mail and Sent Mail, but it also shows in Inbox (flagged as deleted).
So, tried Server Settings for delete as [Remove it immediately], which deletes it from Inbox on both TB and Gmail, and leaves it in Sent and All Mail. But, that means no deleted mail will ever get copied to the Trash folder.
Thanks for your help. I have some options now - just need to noodle on which will work best for me.
My problem is I have a group mail list I send a couple times a week and my e-mail address is also in the mail list so I can get a copy back in my inbox and there is one in the sent folder as well. I do this because the second time I send to the group I use the first one because it has before status and I usually do a Reply To All. When I started having this issue I started sending the e-mail to a second e-mail account I own but I was getting the same results so I created a folder and put a copy in there after it came back into my inbox. The problem I am having when I first send the group e-mail I get the copy in my inbox, also in the second e-mail account and I put a copy in the folder I created but a couple days later when I try using that same e-mail to replay to all, the e-mail is gone like it was never sent because it is no longer in my active inbox, not in my second email account and also not in the folder I created. I don't know if it is happening to other group e-mails I send out because I don't use any of the others to reply t all. Anybody else have this issue. I checked settings and can't find anything that would fix this. Ron G rongaspard@cox.net