Why is Thunderbird deleting emails older than 1 month (I've triple-checked all settings)?
I started using Thunderbird a few months ago. Since then, all email older than 30 days are being deleted from the server. They are still on my hard drive though. I have tried changing every setting I could find: 1) Under "Options->Accounts->Server Settings" I have it set to "Leave messages on server" and "Until I delete them" 2) Under "Disk Space" have selected "Don't delete any messages". I have the same setting for local and server 3) I have changed the "Retention Policy" on all my folders to "Don't delete any messages"
For the life of me I cannot figure out why they are still being deleted after 1 month. My server settings do not have anything that is supposed to delete them.
الحل المُختار
OK well I found an extension that let me import my old emails to a folder. I think I am all set. My new account is set up as IMAP. I'll have to see if it deletes any old emails from now on.
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Have you considered that your mail provider may have a retention policy that sees mail deleted after a month?
They say that they don't.
What mail provider?
Please add the Mail and News Accounts information from the "troubleshooting information" to your post
To find the Troubleshooting information:
- Open Help (or click on three-line-icon and select Help)
- Choose Troubleshooting Information
- Use the button Copy to clipboard to select all. Do not check box "Include account names"!
- Paste this in your post.
Here you go:
Application Basics
Name: Thunderbird Version: 45.5.1 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.5.1 Profile Folder: Show Folder
(Local drive) Application Build ID: 20161130024037 Enabled Plugins: about:plugins Build Configuration: about:buildconfig Memory Use: about:memory
Mail and News Accounts account1: INCOMING: account1, , (pop3) secure37.webhostinghub.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext OUTGOING: , secure37.webhostinghub.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
account2: INCOMING: account2, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext
Crash Reports
Extensions Add-ons Manager Context Menu, 0.4.2.1-signed.1-signed, true, amcontextmenu@loucypher Send Later, 6.1, true, sendlater3@kamens.us Lightning, 4.7.7, false, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103} McAfee Anti-Spam Thunderbird Extension, 2.0, false, msktbird@mcafee.com
Important Modified Preferences
Name: Value
browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400 browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1 browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false dom.apps.reset-permissions: true extensions.lastAppVersion: 45.5.1 font.name.monospace.el: Consolas font.name.monospace.x-cyrillic: Consolas font.name.monospace.x-unicode: Consolas font.name.monospace.x-western: Consolas font.name.sans-serif.el: Calibri font.name.sans-serif.x-cyrillic: Calibri font.name.sans-serif.x-unicode: Calibri font.name.sans-serif.x-western: Calibri font.name.serif.el: Cambria font.name.serif.x-cyrillic: Cambria font.name.serif.x-unicode: Cambria font.name.serif.x-western: Cambria font.size.fixed.el: 14 font.size.fixed.x-cyrillic: 14 font.size.fixed.x-unicode: 14 font.size.fixed.x-western: 14 font.size.variable.el: 17 font.size.variable.x-cyrillic: 17 font.size.variable.x-unicode: 17 font.size.variable.x-western: 17 mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1 mail.winsearch.firstRunDone: true mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: 34b0cf79-426b-49c2-8bab-2a2090901aa network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true network.predictor.cleaned-up: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1485225574 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858 plugin.importedState: true
Graphics
Adapter Description: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600 Vendor ID: 0x8086 Device ID: 0x0412 Adapter RAM: Unknown Adapter Drivers: igdumdim64 igd10iumd64 igd10iumd64 igd12umd64 igdumdim32 igd10iumd32 igd10iumd32 igd12umd32 Driver Version: 20.19.15.4531 Driver Date: 9-29-2016 Direct2D Enabled: false DirectWrite Enabled: false (10.0.14393.351) ClearType Parameters: ClearType parameters not found WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600 Direct3D11 vs_5_0 ps_5_0) -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 2.1.0.316930d51ea9) GPU Accelerated Windows: 0
AzureCanvasBackend: skia AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0 AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureContentBackend: cairo
JavaScript
Incremental GC: 1
Accessibility
Activated: 0 Prevent Accessibility: 0
Library Versions
Expected minimum version Version in use
NSPR 4.12 4.12
NSS 3.21.3 Basic ECC 3.21.3 Basic ECC
NSS Util 3.21.3 3.21.3
NSS SSL 3.21.3 Basic ECC 3.21.3 Basic ECC
NSS S/MIME 3.21.3 Basic ECC 3.21.3 Basic ECC
what is your domain name?
Is sales a valid email address on that domain (If not please tell me one that is.
I see nothing even vaguely like what you have in your account settings here http://www.webhostinghub.com/help/learn/email/thunder-bird/how-to-set-up-your-email
OK so I removed that account from Thunderbird and set it up with a new one as an IMAP. Weirdly it keeps changing it back to a POP3 even if I select IMAP. The domain I am trying to set up is docelticjewelry.com and my email address is dan@docelticjewelry.com. It doesn't matter how I set it up, after I go through the process and look back at "server settings" it says that it is a POP3 server type.
Application Basics
Name: Thunderbird Version: 45.5.1 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.5.1 Profile Folder: Show Folder
(Local drive) Application Build ID: 20161130024037 Enabled Plugins: about:plugins Build Configuration: about:buildconfig Memory Use: about:memory
Mail and News Accounts account1: INCOMING: account1, , (pop3) secure37.webhostinghub.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext OUTGOING: , secure37.webhostinghub.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
account2: INCOMING: account2, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext
Crash Reports
Extensions Add-ons Manager Context Menu, 0.4.2.1-signed.1-signed, true, amcontextmenu@loucypher Send Later, 6.1, true, sendlater3@kamens.us Lightning, 4.7.7, false, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103} McAfee Anti-Spam Thunderbird Extension, 2.0, false, msktbird@mcafee.com
Important Modified Preferences
Name: Value
browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400 browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1 browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false dom.apps.reset-permissions: true extensions.lastAppVersion: 45.5.1 font.name.monospace.el: Consolas font.name.monospace.x-cyrillic: Consolas font.name.monospace.x-unicode: Consolas font.name.monospace.x-western: Consolas font.name.sans-serif.el: Calibri font.name.sans-serif.x-cyrillic: Calibri font.name.sans-serif.x-unicode: Calibri font.name.sans-serif.x-western: Calibri font.name.serif.el: Cambria font.name.serif.x-cyrillic: Cambria font.name.serif.x-unicode: Cambria font.name.serif.x-western: Cambria font.size.fixed.el: 14 font.size.fixed.x-cyrillic: 14 font.size.fixed.x-unicode: 14 font.size.fixed.x-western: 14 font.size.variable.el: 17 font.size.variable.x-cyrillic: 17 font.size.variable.x-unicode: 17 font.size.variable.x-western: 17 gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.appVersion: 45.5.1 gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.deviceID: 0x0412 gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.driverVersion: 20.19.15.4531 gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.direct3d11-angle: true gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle: true gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-force-d3d11: false gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-force-warp: false gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-try-d3d11: true gfx.crash-guard.status.glcontext: 2 mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1 mail.winsearch.firstRunDone: true mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: 34b0cf79-426b-49c2-8bab-2a2090901aa network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true network.predictor.cleaned-up: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1485225574 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858 plugin.importedState: true
Graphics
Adapter Description: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600 Vendor ID: 0x8086 Device ID: 0x0412 Adapter RAM: Unknown Adapter Drivers: igdumdim64 igd10iumd64 igd10iumd64 igd12umd64 igdumdim32 igd10iumd32 igd10iumd32 igd12umd32 Driver Version: 20.19.15.4531 Driver Date: 9-29-2016 Direct2D Enabled: false DirectWrite Enabled: false (10.0.14393.351) ClearType Parameters: ClearType parameters not found WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600 Direct3D11 vs_5_0 ps_5_0) -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 2.1.0.316930d51ea9) GPU Accelerated Windows: 0
AzureCanvasBackend: skia AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0 AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureContentBackend: cairo
JavaScript
Incremental GC: 1
Accessibility
Activated: 0 Prevent Accessibility: 0
Library Versions
Expected minimum version Version in use
NSPR 4.12 4.12
NSS 3.21.3 Basic ECC 3.21.3 Basic ECC
NSS Util 3.21.3 3.21.3
NSS SSL 3.21.3 Basic ECC 3.21.3 Basic ECC
NSS S/MIME 3.21.3 Basic ECC 3.21.3 Basic ECC
It looks like I have it set up as an IMAP account now. The thing is, where are all my old emails on my hard drive? Is there a way I can either get them back on the server, or if not, at least be able to view them if I want? My old POP account in Thunderbird at least had all the emails saved to my hard drive.
الحل المُختار
OK well I found an extension that let me import my old emails to a folder. I think I am all set. My new account is set up as IMAP. I'll have to see if it deletes any old emails from now on.