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When I setup my GMail account with Thunderbird years ago, it had a specific option for GMail. I choose it and everything worked fine and dandy. However, whenever Thunderbird checks the mail for me, it moves my mail from the inbox (on GMail) to the "All Mail" folder. How can I prevent it from doing this?

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3 Answers

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If you set this up years ago, then you are almost certainly using POP. I think it is worth it to reconfigure Thunderbird to use IMAP. It is much better suited to storing messages on the server, and for dealing with multiple computers accessing the same account (like a desktop and a laptop). For laptop use (or as a backup), you can even have it configured to download and store a copy of all of you mail on your computer, and keep that archive synched up to the server, and accessible from other clients.

You can do this by simply creating a new account in Thunderbird, and deleting the old one once you are satisfied that it all works.

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how can I get my old main, and contacts into the new account? – Malfist Apr 7 '10 at 13:29
This is not a new account in GMail, but a new account in Thunderbird that accesses your existing GMail account in a different way. All of your old mail, etc will still be available through the new Thunderbird account. – KeithB Apr 7 '10 at 14:46
I understand that, but I'm talking about my already downloaded messages, and address book. Is there a way I can add them to the new account? – Malfist Apr 7 '10 at 15:11
Well, you can drap&drop messages in Thunderbird. If you drag&drop into an IMAP folder (a folder belonging to your new IMAP account), it should automatically upload them to GMail. Better test with a single mail, though. – sleske Apr 7 '10 at 15:49
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Did you configure Thunderbird to access GMail via IMAP? Then it should not do that.

I use Thunderbird via IMAP and don't see this. For POP3 it would be expected.

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it is not configured for IMAP, how can I do that? – Malfist Apr 7 '10 at 13:28
see KeithB's answer for setting up IMAP – sleske Apr 7 '10 at 15:48
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This assumes that you are connecting via POP.

Go to Tools > Account Settings > Server Settings (for your account).

In the group box "Server Settings" there's an option "Leave messages on server".

Check this and then check the "Until I delete them" option too, otherwise they'll get automatically deleted a few days later.

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that's not it. That's for deleting messages once I've deleted them. – Malfist Apr 7 '10 at 13:28

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