When I move to a new folder, why does it download all my emails again
I have eight email accounts set up in Thunderbird, set up as IMAP. It was working find. Tonight I copied some emails to a flash drive as a backup. I selected a bunch of emails, right-clicked, and used the "Save as" selection. Now everytime I call up TB or switch to a folder, it downloads all my emails again. And there are thousands with attachments. How did this happen, just by saving some to a flash drive? And how can I switch it back?
I am using Windows 8. Thunderbird Version 24.4.0 User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.2; WOW64; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.4.0 Profile Folder (Local drive) Application Build ID 20140316131045
Chosen solution
Over time the folders get bigger and therefore each time you synchronise, the folder is larger, so it can take longer.
Options to improve speed:
Delete emails you do not need and compact (expunge) folders to make sure deleted emails really have been removed from the server.
Archive older emails. This moves then to another folder and reduces the size of the current folder. Then only choose to synchronise with those Archived folders to see older mail when necessary.
re; 'How can I get it to stop doing that and only download them when they are new? ' You can set it up so that it only sychronizes the last xx number of days or xx number of emails. But I've already given you a link to see how to do that. see here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization#w_configuring-synchronization-and-disk-space-usage
It is also possible that you have saved searches which also take up space. A saved search folder for an IMAP account supports both online and offline searching. However, the name is misleading - it basically lets you create a virtual folder. "Online searching" just means that the virtual folder is updated every time you open it. Perhaps this is also occuring. you can disable the global search and delete the necessary files from the profile. see info: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Minimize_the_size_of_a_profile
Pop mail accounts can only see the server Inbox. So if you were to create a Pop mail account, it would look in the server Inbox and download everything in that folder. Thereafter, it would only download new mail not previously downloaded. These emails would then be stored on your computer, so you would need to make regular backups. Any emails in any other server folders cannot be seen by Pop mail accounts, so you would need to move them into the server Inbox, then download them and then move them into suitably named folders in Thunderbird; repeating for each folder on the server.
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (4)
You have an IMAP mail account, which shows a remote view of the folders on the server, so emails are stored on the server. When you connect with the server, it will synchronize with any folders you have selected to synchronize and you can see the emails.
Saving a copy to a backup, does precisely just that, you saved a copy. This has nothing to do with what you have in your folders on the server. You have to delete messages and compact (expunge) to remove them off the server.
IMAP offers more options on deleting than Pop mail accounts. Info on deleting messages in IMAP accounts.
general Info on IMAP:
IMAP synchronization info:
But I used to be able to move from one folder to another without waiting 15 minutes for it to re-download everything. How can I get it to stop doing that and only download them when they are new?
Are you suggesting I should change from Imap to Pop to get them to stop reloading and reloading? I could do that, but it worked so well before as Imap - before I did the "save as". I just don't understand how it all changed. Patti
Chosen Solution
Over time the folders get bigger and therefore each time you synchronise, the folder is larger, so it can take longer.
Options to improve speed:
Delete emails you do not need and compact (expunge) folders to make sure deleted emails really have been removed from the server.
Archive older emails. This moves then to another folder and reduces the size of the current folder. Then only choose to synchronise with those Archived folders to see older mail when necessary.
re; 'How can I get it to stop doing that and only download them when they are new? ' You can set it up so that it only sychronizes the last xx number of days or xx number of emails. But I've already given you a link to see how to do that. see here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization#w_configuring-synchronization-and-disk-space-usage
It is also possible that you have saved searches which also take up space. A saved search folder for an IMAP account supports both online and offline searching. However, the name is misleading - it basically lets you create a virtual folder. "Online searching" just means that the virtual folder is updated every time you open it. Perhaps this is also occuring. you can disable the global search and delete the necessary files from the profile. see info: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Minimize_the_size_of_a_profile
Pop mail accounts can only see the server Inbox. So if you were to create a Pop mail account, it would look in the server Inbox and download everything in that folder. Thereafter, it would only download new mail not previously downloaded. These emails would then be stored on your computer, so you would need to make regular backups. Any emails in any other server folders cannot be seen by Pop mail accounts, so you would need to move them into the server Inbox, then download them and then move them into suitably named folders in Thunderbird; repeating for each folder on the server.