Thunderbird Server Setting Vanished

[Melston]

I just had to redo the OS. I reinstalled Thunderbird and now the option to prevent accessing and DL from the server is gone! It has accessed my e-mail and is DL to my PC. I do not want my email info on my PC!

I've always had it set to not retrieve anything from the e-mail server. I use it only to send e-mail via POP.

What can I do to stop it and not have my server e-mail info show at all as I've done for years.

[DanRaisch]

After reinstallation of Thunderbird was the account set up as POP or IMAP? Find out using menu path Tools->Account Settings->Server Settings->Server Type at the top right of the dialogue.

[Melston]

Oh wow, It's IMAP. Is that the problem? If so, how do I change it to POP?

[DanRaisch]

You can't "change" it to POP but you can remove the IMAP account set up and create a new POP set up for the same account --
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/changing-imap-pop

Note that with an IMAP account, the messages you see in Thunderbird are actually stored on the server so removing the account will not delete the messages.

[Melston]

Thanks. I just deleted the account. However, before I proceed, I need to know if it also deleted the the stuff it DL. If not, what is the name of it and where do I go to remove it?

I don't want to remove the info from what I had previously which is only things I sent. I have to figure out where it is (Microsoft remotely accessed my PC and made a backup before clearing the drive) and what the name of the Sent files are.

After signing out, I just noticed that I have a crash report notice. Should I just ignore it and close it out?

[DanRaisch]

I would recommend that you NOT delete any data until after you have the POP account set up and working AND confirm that it downloads the messages you had previously seen in the IMAP account.

In the IMAP account, check the setting under Tools->Account Settings->Copies & Folders to see what was set as the target for storing sent messages. (Found at the top of that dialogue.)

You can leave the crash report as that is not really account specific.

[Melston]

Thanks. After several hours, I finally found out the names and located the correct files for my Address Book and Sent messages that were backed up on the partition drive and copied and pasted them into their proper locations.

I didn't need to DL the messages because when I sent a message to find out if I followed the steps correctly, it went through, and fortunately that enabled me to find the Sent folder and path.

[DanRaisch]

The address book files (*.mab) are not account specific and would have been available to the new POP account.

[Melston]

Hi Dan, are you saying that new address book files (*.mab) have all of the addresses that I've accumulated over the years? How is that possible if the hard drive was cleared out?

[DanRaisch]

No, I wasn't saying that. What I said was that in replacing the recently created IMAP account with a POP account you would not be creating new address book files. Any data you had added to the address books since creating that IMAP account would be present and available in the new POP account.

[Melston]

Oh okay. Makes sense. Thanks a lot for your help!

[DanRaisch]

You're welcome.