Download only some selected emails from gmail
On machine "A" I have my emails until mid December 2014. I have migrated these to machine "B" and I have used machine "B" until the first week of January 2015. Then I wanted to migrate the emails back from machine "B" to machine "A", however something went wrong.
Now on machine "A" I have all the old emails until mid December 2014 and the emails AFTER the first week of January 2015 (nothing from those what I received while using machine "B"). So there is a gap of about 3 weeks missing in my emails on Thunderbird. Is there a way to re-download these emails without downloading all my emails?
(re-downloading all my emails would probably solve this, however I don't want to have to sort out all emails and remove unwanted ones in my inbox one more time)
(using: POP, gmail)
Chosen solution
Thanks for extra feedback.
I've located something which may resolve the issue. If you follow the instructions, you should be able to get those messages - it does not say whether you need to set it up beforehand, but it says you should be able to get last 30 days. So worth trying.
How do I download mail to multiple POP clients?
To access your messages with multiple POP clients, use recent mode in every client to make sure that all messages are made available, rather than only to the first client to access new mail. Recent mode fetches the last 30 days of mail, regardless of whether it's been sent to another POP client already.
To enable Recent mode, replace 'username@gmail.com' in the Username field of your POP client settings with 'recent:username@gmail.com' and ensure that the Leave messages on server option in your POP client is enabled.
quoted info located at this link:
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It notice that you are using POP mail accounts.
Usually, pop mail accounts download anything not previously downloaded from the Inbox on server and delete the copy off the server. However, you can set Thunderbird to leave a copy on the server.
'Tools' > 'Account Settings' > 'Server Settings' for the pop mail account select 'Leave messages on server'
you could also select 'until I delete them' to remove ones that you delete.
click on OK to save settings.
It sounds like machine 'B' downloaded emails and deleted the copy off the server, so that machine 'A' could not see nor download something that did not exist.
So to get emails on machine 'B' onto machine 'A' do this:
Download this addon to desktop or downloads folder onto both machine 'A' and 'B'.
How to install addon:
- In thunderbird
- 'Tools' > 'Addons' OR 'menu icon' > 'Addons'
- click on gear wheel icon and select 'Install addon from file;
- locate file and click on Open
- You may need to restart Thunderbird.
Then on machine 'B' Put all emails in one folder. (just to make it simpler) Right click on folder and select: 'ImportExporttools' > 'Export folder' choose a folder (not one in Thunderbird) and click on 'Select folder' button.
Locate the folder you saved, it will lok like a text file. Copy file to machine 'A' using eg: usb
Then in machine A Locate the file and rename so that it does not have the same name as any other folder in your pop mail account eg: XInbox
In Thunderbird
- right click on mail account name and select:
- 'ImportExporttools' > Import mbox file
- select 'Importdirectly one or more mbox files'
- click on OK
- locate the file you just copied over eg: XInbox and click on 'Open'
It should get imported into your pop mail account. Then you can move the emails to appropriate folders.
"I't sounds like machine 'B' downloaded emails and deleted the copy off the server, so that machine 'A' could not see nor download something that did not exist." The emails are still on the server, I have also marked them "unread" on the server (I thought this would issue a sync command in Thunderbird), however machine "A" simply won't fetch them. Although it downloads all newer emails that have arrived ever since.
Unfortunately machine "B" is in a different country (hence the copy-paste of database, to avoid carrying a desktop computer) so exporting locally from that computer is not really an option. Even if I could, since machine "A" now has synced the newest emails (which "B" hasn't since it wasn't used) if I copied the database I assume it would have the same issue: I would be missing those emails which I have downloaded with machine "A".
Chosen Solution
Thanks for extra feedback.
I've located something which may resolve the issue. If you follow the instructions, you should be able to get those messages - it does not say whether you need to set it up beforehand, but it says you should be able to get last 30 days. So worth trying.
How do I download mail to multiple POP clients?
To access your messages with multiple POP clients, use recent mode in every client to make sure that all messages are made available, rather than only to the first client to access new mail. Recent mode fetches the last 30 days of mail, regardless of whether it's been sent to another POP client already.
To enable Recent mode, replace 'username@gmail.com' in the Username field of your POP client settings with 'recent:username@gmail.com' and ensure that the Leave messages on server option in your POP client is enabled.
quoted info located at this link:
'Tools ' > 'Account Settings' > 'Server Settings' for the gmail pop account. Username: usually your full gmail email address. This is the bit that needs changing by adding recent: to the start of the email.
Thank you, this has solved the problem! 30 days is just about what I needed.
I assume I can simply "disable" this option once I have all the recent mails and keep running in "normal" mode.