Curious Thunderbird "problem"...

[TreasonousBastard]

I'll eventually check their boards and forums, but I'll ask here first.

I download all my email from seven accounts with Thunderbird and have almost no problems. I have noticed that if I delete an email from the T'bird inbox it also gets deleted from the server's inbox, but that's not a big deal.

The problem I just had was with one account that I'm closing and deleted all the emails from the server before moving all of them from T'bird's inbox to other folders. The ones I moved to folders were saved, but the ones in the T'bird inbox vanished along with the ones on the server.

Oops! Now that I know, I won't be this casual again, but I'd rather it not happen. At least it was just newsletters, not anything critical.

I couldn't find anything in the settings that might address this-- older versions had something about linking deletions to the server, but the latest one doesn't seem to.

Anyone have any ideas?

[teach1st]

1. IMAP?

If it's an IMAP e-mail account, that's expected behavior. A local IMAP account just reflects or mirrors what's on the server.

More, with some help, right here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1007499

I would set up filters to automatically direct important IMAP emails to local folders on Thunderbird. Automatic archiving might be another way, but I don't know how archiving works with IMAP.

[teach1st]

2. Here are the recommended Thunderbird settings for an IMAP account

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/78892?hl=en

From the Tools menu, select Account Settings and highlight your Gmail address. There appears to be a setting (marked in bold) that might prevent mail in the inbox from being deleted.

On the Server Settings tab:
Check for new messages at startup > checked
Check for new messages every 10 minutes > checked
When I delete a message > Mark it as deleted
Clean up ("Expunge&quot Inbox on Exit > leave unchecked
Empty Trash on Exit > leave unchecked

On the Copies & Folders tab in the When sending messages, automatically section:
Place a copy in > leave unchecked

On the Copies & Folders tab in the Drafts and Templates section:
Keep message drafts in > Other
Other >[Your Gmail address] > [Gmail] > Drafts

On the Junk Settings tab
Enable adaptive junk mail controls > leave unchecked

Click OK to save and close your account settings.
If you'd like to to further enhance your IMAP experience, follow these additional steps:

In the 'Tools' menu, open Options.
On the 'Advanced' tab, open the General section.
Click the Config Editor button.
In the 'Filter' box, type 'browser.cache.memory.capacity'
Double-click on the browser.cache.memory.capacity entry to edit its value.
Change the value to '30720' and click OK.
Delete the text in the 'Filter' box and type 'mail.server.default.fetch_by_chunks'
Double-click on the mail.server.default.fetch_by_chunks entry to set its value to false.
Close the 'about:config' window and then close 'Options' by clicking OK.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. A-Ha! Yes, that was an IMAP account...

and I found lots of fun stuff in "account settings" where for some reason I didn't bother to look. Thanks.

I only have one other IMAP account, and don't use that one much. Everything else is POP so I'm not that up on IMAP.

At one point I did filter my emails to go into folders, but ended up never seeing most of them. Now I do it manually so I have some idea what's there.

[Aerows]

4. IMAP gets weird if it the cache is over 2 gb because of the foundation

Just like IMTP and SMTP.

It has the need to interface with old systems, while using new systems and it is a challenge. Some folks and systems refuse to get off of the old ways, some can't, and then there are the arguments about going forward.

I digress, there are ways to salvage it once it goes over 2GB.