Constantly downloading the same emails SOLVED

[terrathunderbird]

Is there a way to stop TB from cycling and recycling through the same downloading process for the same folders and the same emails? It already went through a whole download/synch cycle, which lasted a couple days. And the it said, "no emails to download". But shortly after, it started on the cycle again, downloading old emails.

[wsmwk]

likely related to why your system is slow

[terrathunderbird]

Yes. I wish I knew how to stop it. Do you know of any settings the might help?

[wsmwk]

This is known to happen with gmail - I've experienced it myself. Don't understand it.

Does the computer stay on and Thunderbird always on?

[terrathunderbird]

Oh gosh. I hadn't even thought of that. I added a couple of gmail accounts to TB for the first time. But it's downloading the Compuserve folders not the Gmail folders, that I can tell. I went into DownloadSynch and unchecked all the gmail folders. That was a day and a half ago. Do you think that hte very presence of gmail in TB might be inciting TB to keep downloading the Compuserve folders? I feel like they are entirely separate.

I left the computer on with TB on, because it was still cycling through. But if I quit TB and start it up, it starts cycling again. I believe that the last time I shut the whole machine down, when powered it up, it started cycling again. That's why I thought to leave it on, in the hopes that it would run itself out and finish whatever its' doing. But it's been now over 48 hours.

[dfoulkes]

In TB (and most other email clients) if you go to tools/Account settings... you should then see the setting window display. Your email servers that you've included for getting emails should be now listed on the LHS.

Under each mail server should be Server settings... and when you click on it those settings will display... one of the lines in there is labeled "Leave messages on server" If the box next to that line is check then you most likely will get them again...know what I mean?

Double check your setting... I do not have that specific box checked as I don't want to leave anything on the servers...and I've never lost an email.

[terrathunderbird]

But if I don't leave the emails on the server, then won't they disappear next time TB goes to "synch" with the online web server?

[DanRaisch]

Do you access these accounts from multiple computers or just the one?

[terrathunderbird]

I access the online mailbox from various devices. But the TB account is accessed only from one computer.

[wsmwk]

Let's start with a more basic question, are the accounts defined as pop, or as imap?

(my imap experience is with gmail, not compuserve. And no, gmail activity wouldn't cause issues with compuserve)

[terrathunderbird]

Here's the accounts that are currently setup in TB:
These are the ones that I want to be active, synched, for off-line use:

Compuserve: imap.aol.com
Gmail (two of these accounts for different gmail emails, both w/same configs): imap.gmail.com
GoDaddy: (two of these accounts for difference domains, both w/same configs): pop.secureserver.net

these next two are not set up to check/download new emails, because they are old projects that don't have new emails:
imap.citizenactionteam.org
pop.secureserver.net

[DanRaisch]

OK, because you are using Thunderbird from only that one computer, there is no need to have TB synch local folders with the server for off-line access. For each IMAP type account, you could uncheck the option under Tools->Account Settings->Synchronization & Storage->Keep messages for this account on this computer. That would reduce the data download requirement as TB would only download the content of any given message in those accounts when you actually view that given message.

[terrathunderbird]

Thanks, Dan...but I would very much like to read the messages without being online. Is that possible?

[wsmwk]

Thanks, Dan...but I would very much like to read the messages without being online. Is that possible?

That depends on whether compuserv/aol is at fault - some ISPs are consistently or randomly unreliable. That said, there are also some fixes coming for startup issues or issues where the ISP temporarily becomes uncontactable, causing messages to be redownloaded..

Note also you can turn it off sync for individual folders in the "Advanced" settings.

[terrathunderbird]

I decided to go offline and start manually moving emails, 1,000 or so at a time to the local folders. This seems to have worked, but I have an odd question...

To make sure the move was accurate, I looked at the profile to see the folder size: 311,084 kb, with, according to TB 9,740 emails.

I copied that into a backup folder, to view it on MBoxFileViewer, and the file in the backup file ended up being only 293,448 kb. When I opened the folder in MBoxFileViewer there are only 9,021 emails. I thought, huh...maybe there are duplicates, and when I took out the duplicates, there are still a lot more than what is showing in MBoxFileViewer.

So the questions are:

- why would a profile folder file that was simply moved to a different part of the computer be a different size?

- why would MBoxFileViewer have a different number of emails than TB shows?