Stop synchronizing the "All Mail" folder in a GMail account
I'm using Thunderbird 38.2.0 with a GMail account via IMAP. My email account is fairly massive, so I've been trying to avoid synchronizing the "All Mail" folder locally, since I really don't need a local copy of everything. However, no matter how I unsubscribe from the folder, it re-subscribes and re-synchronizes any time I try to archive an email.
I've changed the archive folder in "Copies & Folders" to an alternative folder ("Archive" in the GMail account), and when I archive an email it /does/ go there as expected, but then Thunderbird /also/ re-subscribes and re-synchronizes "All Mail", too. Is there any way to prevent this?
All Replies (6)
no matter how I unsubscribe from the folder
Can you describe in detail what you did?
- Right-click on the account, click "Subscribe" - Scroll through Folder List to Gmail/All Mail, uncheck box - Click "OK"
Also:
- Right-click on the account, click "Subscribe" - Scroll through Folder List to Gmail/All Mail, select folder, click "Unsubscribe" - Click "OK"
I'd check for "synchronise" too. If the All Mail folder is chosen for synchronization, this may override the subscription setting.
Subscribe lets you see a folder. Synchronization makes a local copy, which is what I think you want to avoid.
I've unchecked "Select this folder for offline use", but that setting does not survive after I unsubscribe from the folder. It is reset to a checked state once Thunderbird automatically re-subscribes to the folder as described above.
I don't know why the setting wouldn't stick. This may be a long shot, are you using CCleaner or something similar and do you let it mess with the Thunderbird profile?
I'm not. I suspect the setting doesn't stick because once I unsubscribe to the folder it deletes the local store entirely. I presume the synchronize preference is stored there rather than in a global setting.
For now, I'm subscribing to the folder and disabling synchronization; that's less than perfect because it still downloads 100k headers, but it's better than attempting to resync the entire folder.