IMAP: delete old messages on server keeping local copy
andrea
I'd like to automatically remove from any folder of an IMAP server
messages older than 30 day but to keep my local copies (organized in
folders as before), is there a way to do it?
i'm using tb 1.5.0.4 on ubuntu 6.06
thanks!
andrea
Nir
Open Thunderbird , goto Edit > Account Settings. Find out That IMAP
account , goto its 'Server settings' , Activate 'Leave Messages on
Server' also activate 'for at most ... days' options and then type '30'
in the text box.
( probably TB settings are similar in both Fedora core and Ubuntu )
Ken Wagner
Unfortunately, I don't believe that this will do what the OP wants. The
OP only wants to leave messages on the server for 30 days and then
move them to her local drive. I'm not aware of any setting in TB that
will do that. I did a quick search, and I don't see any extensions that
will do that either.
Christopher Jahn
news:zcidnRCjXuKDES7Z...@mozilla.org:
If it's left in her inbox, and she doesn't delete, I BELIEVE it
remains in her inbox after the message expires on the server.
--
}:-) Christopher Jahn
{:-( http://home.comcast.net/~xjahn/Main.html
What is worth doing is worth the trouble of asking somebody to
do it.
Ken Wagner
But would that only work if she's enabled offline messages? If she
hasn't, the only copy she's got is on the IMAP server, right?
--
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Mumia W.
That's not necessarily true. TB seems to be able to
expire mail in mail-folders and, by default, mail
folders' expiration policies are the same as the servers'.
I'm not sure about this, but perhaps Andrea can set the
expiry policy for her server to 30 days, and she can
set the expiry policy for her mail folder to 'never.'
My interpretation of Andrea's request is that she wants
to download mail into a mail folder but keep it on the
server for 30 days. The server's mail should expire in
30 days, and the mail in the mail folder should never
expire.
Nir
Thanks Mumia for making everything clear to others
And Andrea, here are the necessary settings :
1.( Settings i have already mentioned ) Open Thunderbird , goto Edit > Account Settings. Find out
That IMAP account ,goto its 'Server settings' , Activate 'Leave Messages on Server' also activat
for at most ...days' options and then type '30' in the text box.
2. ( Settings i have forgot to mentioned ) Under that same IMAP account , goto 'Disk Space' , check
only this option 'Don't delete any messages'
NM Public
> I'd like to automatically remove from any folder of an IMAP
> server messages older than 30 day but to keep my local copies
> (organized in folders as before), is there a way to do it?
Andrea, could you tell us *why* you want to do this? Maybe that
will help us come up with a solution.
Thanks,
Nancy
--
Nancy McGough
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Bookmarks & Blog: <http://deflexion.com/>
Telmo Amaral
Can step '1' above really be done on IMAP accounts? My TB 1.5
offers the 'Leave messages on server' option only for POP
accounts, not IMAP ones... Anyway, I'm running it on Windows, so
maybe the settings are different (which in this case is a shame).
Ken Wagner
OK, after thinking about this some more, and checking my own IMAP
account I found that there is no "leave messages on server" option -
mostly because in IMAP, the messages are ALWAYS on the server (they
aren't stored locally). The "leave messages on server" option only
appears when you've configured a POP3 account. When you've configured
an IMAP account, it's not there. See a screen captures from my POP3
and IMAP server settings (server names and personal data removed) at:
POP3: http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/5892/pop31wi.png
IMAP: http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/3643/imap6xm.png
So, we're back to what I posted earlier: I'm not aware of any setting in
TB that will do what the OP wants to do.
I believe that the only way to do this would be to manually drag and
drop messages from the IMAP Inbox to Local Folders.
Melchert Fruitema
with TB?
Anyway, consider the use of message filters (see Tools menu) to copy (or
move) the messages to Local Folders.
For the Inbox the run of the filter is done automagically. For the
others you will have to select and run the designated filter manually
from within the Message Filters window.
--
Kind regards,
Melchert
MacOS 10.3.9/Firefox 1.5/Thunderbird 1.5
Telmo Amaral
That explains why I didn't find that option as well... After all,
the essence of IMAP accounts is the possibility of keeping
everything centralised on the server (useful for example if you
connect from different machines). Although it's possible to store
the contents off-line (via the Offline & Disk Space options), that
storage and the server are kept in perfect synchronisation. If you
delete a message locally (or move it to a local folder), it will
be deleted on the server.
I suspect that what the original post asks for can be done only
with a POP account, by leaving the messages on the server up to X
days (using the option suggested by Nir, but of course on POP).
With luck, maybe their mail provider allows POP access, as well as
IMAP, and then the solution would be to set up a new account on TB.
John McWilliams
> Ken Wagner wrote:
>> Nir wrote, On 7/11/2006 5:38 AM:
>>> andrea wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> I'd like to automatically remove from any folder of an IMAP server
>>>> messages older than 30 day but to keep my local copies (organized in
>>>> folders as before), is there a way to do it?
>>>> i'm using tb 1.5.0.4 on ubuntu 6.06
>>>> thanks!
>>>
Would it be safe to assume that there's little risk to using both POP
and IMAP on the same account, or is there something or other I should be
aware of? I've always used POP, but one of my accounts offers IMAP
(.Mac) and it now seems to fit what I want to do among several computers.
Any tips on setting it up the first time (IMAP that is.)
--
John McWilliams
Ken Wagner
Here's one huge difference between the two in terms of "risk": POP3
passwords are sent to the server in plain text. If your server supports
secure IMAP, the password is sent via SSL.
Telmo Amaral
Personally, I would not try to access an account from one computer
via POP and from another one via IMAP. Some servers may offer both
types of access, but I think you're supposed to choose one of
them, and not to use both on the same account. I don't know if
servers even allow that sort of "hybrid" access, but the results
could be at least confusing, as the two protocols serve quite
different purposes.
In short, POP delivers messages to your Inbox. If you leave copies
of all messages on the server (by configuring TB to do so), they
may be delivered to several computers. But, if you want to
organise your messages into folders, you must do it separately on
each computer. In contrast, IMAP is like a remote, centralised
structure of folders. If you (re)organise your messages from one
computer, you will see the changes from another one. On each
computer, you may also keep a synchronised copy (a mirror) of your
folders, so that you may browse them off-line.
There are many web pages explaining the differences between the
two protocols in detail. For example, Google returned this one first:
http://www.nevis.columbia.edu/mail/pop-vs-imap.html
Mumia W.
> Nir wrote:
>> [...]
>> And Andrea, here are the necessary settings :
>>
>> 1.( Settings i have already mentioned ) Open Thunderbird , goto
>> Edit > Account Settings. Find out That IMAP account ,goto its
>> 'Server settings' , Activate 'Leave Messages on Server' also
>> activat for at most ...days' options and then type '30' in the
>> text box.
>>
>> 2. ( Settings i have forgot to mentioned ) Under that same IMAP
>> account , goto 'Disk Space' , check only this option 'Don't
>> delete any messages'
>
> Can step '1' above really be done on IMAP accounts? My TB 1.5
> offers the 'Leave messages on server' option only for POP
> accounts, not IMAP ones... Anyway, I'm running it on Windows, so
> maybe the settings are different (which in this case is a shame).
I don't have access to an IMAP server for testing, but
I'd suspect that users can create custom mail folders
even for IMAP-enabled Tbird accounts.
A user wanting to do what Andrea wants to do would set
up a mail filter to copy messages into that custom
folder, and she/he would set that folder to never
expire messages.
Christopher Jahn
news:d6-dna091eeUZi7Z...@mozilla.org:
That's because IMAP keeps the messages on the server; that's the
whole point of IMAP. Kind of stupid to tell it to do what it is
already doing.
--
}:-) Christopher Jahn
{:-( http://home.comcast.net/~xjahn/Main.html
Everything I Need to Know in Life I Learned by Conquering the
Galaxy
John McWilliams
time to time accessing it via POP mail from another, with it set to
leave messages on the server. That way it'd seem, at least, to keep
things straight. Deletes will be done only via IMAP, and longterm saves
will be done via POP.
--
John McWilliams