Thunderbird questions

Sangoma

Sangoma

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Steve, Coventry, England
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Just had an email from my hosting company to say the monthly charges are going up more than 2 1/2 times.

I always use webmail, but now need to download all emails before I move hosts.

Does Thunderbird leave a copy on the server by default? (used to be a choice with MS)

Is it easy to back up old emails and be able to access them again later?

And where are the settings for the above.

Sorry to seem so lazy and not look, but I am now short of time and don't want to mess things up :)
 
Funnily enough I've just installed Thunderbird on my computer. It collects my e.mails from my provider, BT, and they remain present on the BT server if you want to access them remotely. I think it's a decent program. Took a little while to get it how I wanted it, but it has some advantages over the MS equivalent. The only slight niggle is that it insists on asking for my password every time I access my mail. But no big deal.
 
I haven’t used Thunderbird for some time but I think it’s:

Open Account Settings > Synchronization & Storage > Message Synchronising then tick the box immediately under this section..
 
Plain Nev said:
The only slight niggle is that it insists on asking for my password every time I access my mail. But no big deal.
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I can't remember the setting, as it was a long time ago, but with Gmail & TB there is a host setting to allow TB to access your mail client "always"
Not sure if it works the same on BT though.
 
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I believe you can set TB up to use the POP protocol rather than IMAP. IIRC POP should always download all emails onto your computer, whereas IMAP allows you to keep a copy on their server.
 
Sangoma said:
I always use webmail, but now need to download all emails before I move hosts.
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For Thunderbird...

(I haven't done it for a while but this worked for me..)
  1. Open the menu (three lines in a box at right of top bar)
  2. Select "File"
  3. Select "Offline"
  4. Select "Work Offline"
  5. In pop-up box select "Download Now"
If you have a big mailbox, it will take some time to build the offline database.

Check that you now have all your messages in the offline copy.
 
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ecoleman said:
POP will download the message to your local PC and remove it from the server.
Click to expand...
I use Gmail POP3 on TB
When I delete it from my PC, it remains on the server until I physically delete it, there also.
 
Thanks all, I found it, there is no work offline in the menu, but there is a small icon bottom left that does that, and every time (if you choose to) you van "download now"

Decided to drop about ten domains as well, don't use them much, and in some cases they have been integrated with others, and I will never use them again.
 
Cobra said:
I use Gmail POP3 on TB
When I delete it from my PC, it remains on the server until I physically delete it, there also.
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Are you sure about that?

What are IMAP and POP? - Microsoft Support

Learn the difference between IMAP and POP, and when to use each one.
support.microsoft.com support.microsoft.com

About IMAP and POP clients - Google Workspace Admin Help

Your users can send and receive Gmail with their preferred third-party email client. Depending on the client, they can use IMAP or POP to sync their mail. What's the difference be
support.google.com
 
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Tb hamburger menu very top right, choose export, and it'll give you a zip file with all accounts, addresses, messages and more ...

That's the automated version. There are manual methods too ...

But maybe first, if you go into account settings, you can check whether emails are kept on the server along with any possible time limit on that before they expire. If messages are kept on the server, you can also set them to be deleted there if you delete them locally.
 
ecoleman said:
Are you sure about that?
Click to expand...
Ah issue explained.
Some time ago, when my PC crashed, I had to set everything back up,
I've just been through my email settings to double check them.

I'd totally forgot something, It seem that the important emails were set to iMap and the "throwaway ones" POP3.

And of course I only go to the server if I need to recover anything important...
And nothing for the throwaway ones.

:headbang:
 
You can set POP to leave the emails on the server.
This is in Outlook. But as you can see, I leave mine on the server for 14 days and do something similar on my phone.
I could leave them there completely.
1698183234136.png

Yes, I know I really should use IMAP, but this account dates back some 20 years and I've never got around to swapping it.
 
LC2 said:
You can set POP to leave the emails on the server.
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That's interesting, I'll check it out when I'm on the PC tomorrow .
 
LC2 said:
You can set POP to leave the emails on the server.
This is in Outlook. But as you can see, I leave mine on the server for 14 days and do something similar on my phone.
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Well, flippin' 'eck! it's also there on thunderbird under server settings for each email address!
Plus having spent the last couple of hours tidying up the add ons from the last update, it now looks like it used to.

Cheers Tim @LC2 I've now learned something (y)
 
nc_killie said:
This is the only post I understand in this thread
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:D
Plain Nev said:
Call me immature, but I don't automatically associate Thunderbird with email. :p
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Its very similar to outlook express and many people started using TB, once micky soft ditched it, in favour of making *you* pay for outlook
 
Use IMAP server which help you sync data on mulitple devices and when you need to download or transfer hosting it help to move emails as well to new provider with ease.. my hosting provide have help with this many times and saved my customers life :)
 
The other added beauty of TB is it will let you create two identical accounts, very handy if you want to experiment.
 
Cobra said:
:D

Its very similar to outlook express and many people started using TB, once micky soft ditched it, in favour of making *you* pay for outlook
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I use TB for many years, but MS introduced the 'family' subscription for Office (and included Outlook) at about the time my daughters were wanting laptops for school work - and it just made sense to get that and switch back to Outlook (since that was what I was using for work email).
 
Must say I've been using Thunderbird for a while now and I really like it. Beats Windows Mail.
 
Plain Nev said:
Must say I've been using Thunderbird for a while now and I really like it. Beats Windows Mail.
Click to expand...

i agree moved from outlook to thunderbird as a trial about two years ago and think its brilliant it just works
 
It's quite a while since I asked the first question, and it works well and as easy to use one I used over 20 years ago.
It did take a couple of days to find where things were.

I don't have to enter a password or passwords at all now, it is set up with 22 email accounts, and they all show on the left, and any with new mail highlighted.

The hosting company offered me a 50% discount when I said I was going to move my domains and websites, so staying with them for now, but not using their webmail any more.
 
Faldrax said:
I use TB for many years, but MS introduced the 'family' subscription for Office (and included Outlook) at about the time my daughters were wanting laptops for school work - and it just made sense to get that and switch back to Outlook (since that was what I was using for work email).
Click to expand...
I did the same with our son needing MS software on his laptop. It also meant I could give my elderly mum Outlook as an email client and then talk her through it with Teamviewer if she had any issues. I have previously used EM and Thunderbird.
 
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