What you would like and what you can have differ, as you have already noted.

There is no way to delete only the downloaded message body after 30 days, the closest is unchecking the keep messages for this account on this computer in synchronisation and storage and downloading message bodies on demand.

I really fail to see the reason why you would wantto delete message bodies after 30 days. Hard disks are cheap and huge, downloads are inherently slow, so why would you want to synchronize and then delete just so you can make the next access slower?

Dead Matt,

thank you for your fast reply.

> There is no way to delete only the downloaded message body after > 30 days.

I see that, but I don't see a reason for that. There is a usage scenario.

> I really fail to see the reason why you would wantto delete message > bodies after 30 days. Hard disks are cheap and huge, downloads are > inherently slow, so why would you want to synchronize and then delete > just so you can make the next access slower?

Like I said, on IMAP server I have LOTS of messages, and I don't need all of them on my computer. I rarely access them, and it's fine for me that they are downloaded from server when I need them.

Yes, the disk is cheap, but Thunderbird profile in our company is a Windows roaming profile. If I synchronize all messages, it will be several GB big. And every time a person sits on another computer he will have to wait until the profile (several GB just for e-mail that he probably wont read) is synchronized.

So, there is a need, there is a usage scenario, just the Thunderbird fails to do one simple thing - delete the body of messages older than X days. :(

Best regards.

why store any messages on the local machine then... in a roaming profile having indexes of mail in each folder is plenty to be uploading and downloading each log on/off cycle. And from a "Local server" there is little in the way of a speed issue to display message bodies.

Also, I am thinking after I click sorry.

There is no requirement for the profile folder to be in the roaming profile. In many instances it works fine on a server share like the home drive. There have been issues with slowness on network shares in the past, but much of that was proprietary software on NAS boxes. I have not heard much in the way of issues in the last year.

> why store any messages on the local machine then...

Because of all advantages of IMAP Synchronization. Just, we are mostly working with e-mails that are 30 days old. Older mails we don't use that often. That's why we don't need them localy.

> in a roaming profile > having indexes of mail in each folder is plenty to be uploading and > downloading each log on/off cycle. And from a "Local server" there is > little in the way of a speed issue to display message bodies

Still, we would like to minimize the computer - server communication. And If we don't synchronize last 30 days, we can't do full text search.

Best regards.

> There is no requirement for the profile folder to be in the roaming > profile. In many instances it works fine on a server share like the home > drive. There have been issues with slowness on network shares in the > past, but much of that was proprietary software on NAS boxes. I have not > heard much in the way of issues in the last year.

Thank you, this is a useful, and we will consider this, but it still (in our case) isn't the final solution.

The mail boxes are big, and in big part shared between the employees, and we don't need to make another copy on another server for all of that data. We just need last 30 days data.

I have found the bug that addresses this issue: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=765514

So, messages older than 30 days should be deleted.

Matt, if you are experiencing the same problem, could you please comment a bug?

Synchronised folders download eg; 30 days to an mbox file in the Thunderbird mail account. It means it will only download 30 days worth of emails; not maintain an mbox file to contain only latest 30 days.

These are on your computer until you delete or move. As it is a synchronised folder any changes done to emails in this folder will be reflected in the webmail account.

But as you say "Like I said, on IMAP server I have LOTS of messages, and I don't need all of them on my computer. I rarely access them, and it's fine for me that they are downloaded from server when I need them."

Why not stop synchronising? Synchronising does not suit the needs of all people for all purposes. So I would suggest you subscribe to see the folder, but not synchronise. Then you will only see headers and you can select to open the last 30 days worth of emails. As these are kept in a temp cache it will not download to an mbox file in the mail account, for offline viewing.

> Synchronised folders download eg; 30 days to an mbox file in the > Thunderbird mail account. It means it will only download 30 days > worth of emails; not maintain an mbox file to contain only latest > 30 days.

Yes, I understand what it means now, but I'm not sure that it should be like that. I'm not native in English, but synchronize last 30 days form me should mean that now it synchronizes messages from the last 30 days, and always keeps that folder synchronized for only last 30 days.

Synchronize and keep like that!

> These are on your computer until you delete or move. As it is a > synchronised folder any changes done to emails in this folder will be > reflected in the webmail account.

This guy has nicely explained what I really mean and how it should be done: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=765514#c24

> But as you say "Like I said, on IMAP server I have LOTS of messages, > and I don't need all of them on my computer. I rarely access them, > and it's fine for me that they are downloaded from server when I > need them." > > Why not stop synchronising?

It's not all black and white, there is gray as well. And if you think it like that, why there is a option to put how many days will be synchronized, when in the end everything will be synchronized?

So, we have 2 options: 1. Everything should be synchronized. Then why do we have option to chose how many days will be synchronized?

2. Only part of the messages should be synchronized Then we should make this option (synchronize last X days), work as it is expected.

And your question, why I don't turn off synchronization, I have already answered here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1026895#answer-643862

> Synchronising does not suit the needs of all people for all purposes.

But it could suit those needs. Guys have already explained how it could work: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=765514 Is there any reason why not do it like that?

> So I would suggest you subscribe to see the folder, but not > synchronise. Then you will only see headers and you can select > to open the last 30 days worth of emails. As these are kept in a temp > cache it will not download to an mbox file in the mail account, for > offline viewing.

Why should I do things "by hand" if they can be done automatically?

Best regards.

I'm not disagreeing with the expectation; I agree with what you are saying.

i'm only suggesting an alternative method which might work better for you under the current constraints.

Thank you, for your time and help.

I have already turned off the synchronization, just I would like that this bug is confirmed. Or, if it's decided that it's not a bug, that I can open a feature request.

File away https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

> File away https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

Bug is already reported, long time ago, just it isn't confirmed yet.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=765514

Maybe it would help if more people would vote for it. (does it count?)