Auto download of full message bodies (IMAP connection)

[enger]

Using Thunderbird to connect to an IMAP server, is there a configuration setting that will cause Thunderbird to download the full message body of each new message that arrives (NOT merely the header, but the whole shebang)???

I have clicked every setting that seems to relate to making messages available off-line, etc.
Yet, if I try to read a message that has not been previosuly viewed, I find Thunderbird still connects to the IMAP server to retrieve the body. (Try turning off the Ethernet port on your machine and clicking on an un-read message to verify this behavior.)

The ONLY method that I have found to force Thunderbird to download un-read message bodies is to pull-down the File Menu and go through the OFFLINE Download/SyncNow mechanism, which then elicits a pop-up box which must also be confirmed. This is tedious and certainly not automatic.

Is there any config command that will cause Thunderbird to autonomously download all the message bodies from the IMAP server (both when one first connects and then perpetually thereafter as new messages arrive).

Thanks

[CheGordito]

There was an extension for this, but I'm not sure it still works or is still updated.

Check out Sync on Arrival: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/1396

Good luck!

[enger]

Thanks very much. Unfortunately, I upgraded to TB 2.0, in the hopes that it would fix this problem. SyncOnArrival will not work with TB 2.0. Maybe I'll have to revert to an earlier version and load the SyncOnArrival extention to obtain the functionality? This is starting to sound like Microsoft

Thank you again!

[Freee!!]

Before you revert to an earlier version of Thunderbird, you can try to bump that extension (or you can use the Nightly Tester Tools extension).

[enger]

Freee!! Forgive my ignorance: what does the term "bump that extention" mean? I have visited the web site of the developer of the extension; someone has already posted a note there requesting an update that will work on TB2 (I guess I'm not the only one that wants auto-download)

I will take a look into the NightlyTesterTools and see what I can make of those facilities.

Thank you for your guidance in this matter!

[Daifne]

http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=973

[tanstaafl]

That extension supposedly works around limitations of using IMAP offline mode to keep a synchronized local copy of the remote folder. You can use tools -> account settings -> offline & disk space -> select folders for offline use to configure what folders you want it to maintain copies of, and tools -> options -> advanced -> network & disk space -> offline to configure whether it should download those messages when you go offline etc.

However, if you normally get new mail in just the remote inbox its much easier to just use a message filter to automatically copy new messages to a local folder. The IMAP offline mode support is buggy and can be confusing.

[My287thNick]

Hey guys,
sorry for excavating an over 11 year old thread, but since I actually have the EXACTLY same problem as the threadopener and it seems that a solution was not found until today, I want to push this thread. TB notifies me when a new messge arrives in one of my IMAP folders immediately and also shows the numer of new messages at the folder list. But it does not download the full body of the mail until I actually click on the folder. But I want that new messages are downloaded immediately fully, including the body, so that I can acutally read them also when offline. Advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks!

[tanstaafl]

1. Right click on the folder in the folder pane, select properties, and check "when getting new messages for this account always check this folder". Do that for each folder you want to read offline. Each folder you do that for creates another tcp-ip connection to the mail server. If you have a Courier IMAP server you might run into a limit on the number of connection you can make. See the first paragraph in http://kb.mozillazine.org/IMAP:_advance ... figuration

2. You need to defeat the optimizations that MIME Parts on Demand does by setting mail.imap.mime_parts_on_demand false using the config editor. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Entire_messag ... AP_message

3. In Synchronization & Storage you need to enable offline folders for each folder you want to read while working offline. They're normally enabled by default , so unless you played with those settings there is nothing to do.

[tanstaafl]

In the future please create a new thread rather than posting to a thread that is over a year old, even if its exactly about the same problem.