Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

lost mail

  • 5 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Alewmt

more options

I use gmail.com as a mail server with POP3. Today I looked in to gmail's spam folder and found some letters which wasn't spam actually. I marked the letters as not spam to move them from Spam folder to Inbox and press Thunderburd's button "Get message". But the letters did not appear in Thunderbird! This letters were lost. They disappear from gmail and did not appear in Thunderbird. How can it happen?

I use gmail.com as a mail server with POP3. Today I looked in to gmail's spam folder and found some letters which wasn't spam actually. I marked the letters as not spam to move them from Spam folder to Inbox and press Thunderburd's button "Get message". But the letters did not appear in Thunderbird! This letters were lost. They disappear from gmail and did not appear in Thunderbird. How can it happen?

All Replies (5)

more options

Are they in your inbox on gmail?

more options

They were in gmail's inbox folder before I press 'Get messages' button in Thunderbird. After that they are not in gmail's inbox any more.

more options

You should setup your gmail account and thunderbird to use IMAP. POP3 normally removes the message from the server once it is read in an email client such as thunderbird. When using IMAP you can decide if or when to delete a message.

more options

DrBrianM said

You should setup your gmail account and thunderbird to use IMAP. POP3 normally removes the message from the server once it is read in an email client such as thunderbird. When using IMAP you can decide if or when to delete a message.

That is not really correct. Gmail, by default ignores any delete requests from mail clients. You actually have to change settings on the gmail site for Thunderbird to be able to delete mail. The same situation exists with outlook.com.

The server settings for every pop account have an option to leave the messages on the server, so it is as simple as setting Thunderbird to leave messages on the server is you want them there.

Finally, all actions occur on download, not on reading. So the process of reading an email does not issue a delete command to anything.

As to our original issue here. do the mails appear in the gmail all mail folder?

What do you have set on this page https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/fwdandpop under 2. When messages are accessed with POP

more options

I didn't know about all mail folder. There are many letters but the letters I created issue about are not there. The setting you are asking about is "archive Gmail's copy"