Wipe an IMAP folder without having to sync everything

My local ISP has mixed POP/IMAP boxes and a bad habit of moving possible spam to a folder on IMAP which means that I have to configure Thunderbird to use IMAP instead of POP and die from boredom until it syncs the entire folder. Last time there were more than six thousand emails and that takes a while even if you're on broadband.

So my question is if there's an email client or a method that can help me to wipe the offending folder without having to sync it.

rmontagud

Posted 2009-07-22T02:27:10.030

Reputation: 23

Answers

Just set the IMAP to only download headers. That should go fairly quick even if there are several thousand emails. Remember to "purge" the deleted emails after you delete them - otherwise they are still in your mailbox in IMAP.

Sanjay Sheth

Posted 2009-07-22T02:27:10.030

Reputation: 734

That did the trick, just for those using thunderbird remember to disable the spam checking options when configuring the account – rmontagud – 2009-07-22T04:30:53.590

Thanks for the reminder on purging ;-) I just needed that! – Ivo Flipse – 2009-07-22T05:21:18.383

Why don't people like to up-vote on superuser.com?? – innaM – 2009-07-22T06:21:34.243

As a side-note to Sanjay's post:

Manually purge deleted items

To permanently delete the items marked for deletion, do the following:

Click a folder in your IMAP e-mail account.
On the Edit menu, point to
Purge Deleted Messages. Do one of the following:

alt text

Click Purge Marked Items in "folder". Only items marked for deletion in the folder that you are in are purged from the IMAP mail server.
Click Purge Marked Items in "e-mail account". All items marked for deletion in any folder for this IMAP e-mail account are purged from the IMAP mail server.
Click Purge Marked Items in All Accounts. All items marked for deletion in any folder for any IMAP e-mail account are purged from the IMAP mail server.

Ivo Flipse

Posted 2009-07-22T02:27:10.030

Reputation: 24 054