I'll try to clarify. First, you're safe with TLS 1.2, as Thunderbird has supported that for years. Regarding IMAP, it keeps them online until you delete them. That is, if you read a message and delete it, it's sent to trash. You did not describe, in detail, what you did. You had a POP account and those messages should be on your PC unless you deleted the POP account, in which case it depends on how you deleted it. I do not know what you mean by writing that you imported 1,000s of messages. If on the server, no import was appropriate. If you respond with explicit steps, I'm sure someone here can give you a full assessment.

Hi. Thank you. I believe I originally had a POP3 set up on Thunderbird with the "leave a copy on the server" checked, but I received an email from my hosting company, Newtwork Solutions, that told me I needed to reconfigure my Thunderbird because of a change to TLS 1.2 with new recommended IMAP settings. I thought IMAP settings left emails on the NS server no matter what I did on my PC - like a mirroring. When I hit "go" to initiate the new IMAP settings on Thunderbird, 1000s and 1000s of my emails from NS began flowing in, populating my Thunderbird desktop inbox. It took nearly a day. I do have all my emails on Thunderbird on my PC. I then subsequently organized the emails into folders, which I thought meant those folders would also appear (be "mirrored", which is what I thought IMAP did) on the Network Solutions server, but when I went to my NS webmail app, all my emails were gone from the server. That "flowing in" looks like it was a removal of all the emails from the NS server. I have someone at NS supposedly restoring my emails, after which I think I should use the new Netsol POP3 settings: "Incoming Mail Server POP3: netsol-pop-oxcs.hostingplatform.com. Port: 995 / Outgoing Mail Server SMTP: netsol-smtp-oxcs.hostingplatform.com. Port: 587". Does anyone know, will this Thunderbird POP3 set-up allow me to specify "keep on the server", so no matter what I do on my PC, my emails will remain in my Network Solutions webmail app's inbox? I like Thunderbird, but want to use it only if my emails are safely stored on the Network Solutions server. Also, how long will Thunderbird be safe to rely on for my business use now that is is no longer officially supported? I am wondering if I should just go over to Google. But I've used Thunderbird for so long, I don't want to change. THANK YOU TO ALL.

First, the 'bad news' is that it appears that your host gave you the impression that TLS 1.2 and IMAP were related when, in fact, you didn't need to do anything; Thunderbird was already supporting TLS 1.2. In your second post, you didn't explain what you did. All I can infer is that you moved the messages to various local folders, which would have removed them from the server. On your POP-related question, Thunderbird will keep messages on server if that is what you specify. From one of your last sentences, you implied that Thunderbird is no longer supported. That is NOT TRUE. Thunderbird has a paid staff of developers and god-only-knows how many volunteers actively involved. I doubt you will find any email client more actively supported than Thunderbird. We have millions (yes, millions) of active users, and a major upgrade coming this summer. Stay tuned. :)

So, if Netsol restores my emails, and I use a POP3 set up, Thunderbird will pull emails from the server, I'll specify "leave on server", they'll remain on the Netsol server, and all will be stable for TB for some years to come?

Also, if I don't make any folders on my Netsol server, the emails will just all be there in one giant mass?

Yes, that's how it works. So unfortunate that your email host created that confusion for you.

David: I appreciate very much your help. I hope next time I come back for help you'll be here. It's been a nightmare being only a mildly tech-savvy person in this area having to navigate waters that, for me, are deep and choppy. Take care. -Rob.

You're very welcome. There are a number of very qualified people here, so you're always welcome to post questions.

Hi. I am hoping my host Network Solutions will be able to restore my email data that was cleared off their server by my recent IMAP Thunderbird installation. At that point, I intend on setting up a new Thunderbird account as a POP3 with "leave a copy on server" checked. If I delete the existing IMAP version on my PC without opening it (so that it doesn't open and start pulling everything off the server again), can I keep all the folders with all the emails on my PC so my new POP3 version will see them? BTW, I am currently saving a copy to a backup drive of my Thunderbird "profile" folder, which is about 24 GB. As it is copying, I am seeing the names of all the folders I have on my PC that have all the emails the IMAP version pulled off the Network Solutions server. Could I point my new POP3 Thunderbird account to this folder so that when the POP3 version is up and running all my folders and emails would be there? That would be a dream scenario.

Yes, the POP account should be able to download them, although I've seen people with problems sometimes when downloading 10s of thousands of messages. IMAP will leave the messages alone, unless you move or delete them. Some users keep both POP and IMAP accounts. Regardless of solution, I do encourage periodic backups.

Whoever you are, I owe you: (www.msrcd.com). So, if my Thunderbird AppData Roaming "Profiles" folder is backed up, my emails would be safeguarded? Is there any way to back up the 100s of my email folders? I organize emails by Compact Disc catalog numbers, and dozens of other categories. I run a record label, MSR Classics, based in Newtown, CT.

You owe me nothing except getting your system working right; that's why we're here. Yes, a backup of profile includes everything: account settings, all mail folders, and all messages (but only if POP account.) You can backup in several ways: - tools>export if a small (less than2 gig) profile - importexport addon has export for any size profile - my preferences: exit thunderbird and use windows file explorer to copy the full account info at c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird to USB or external drive

If you use a proprietary backup product, be sure to periodically test that it works. I have seen several users post here with restored profiles from proprietary backups that were corrupted (which can happen easily if the backup is done while Thunderbird is running).

Okay, it seems you have a fun job. Thanks for sharing that. :)

You're too kind. So I copied onto an SD card the TB "Profiles" folder from my PC that had IMAPped all the emails off the NetSol server, and which I sorted carefully into 100s of newly created folders. BTW, this Profiles folder has two folders in it, both oddly named, and one almost empty and another full of stuff. Again, this is the Profiles for the IMAP Thunderbird on my PC that has all my folders and emails. I went over to my laptop, and tried to swap in that Profiles folder for the one that was there (I just swapped it in) and Thunderbird wouldn't open. Then I swapped it back, TB opened, I went to the server settings tab and using the Browse for the folder function at the bottom I chose the Profiles I want to use from the desktop where I put it (from the SD card copy), and that didn't work. What did I do wrong? My goal was populate my newly configured POP3 TB on my laptop with the 1000s of email that got zapped from the server through IMAP. This way, on my laptop, I would have a POP3 set-up, but also all my folders and emails.

You must be very explicit in every step. If you copied in the ....appdata\thunderbird folder while thunderbird was not running, it should have worked. If you copied in anything else, who knows? Focus on the profile. If the profile is accessible, you can access it from within thunderbird by clicking help>moretroubleshootinginformation, scroll down to profiles, click 'about:profiles, click 'create profile', click next, then enter a name for profile, e.g., profile, and the click the browse button to locate and select the profile of choice.

So, theoretically, if I were able to figure it out, I could select for my new POP3 TB account my terrific IMAP profile, and then have all those folders and emails in my POP3 account, and then just add to it all with ongoing POP3 behavior (leaving messages on the server)? Or, can one not move IMAP profiles to POP3 accounts?

Also, can I make the IMAP email account inactive so it just sits there as "a legacy email storage bin", and just use my POP3 going forward? I go to server settings for the IMAP account and unclick the check messages boxes, but it checks them anyway. I hope you don't get sick of me soon. My whole business works on these stored emails.

IMAP is always active. You should be okay just leaving it there. It will always be up to date. I do not recommend IMAP be a primary backup, since internet vendors may change their policies and limit the online capacity. And I have seen several posts here from people trying without success to download an entire IMAP account that as accumulated 1,000s of messages over the years. My inference from your earlier posts is that you do periodic backups locally. If not already done, you might consider also placing backups to an online storage account, such as Dropbox or equivalent.

And by backup, you mean backup that Profiles folder?

Yes, a daily backup would be the simplest restore. If size becomes unwieldy, you may want to archive by year and backup archives separately. I mentioned an offsite backup on the possibility of fire or other loss of local backups.