How delete message on server after it is retrieved? I'm currently testing Thunderbird to replace my Courier email client which is still in operation. While testing I do NOT want to delete messages on the server after retrieval in Thunderbird (so that it will be retrieved and added to my Courier archive.) But ultimately I will want Thunderbird to delete messages on the server after retrieval.
I've studied the section on Sync & Storage but I can't see the setting there.
There is also 'Message Storage' under 'Server Settings'. Does that 'inbox' refer to an inbox on the server? So does 'clean up on exit' mean delete new messages on the server after they have been downloaded to my computer?
How delete message on server after it is downloaded?
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Fidcal
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tanstaafl
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Re: How delete message on server after it is downloaded?
I think you're trying to make a IMAP account act like a POP account. A POP account is download-centric and has "leave message on server" etc. server settings. It only knows how to fetch mail from the inbox on the POP server to its local inbox folder. It can only display downloaded mail stored on the hard disk. A IMAP account is NOT download-centric. It has a client server view of the world. It displays what is on the server, basically the same that webmail does, but in a different application (email client) with better widgets/features and for more than one email provider.
A IMAP account lets you access all of the webmail folders and fetches a message into memory when its opened. It doesn't download it to the hard disk in order to let you read/open it. Every time you open a message in a IMAP account it fetches it again (unless you are opening the same message you did last time). Its a entirely different view of the world than a POP account.
What causes confusion is Thunderbird by default also makes a mirror copy of those remote folders as offline folders on your hard disk. That is what "keep messages in all folders for this account on the computer" means. If you are working online you see the contents of the remote folders. If you are working offline you see the contents of the offline folders instead, if they exist. If you delete a message in the remote folder it gets automatically deleted in the offline folder when they synch.
This can cause problems for people only used to POP accounts because you can't rely upon the contents of the offline folders like you can for a POP accounts folders, even though both store messages in mbox files. It is a handy way to have a mirror copy of the remote folder that you can copy somewhere else for safe keeping though.
"clean up (expunge) inbox on exit" means if there are any deleted messages in the remote inbox it physically removes them when exiting Thunderbird. When you delete a message it normally copies a message to trash, marks the original message as deleted and hides it from view. But the original (deleted) message still exists, even though you can't see it. Compacting folders is one way to get rid of all deleted messages (outside of the trash folder). Don't confuse "compacting" with file compression, its a type of maintenance. Expunging a folder is another way to physically remove deleted messages, though its limited to just that folder.
I suggest you read http://kb.mozillazine.org/Deleting_mess ... P_accounts . Personally I like to use "Just mark it as deleted" and mail.imap.expunge_option=2. I see (and can open) any deleted messages in the remote inbox with a line drawn through the folder listing until there are 20 deleted messages in the account, then the deleted messages get expunged. Its a good way to get rid of clutter while giving me a little while to change my mind and undelete a message while I still remember what the messages were about.
"While testing I do NOT want to delete messages on the server after retrieval in Thunderbird (so that it will be retrieved and added to my Courier archive.)"
Unless you explicitly delete a message or configure message aging for a folder or account to automatically delete messages (too old, too many in the folder etc.) none of the messages in the IMAP account should get deleted.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Message_aging
See http://www.laurencejackson.com/Courex/ for a tool useful for exporting address books and folders from Courier to Thunderbird. However, if you have a IMAP account in Courier you don't need to migrate its mail, just create a IMAP account for the same mailbox in Thunderbird.
A IMAP account lets you access all of the webmail folders and fetches a message into memory when its opened. It doesn't download it to the hard disk in order to let you read/open it. Every time you open a message in a IMAP account it fetches it again (unless you are opening the same message you did last time). Its a entirely different view of the world than a POP account.
What causes confusion is Thunderbird by default also makes a mirror copy of those remote folders as offline folders on your hard disk. That is what "keep messages in all folders for this account on the computer" means. If you are working online you see the contents of the remote folders. If you are working offline you see the contents of the offline folders instead, if they exist. If you delete a message in the remote folder it gets automatically deleted in the offline folder when they synch.
This can cause problems for people only used to POP accounts because you can't rely upon the contents of the offline folders like you can for a POP accounts folders, even though both store messages in mbox files. It is a handy way to have a mirror copy of the remote folder that you can copy somewhere else for safe keeping though.
"clean up (expunge) inbox on exit" means if there are any deleted messages in the remote inbox it physically removes them when exiting Thunderbird. When you delete a message it normally copies a message to trash, marks the original message as deleted and hides it from view. But the original (deleted) message still exists, even though you can't see it. Compacting folders is one way to get rid of all deleted messages (outside of the trash folder). Don't confuse "compacting" with file compression, its a type of maintenance. Expunging a folder is another way to physically remove deleted messages, though its limited to just that folder.
I suggest you read http://kb.mozillazine.org/Deleting_mess ... P_accounts . Personally I like to use "Just mark it as deleted" and mail.imap.expunge_option=2. I see (and can open) any deleted messages in the remote inbox with a line drawn through the folder listing until there are 20 deleted messages in the account, then the deleted messages get expunged. Its a good way to get rid of clutter while giving me a little while to change my mind and undelete a message while I still remember what the messages were about.
"While testing I do NOT want to delete messages on the server after retrieval in Thunderbird (so that it will be retrieved and added to my Courier archive.)"
Unless you explicitly delete a message or configure message aging for a folder or account to automatically delete messages (too old, too many in the folder etc.) none of the messages in the IMAP account should get deleted.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Message_aging
See http://www.laurencejackson.com/Courex/ for a tool useful for exporting address books and folders from Courier to Thunderbird. However, if you have a IMAP account in Courier you don't need to migrate its mail, just create a IMAP account for the same mailbox in Thunderbird.
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Fidcal
- Posts: 16
- Joined: December 6th, 2021, 2:32 pm
Re: How delete message on server after it is downloaded?
Wow, thanks. I'm going to have study that for quite a while but I'm hoping you are saying there is a workaround for what I want. The concept of having years of all my personal messages stored on an online service is intolerable. I've already had two providers go out of business. Local storage is now so cheap, especially for storing mainly text messages, it seems unnecessary. I run two backups a week to an external drive for email and lots of other data so I don't need messages left on-line.
My PC crashed out totally two weeks ago. I simply plugged my external drive into my new pc and immediately can read my messages in Courier, with or without the internet. But there is a problem developing with Courier with Win11 so I have to prepare for it failing within 30 days. Don't know why. It used to be free under a different name. Then Rose Software took it over. There was a charge to buy for a time I think but eventually they made it free again and eventually discontinued support or interest in it. Result is that something in Win11 thinks it's a trial. There is no way to register it, update it, pay for it, or anything else. The clock is ticking...
My PC crashed out totally two weeks ago. I simply plugged my external drive into my new pc and immediately can read my messages in Courier, with or without the internet. But there is a problem developing with Courier with Win11 so I have to prepare for it failing within 30 days. Don't know why. It used to be free under a different name. Then Rose Software took it over. There was a charge to buy for a time I think but eventually they made it free again and eventually discontinued support or interest in it. Result is that something in Win11 thinks it's a trial. There is no way to register it, update it, pay for it, or anything else. The clock is ticking...
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tanstaafl
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- Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm
Re: How delete message on server after it is downloaded?
"The concept of having years of all my personal messages stored on an online service is intolerable."
Understandable. My experience is it depends upon the email provider and do you feel comfortable backing up the remote folders. I have 8 IMAP accounts but my main account is a inexpensive paid account with Fastmail. They're paranoid about never losing any messages, they do a lot more than just backups, they worry a lot about reliable replication. I've had an account with them for 19 years.
On the other hand I haven't lost anything from my free Gmail and Outlook IMAP accounts but I backup anything important from them since its too risky to rely upon them. And with Google you never know when they'll cancel a service, regardless of how popular it is.
https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/arti ... le-service
https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/arti ... 0000278242.
I dimly remember running Calypso (predecessor to Courier) for a while. They offered a free beta of PocoMail as a upgrade path at one time but I never tried that though I really liked what I read about PocoMail's script language (PocoScript). I wish Thunderbird did something similar.
Understandable. My experience is it depends upon the email provider and do you feel comfortable backing up the remote folders. I have 8 IMAP accounts but my main account is a inexpensive paid account with Fastmail. They're paranoid about never losing any messages, they do a lot more than just backups, they worry a lot about reliable replication. I've had an account with them for 19 years.
On the other hand I haven't lost anything from my free Gmail and Outlook IMAP accounts but I backup anything important from them since its too risky to rely upon them. And with Google you never know when they'll cancel a service, regardless of how popular it is.
https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/arti ... le-service
https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/arti ... 0000278242.
I dimly remember running Calypso (predecessor to Courier) for a while. They offered a free beta of PocoMail as a upgrade path at one time but I never tried that though I really liked what I read about PocoMail's script language (PocoScript). I wish Thunderbird did something similar.
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Fidcal
- Posts: 16
- Joined: December 6th, 2021, 2:32 pm
Re: How delete message on server after it is downloaded?
Calypso! - that was the name I couldn't bring to mind. Anyway, I agree both IMAP and POP have their pros and cons and I've been considering this much of today.
However, I just glimpsed another message that suggested Thunderbird can handle POP as well! So I tried setting up a new test account manually, and sure enough, I could set it to POP. My first test accounts were semi-automatic and I never saw that option.
So I'll play with that for a while.
Yes, I'm comfortable backing up. I use Cobian which is excellent and since I run twice a week anyway to incrementally mirror the full archive an entire external drive, it's no further effort to keep my email messages on it too.
Incidentally, I might have worked out a way to get close to what I want on IMAP just before this. I created new local folders: MY INBOX, MY PENDING, MY SENT, MY RECEIVED and then set Thunderbird to COPY to them. Then I set it to delete all messages after one day. I have yet to see whether that means it will also deleted my copies. Have to wait 24 hours.
However, I just glimpsed another message that suggested Thunderbird can handle POP as well! So I tried setting up a new test account manually, and sure enough, I could set it to POP. My first test accounts were semi-automatic and I never saw that option.
So I'll play with that for a while.
Yes, I'm comfortable backing up. I use Cobian which is excellent and since I run twice a week anyway to incrementally mirror the full archive an entire external drive, it's no further effort to keep my email messages on it too.
Incidentally, I might have worked out a way to get close to what I want on IMAP just before this. I created new local folders: MY INBOX, MY PENDING, MY SENT, MY RECEIVED and then set Thunderbird to COPY to them. Then I set it to delete all messages after one day. I have yet to see whether that means it will also deleted my copies. Have to wait 24 hours.