How do I pause a huge email content download into Thunderbird?

Question

I am downloading about 15,000 emails into Thunderbird to store them. Can I 'pause' the download so that I can work on my computer which is VERY slow and then 'restart' when I go to bed?

Second question:

I only want to use this Thunderbird account to simply store the messages. It does not need to actively receive/send after this initial download. How do I 'deactivate?' I was told to remove the account which I tried and it deleted everything, so I am back to square one.

Answer 1

First question:
You can just close Thunderbird (e.g. use [File] [Exit]) and then start it again later tonight

Second question:
Well duh. Removing the account removes it.

If this is the only account you are using in this Thunderbird profile you can just set the whole of Thunderbird to offline mode via File, Offline, work- Offline.

If you have multiple accounts you can remove the tick from message synchronising under file, off line, offline settings.