How can I force Thunderbird to download all emails by IMAP?

I just created a new Thunderbird profile. Unfortunately Thunderbird only downloads recent messages. I need to get all my messages and subfolders. Any idea?

salman.mirghasemi

Posted 2011-11-05T17:51:54.583

Reputation: 331

Worked for me out of the box when switching to offline mode. Only spam|junk|trash folders needed to be manually activated. – neverMind9 – 2019-04-16T17:24:55.077

Answers

Go to Tools/Options/General/Config Editor or in more recent versions Edit/Preferences/Advanced/General/Config Editor. This may vary between operating systems.

If presented with a

This might void your warranty!

dialog, click on the button "I'll be careful, I promise!".

Type folders_for_new in the filter box.

Look for an option called mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new or on newer versions mail.server.default.check_all_folders_for_new.

Change this setting to true. This has the effect of not treating inbox as special, but all folders are "inbox", so all folders will be checked and downloaded.

If this key does not exist, then add it (right click / new) exactly as it is written above as a boolean preference. When you add the preference, you will be asked for the initial value. Choose true.

Next, in Account Settings/the account you are referring to/Synchronisation & Storage ensure that "Synchronise all messages locally regardless of age" and "Keep messages for this account on this computer" are selected.

Paul

Posted 2011-11-05T17:51:54.583

Reputation: 52 173

@EchtEinfachTV "Keep messages.." won't achieve what the OP is after, if the key isn't present, it needs to be added. – Paul – 2014-04-09T00:01:00.820

There should be a menu or button to "go offline"

In my current Thunderbird 17.0.2 (on Ubuntu 12.04), the button is at the lower-left corner of the whole application.

Clicking the button will start the download and if everything is configured correctly (i.e. has keep all messages regardless of age local) then that is what it will download

Tjunkie

Posted 2011-11-05T17:51:54.583

Reputation: 431

3This is the key. Hitting the button in the bottom left corner will take you to offline mode and will give you the chance to force Thunderbird to download everything. – Jake Wilson – 2013-03-14T22:41:02.257

You have to check a box called "Keep messages for this account on this computer". Have a look at this tutorial for keeping IMAP messages in Thunderbird.

[ Account Settings[1]

Jens Erat

Posted 2011-11-05T17:51:54.583

Reputation: 14 141

This option is already set. The main issue is that it doesn't get subfolders. – salman.mirghasemi – 2011-11-05T18:20:00.493

Have a look at the tutorial, they write about this, too. – Jens Erat – 2011-11-05T18:22:10.567

I read that part as well. It seems that Thunderbird is not able to see subfolders. I am going to try with another mail client. – salman.mirghasemi – 2011-11-05T19:34:19.433

In the list of your accounts in the main window, and right click on the account name and click the "Subscribe..." option. You will then see the list of (sub)folders on the server, check the ones you want. They will now be synced with everything else.

Junk0

Posted 2011-11-05T17:51:54.583

Reputation: 31