Thunderbird Email question

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by gerardwil, Apr 27, 2005.

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  1. gerardwil

    gerardwil Registered Member

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    Hi all,

    I have a question about what happens with deleted emails. In Thunderbird I delete emails every now and then. After that I remove them from trash as well. However I imported in Opera some of my accounts. To my surprise it shows up thousands of emails i deleted ever before (I thought) from Thunderbird.
    Anybody can explain to me how this can happen?
    TIA,

    Gerard
     
  2. Billy Blaze

    Billy Blaze Registered Member

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    Look for a setting in Thunderbird called "leave messages on server." It should be in Tools->Account Settings. Is this option check marked?

    When you delete email in your email client it is just deleting email messages that have been downloaded to your computer to be viewed. It does not effect the email messages on the server unless you configure your email client to do so.
     
  3. Eldar

    Eldar Registered Member

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    Hi Gerard,
    I never used Thunderbird, but maybe I can help.
    When you delete an email, it's deleted from your mailbox but it's still present in your mailbox. It only doesn't show.
    That's why several email clients compress the mailboxes to remove those deleted messages completely, as well as reducing the size of it. :)
    Maybe Thunderbird has an option to compress the mailboxes, I really don't know.

    So when you imported the mailboxes into Opera, I think it imported the entire mailbox, including the deleted messages which were restored when Opera reindexed those mailboxes.

    I've seen it happen before with my email client, so I think the same happened here.

    I hope it can help you. ;)
     
  4. rdsu

    rdsu Registered Member

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    I think that is this that's happen...
     
  5. gerardwil

    gerardwil Registered Member

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    Hi,

    Thanks guys for the answers. I had checked in Thunderbird: Leave messages at server for at most 30 days. However a bunch of emails show up from last year. So it couldn't be that. Maybe Eldar is right.
    Oh well, not a big problem though.
    Cheers,

    Gerard
     
  6. cluessnewbie

    cluessnewbie Guest

    Eldar is right. That whole "delete email from server" is a red herring, since Opera is importing from thunderbird local folders not directly downloading email from the server, so that shouldnt be a factor.

    And yes, there is an option to compress folders to remove deleted messages permemantly. Most other email clients have this too.
     
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