IMAP & Folder Limit

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ep2012
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IMAP & Folder Limit

Post by ep2012 »

Hi,

Ok, a few questions:

1. Is there still a 4 GB limit per folder (or is it per e-mail account?) b/c we read that the limit has been increased, but no one trusts that it has.

2. What differences besides storing the mail on my ISP's or Google is there with TB POP vs. IMAP. I remember a couple of years ago when someone was explaining how it works that there was some feature (I think it was multiple search windows) that I would no longer be able to do if I moved over to IMAP.

Thanks
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tanstaafl
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Re: IMAP & Folder Limit

Post by tanstaafl »

1. The 4GB maximum size of a folder was removed in version 51. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=789679

2. POP is download-centric. You read a message by downloading it from the mail server to your local inbox in your profile, on your hard disk. You can't access any of the other folders on the mail server. IMAP is just the opposite, it lets you use the webmail's folders (remote folders) as if they were local folders. Whenever you want to read a message it fetches it from the mail server, regardless of how many times you already fetched it. It also lets you transparently upload messages, such as saving a message you sent in a remote "sent" folder. POP accounts have no way to upload a message.

POP is a better choice for slow connections such as a satellite link or metered connections where there is a low cap since it only fetches the message once. On the other hand if you have a reasonable connection IMAP avoids the classic problems of logjams when trying to check for new mail, if there is a problem fetching/opening a message you just skip over it and select another new message.

In v3 of Thunderbird they added a confusing optional feature for IMAP accounts that is enabled by default. Thunderbird will download a copy of all messages in a IMAP account into "offline folders" that are kept in synch with the corresponding remote folders. However, they are not useful for anything (other than helping to build the search index for global search) while working online. You have to switch to working offline to see their contents. They are not even used as a cache. You can configure a IMAP account to disable that feature.

IMAP is the direction everybody is moving as its a superset of what POP offers, and lets multiple email clients easily share a mailbox. Initially ISPs were reluctant to support it as it requires them to provide more disk space, but that started to change after free Gmail IMAP accounts became popular and the price of disk storage got much cheaper.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/IMAP
ep2012
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Re: IMAP & Folder Limit

Post by ep2012 »

Hi there,

Thank you for that.

So some questions:

1. I'm on POP now, what happens to ALL my mail if I switch to IMAP? I still have to be able to find it in folders & search for them.

2. What's the best way to switch to IMAP? I have all my directories on my E drive each in their own folder named according to that e-mail addy.

Thanks
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tanstaafl
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Re: IMAP & Folder Limit

Post by tanstaafl »

Once you add the IMAP account and delete the POP account you would lose access to the already downloaded mail in your inbox, plus other locally stored folders such as sent. The simplest solution would be to add the IMAP account and move your old messages to it before deleting the POP account. You can have a POP and IMAP account for the same mailbox at the same time.

If you need to buy time to decide what to do with your old messages move the folders you want to save under a child folder in "Local Folders". You can then safely delete the POP account, add the IMAP account, and decide what to do with the old messages later.

Don't forget to empty the trash and compact folders before deleting the POP account, to avoid wasting space in your profile storing deleted messages
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tanstaafl
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Re: IMAP & Folder Limit

Post by tanstaafl »

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Convert_a_POP ... AP_account (slightly out of date since it was written before they added the checkbox to delete a accounts contents when deleting it)
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Re: IMAP & Folder Limit

Post by ep2012 »

Ok, but remember that this isn't just about IMAP, this is about ALL the issues I have with TB, like my Address book doesn't work, duplicate folders & lost e-mails in them, plus tons of other issues.

We need to redo TB from scratch b/c just changing the profile never worked when we tried to fix ALL the issues last time.

So the person helping me wants to know if we can just point the individual IMAP accts. to my E drive where all my e-mail is now b/c we can't do an export the mail since it's not on C drive, it's on E.

Thank you very much
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Re: IMAP & Folder Limit

Post by ep2012 »

Btw, when hunting around for that area where TB takes you RIGHT to the profile path I came across this error consol area that no one ever told me to look into & found very strange errors even while I was asleep.

Like Timestamp: 10/3/2017 5:29:11 PM
Warning: Expected declaration but found '*'. Skipped to next declaration.
Source File: about:blank
Line: 222, Column: 4
Source Code:
*font: x-small;

What's that all about?

TONS of errors though & only for today, I wonder how many errors I'd see from the last 4 years. :(


Timestamp: 10/3/2017 8:57:17 PM
Error: TypeError: this._sort[aIndex] is undefined
Source File: resource://gre/modules/dbViewWrapper.js
Line: 1570


and


Timestamp: 10/3/2017 2:38:42 PM
Error: Failed to read 'imipHtml.attendeeRole2.REQ_PARTICIPANT' from chrome://lightning/locale/lightning.properties. Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIStringBundle.formatStringFromName]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: resource://calendar/modules/calUtils.jsm -> file:///C:/Users/Michelle/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/oy7xqc2c.default/extensions/%7Be2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103%7D/calendar-js/calUtils.js :: calGetString :: line 674" data: no]
Source File: resource://calendar/modules/calUtils.jsm -> file:///C:/Users/Michelle/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/oy7xqc2c.default/extensions/%7Be2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103%7D/calendar-js/calUtils.js
Line: 680

I have lightning as an add-on, but I don't ever use it.
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tanstaafl
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Re: IMAP & Folder Limit

Post by tanstaafl »

ep2012 wrote:So the person helping me wants to know if we can just point the individual IMAP accts. to my E drive where all my e-mail is now b/c we can't do an export the mail since it's not on C drive, it's on E.
You can export the mbox files (created by the offline folders for the IMAP account) using the ImportExportTools add-on regardless of what drive the account stores its files on.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_m ... hunderbird for how to move an IMAP account to another drive while keeping the profile on drive C:
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tanstaafl
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Re: IMAP & Folder Limit

Post by tanstaafl »

ep2012 wrote:I have lightning as an add-on, but I don't ever use it.
Its normal to have errors in the error console that you can safely ignore.

If you don't use Lightning I suggest you uninstall it as it uses a ton of resources, and its yet one more thing that can cause unexpected side effects.
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Re: IMAP & Folder Limit

Post by ep2012 »

Thank you.

So I read that Mozbackup has a lot of issues & it hasn't been updated since 2011.

I know there's a way to go directly to the folder/path to the profile of TB by using the top nav, but I can't find it anywhere :( - I found it, it's via run, not the top nav, sorry.

Also, I need to get the data from my address book, is there a way to export the info into notepad since we don't want to carry over the address book in case there are issues?

Thanks
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Re: IMAP & Folder Limit

Post by ep2012 »

tanstaafl wrote:
ep2012 wrote:So the person helping me wants to know if we can just point the individual IMAP accts. to my E drive where all my e-mail is now b/c we can't do an export the mail since it's not on C drive, it's on E.
You can export the mbox files (created by the offline folders for the IMAP account) using the ImportExportTools add-on regardless of what drive the account stores its files on.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_m ... hunderbird for how to move an IMAP account to another drive while keeping the profile on drive C:
Is this the same instructions exporting from POP to IMAP?
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tanstaafl
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Re: IMAP & Folder Limit

Post by tanstaafl »

So I read that Mozbackup has a lot of issues & it hasn't been updated since 2011.

True. That is why its recommended that you use the beta version. It doesn't seem to have the problem where it doesn't back up everything.

I know there's a way to go directly to the folder/path to the profile of TB by using the top nav, but I can't find it anywhere :( - I found it, it's via run, not the top nav, sorry.

help -> troubleshooting information -> open folder

Also, I need to get the data from my address book, is there a way to export the info into notepad since we don't want to carry over the address book in case there are issues?

in the address book window use tools -> export to export it as a .csv file. Or see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_addres ... n_profiles for some alternatives.
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Exporting from POP to IMAP

Post by ep2012 »

We are about to do this & we have one last question if someone can please answer...

Can we export the POP inbox & all sub folders to IMAP?

Does this apply:

"You can export the mbox files (created by the offline folders for the IMAP account) using the ImportExportTools add-on regardless of what drive the account stores its files on."
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Re: IMAP & Folder Limit

Post by ep2012 »

Hi there,

Yeh we just copied & zipped it, but thank you.

Can you just answer my last question. I think that's it before we make the BIG move :)

Thank you sooo much!
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Re: Exporting from POP to IMAP

Post by DanRaisch »

There should be no need to import anything.

You can have the same account set up as POP and IMAP and copy or move messages from the local (POP) folders to the IMAP folders in Thunderbird. After all of the messages are moved over the POP account could be removed.
If you have messages in Thunderbird's Local Folders they can also be moved into the IMAP folders after that account is set up in Thunderbird.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Convert_a_POP ... AP_account
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