inbox emails in thunderbird disappear?

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greatdeals_007
Posts: 32
Joined: August 2nd, 2007, 8:34 am

inbox emails in thunderbird disappear?

Post by greatdeals_007 »

I am using thunderbird with comcast email. I had a couple of questions and hoping you can help.

1. why do the emails in my thunderbird inbox disappear? I have it set to leave messages on the server

2. thunderbird only checks for new emails. is there a way to tell it to pull everything down from the server?

3. comcast went through a mail upgrade. unfortunately they only transferred the last 30 days worth of emails. is there a way for me to tell thunderbird to pull down messages from the old system? I can access the old system through the browser not sure how to do this

Thank you for your help in any of these areas
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DanRaisch
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Joined: September 23rd, 2004, 8:57 pm
Location: Somewhere on the right coast

Re: inbox emails in thunderbird disappear?

Post by DanRaisch »

1. Are the messages disappearing from the Thunderbird inbox or from the server?

2. Comcast provides only POP3 type access. In that protocol the email client (Thunderbird) has access only to the server inbox. It can not access messages in any other folders (like Sent, Trash, etc) on the server. Unless you are referring to older messages in the Comcast inbox, Thunderbird has probably downloaded what is available to it from the server.

3. Comcast set up new POP3 servers in their "SmartZone". You would have to set up a second account in Thunderbird using the server names and settings from the old Comcast system to be able to access the messages in the older area, if they are even still available for POP type access. You should check with Comcast on that issue.
greatdeals_007
Posts: 32
Joined: August 2nd, 2007, 8:34 am

Re: inbox emails in thunderbird disappear?

Post by greatdeals_007 »

hi

the emails are still on the server. if I delete them in TB they are still on the server.

This refers to the new SmartZone
question: if I select get emails...does that only bring down to the new emails? shouldn't it bring down everything? is there a way to specify perhaps a date range?

Old Comcast email
comcast really messed things up for me. no mention that they would not be able to transfer all my old emails....they only went back 30 days. they gave us 10GB of storage space but only transferred 30 days worth of emails. does that make sense.

I can still get to the old emails by logging into smartzone and changing the url. not sure how to bring those down
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DanRaisch
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Posts: 127186
Joined: September 23rd, 2004, 8:57 pm
Location: Somewhere on the right coast

Re: inbox emails in thunderbird disappear?

Post by DanRaisch »

1. Correct. You've set Thunderbird to leave messages on the server. It is performing according to the selected settings.

2. With a POP3 account there is no provision for selecting a date range or any other criteria. Note that this is not a limitation unique to Thunderbird. It is inherent in the POP3 protocol and applies to all email clients.
Thunderbird keeps a file on the local machine that identifies which messages (based on a message ID) have been received. Any new messages received will not appear in that file and will be downloaded to Thunderbird. The local file is updated to include those new messages so that they will not be downloaded multiple times. "In that protocol the email client (Thunderbird) has access only to the server inbox. It can not access messages in any other folders (like Sent, Trash, etc) on the server."

Are you saying that there are older messages in the Comcast webmail inbox that are not being downloaded to Thunderbird? Or are you referring to messages that are in other folders on the Comcast webmail system?

You may be able to download those messages to Thunderbird by moving them from the other Comcast folders to the server inbox. That will make them appear to be new messages to Thunderbird. If you choose to do that, you will want to first create folders in Thunderbird (TB) to store those messages in a location other than the Thunderbird Inbox. Second, before moving the messages in Comcast, you may wish to move out of the TB Inbox all those message that are currently there. That way you can move messages from, for instance, the webmail sent folder to the webmail inbox. When TB downloads those messages you can move them to TB Sent folder, deleting them from the TB Inbox. Then move the webmail Drafts folder to the webmail inbox. After those messages download to TB you can move them from the TB Inbox to the to the TB Drafts folder, deleting them from the TB Inbox. Repeat this procedure for the other folders on the Comcast webmail system.
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