Thunderbird and Comcast are synced - why?
I've been using Thunderbird for years and have a pretty extensive folder tree set up under my Profile. My internet provider is Comcast. I just happened to look on the Comcast website at my email. The exact same folder tree (and contents) is sitting on the Comcast site. WTF! Obviously the only way that Comcast could get that is if Thunderbird is uploading (syncing) to Comcast everything that I do when Thunderbird is open. How do I stop it, and whom do I slap for allowing it to happen in the first place?
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wigglytoes1 said
sfhowes: I don't doubt what you're saying. But as a follow up, it seems to me that this is a very new 'feature' on IMAP accounts. I've been using the profile in questions for decade(s). Almost always I use it on my home computer. (A Win7 box hardwired on my home network), but every once in awhile I'm away from home, and I take my HP Win10 laptop along and use that to look at my comcast email website. I've never noticed that I have exactly my up-to-date TB profile from the home computer sitting on the Comcast website. Until today. That doesn't mean that it hasn't been like that for months, but I can't believe that I never noticed this before over the past couple years. And if it's a new feature, I would think that it can be turned off. In the Registry?
Synced folders have been the main feature of IMAP since it became commonplace about 20 years ago. It's not something that can be turned on or off, but you can unsubscribe folders that you don't wish to download to TB. Maybe if you removed the account for some reason and then added it back, it was set up as IMAP instead of POP.
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If the account is IMAP, the folders in TB are synced with the folders on the mail server. If it's POP, TB only downloads the Inbox. To change between POP and IMAP, the account has to be added like a new existing account.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Convert_a_POP_account_to_a_IMAP_account
https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/email-client-programs-with-xfinity-email
sfhowes:
I don't doubt what you're saying. But as a follow up, it seems to me that this is a very new 'feature' on IMAP accounts.
I've been using the profile in questions for decade(s). Almost always I use it on my home computer. (A Win7 box hardwired on my home network), but every once in awhile I'm away from home, and I take my HP Win10 laptop along and use that to look at my comcast email website. I've never noticed that I have exactly my up-to-date TB profile from the home computer sitting on the Comcast website. Until today. That doesn't mean that it hasn't been like that for months, but I can't believe that I never noticed this before over the past couple years.
And if it's a new feature, I would think that it can be turned off. In the Registry?
Chosen Solution
wigglytoes1 said
sfhowes: I don't doubt what you're saying. But as a follow up, it seems to me that this is a very new 'feature' on IMAP accounts. I've been using the profile in questions for decade(s). Almost always I use it on my home computer. (A Win7 box hardwired on my home network), but every once in awhile I'm away from home, and I take my HP Win10 laptop along and use that to look at my comcast email website. I've never noticed that I have exactly my up-to-date TB profile from the home computer sitting on the Comcast website. Until today. That doesn't mean that it hasn't been like that for months, but I can't believe that I never noticed this before over the past couple years. And if it's a new feature, I would think that it can be turned off. In the Registry?
Synced folders have been the main feature of IMAP since it became commonplace about 20 years ago. It's not something that can be turned on or off, but you can unsubscribe folders that you don't wish to download to TB. Maybe if you removed the account for some reason and then added it back, it was set up as IMAP instead of POP.