How to set up Thunderbird account to only get Gmail emails after a certain date?
I have a POP3 Thunderbird account set up to get email downloaded from my local ISP account. I would like to also set up a POP3 Thunderbird account that can access my gmail - but I don't want it to download the large number of emails that I already have in gmail. I would like to have it start downloading only the emails after a set date, but so far I can't seem to find a way to limit the download to the date range I want. I don't want any thing deleted, just want to be able to poll gmail using TB and get the new mail received after my set date.
I have read something about configuring synchronization and disk space usage to achieve, but I don't see anything in my TB version 68 that allows me to do that in the settings options.
In limited experiments, I've tried putting the gmails into different folders, archiving them, marking them as read, but they all still download to TB.
Thanks for any help you might have.
All Replies (6)
If you access the account through webmail and move mail received before the set date from the Inbox to a separate folder, only the remaining mail in Inbox will download to TB if the account is then added as POP. POP only downloads the Inbox, whereas IMAP syncs (downloads) all folders that are subscribed in TB.
If you prefer IMAP access, it would be sufficient to not subscribe the folder with the old mail.
Thanks so much for the reply! That is what I am looking for, but I can't see anywhere to set a date in TB. Where would I find that?
Thanks!
I meant that the mail should be sorted by date in gmail, and then mail before a set date is moved to another folder, before the account is added as POP to TB. But if you already have downloaded the mail to TB, the easiest way to separate according to date is to click the Date column button, which will sort the folder by date, ascending or descending.
Thanks! So I guess there isn't a way to set a date, or prevent old mail from downloading after the account and TB are linked. I was hoping that there was some way to tell TB not to download anything before a date that I'd set, but I guess that isn't an option.
My reason for asking is that I am thinking of getting rid of my local ISP and using gmail as my main email - and wanted to start polling gmail from TB - but don't want to have to download many old emails. I may try to delete as many as I think I don't need - but that will still leave a large number that I really don't want to download. But as I have tried to mark them as read, archive them or move them to a different folder, TB sees them all as "new" and attempts to download them all.
Thanks for the suggestions and help!
if you disable the pop feature in gmails web interface and reenable it specifying to enable for email that arrives from now on you will get your limit, just not a choice of when it starts. mine is sometime in 2010
I see no way to limit IMAP in that way.
if you disable the pop feature in gmails web interface and reenable it specifying to enable for email that arrives from now on you will get your limit, just not a choice of when it starts. mine is sometime in 2010
I see no way to limit IMAP in that way."
Okay - just so I have this clear - If I change gmail from POP to IMAP, and then change it back, it will give me a choice of which emails to download from then on? So it is a setting change in gmail that is the key - not TB?
I want it to be POP, not IMAP, but if this change back and forth works, that may be the solution.
Thanks for any clarification.