It has gotten worse. I went into Thunderbird 3 times, and it downloaded 78 emails (were already in my inbox) and I left the program without reading or deleting any of them. I started it again and it downloaded it all again. But both times it did not get any email from the current or previous month. It did not download any new messages even though I sent myself email from another email address using the web browser.

I had been running Thunderbird on my soon-to-be-replaced 7 year old computer, but that computer suddenly has other Thunderbird problems...not downloading the same messages over and over, but freezing up for several minutes when I first start it, or when I try to exit it.

Probably the best advice I got is from a tech guy in a store who said totally get rid of Thunderbird and use Yahoo or Hotmail. I probably will

I'm puzzled. You appear to have deliberately kept old messages in the account, on the server. Presumably you value these messsges.

So you install an email client and it starts fetching messages from the server. As an email client, that's part of its job; to get messages from a server.

Why keep the messages if you don't want to see them? And why start deleting these valuable messages if you do want to keep them? You're lucky you still have them.

Is it POP or IMAP? Who is the provider?

Gmail in particular has a "recent" option in its POP type accounts to allow you to set it only to get new messages. I don't know of any other email provider who offers this function. Note that it is Gmail's special tweak of the protocol, and not a standard feature.

With other providers, and assuming this is POP, I'd suggest you go to your provider's webmail site, log in to your email account there, create a separate folder for the older messages and move all the old messages that you don't want in Thunderbird into that new folder. Then they will be invisible to Thunderbird.

If it's IMAP, simply unsubscribe from folders you don't want to see in Thunderbird.

Hello Zenos,

Thanks for your response. I am using GMAIL and up until recently it worked like this: 1) new email would appear in my Inbox (on my older pc). I could leave a message in the Inbox, delete it, or move it to a local folder. In all cases, it would not download again.

2) I could click on the "All Mail" selection, where I could re-read or search any email I had received over the past 7 years.

It works as expected sometimes...

3) As mentioned, I recently installed Thunderbird on a newly reurbished pc. On the refurb, it downloads several months worth of mail into my inbox each time I start it, but does not get any new messages.

4) If I then exit Thunderbird on the refurb PC, and run it on the older PC, it takes about 6 minutes before it gets any new messages. If I exit Thiunderbird, wait a few minutes, then come back in (still on the older PC) it takes another 6 minutes until it completes checking for new messages, even if there are none...the progress bar keeps running, the lower left side of the window says "sending login information" and the cursor is an hour glass.The progress bar and "sending login info" goes way, but the cursor remains as an hourglass even after 15 mor minutes...I simply exit then.

There are big differences in the folders tree on the left side of the Thunderbird window.

On the older PC are 2 entries 1) my email @gmail.com and 2) local folders. When I click the expand arrow for my email@gmail.com, there are 3 entries : Inbox, Trash, and [Gmail]. I can expand Gmail where I get Drafts, Send, All Mail, Spam, Trash, Important, and Starred.

On the refurb, on the folder tree, when I expand myemail@gmail.com, it has "Inbox" and "Trash" only (no [GMAIL], so no Sent, no "All Mail", etc)

On the refurb under "Account Settings" Server settings is set to POP.GMAIL.COM and Outgoing Server is set to 2 values: Google - SMTP.GOOGLEMAIL.COM Default, and Google Mail - SMTP.GMAIL.COM.

On the older PC under Account Settings, there is no entry for POP. Server Settings is IMAP.GOOGLEMAIL.COM

I am assuming that Thunderbird can be set up on 2 machines to access the same GMAIL account, and that the account settings should be identical. Both machines are Win7, but the refurb is "Win7 Professional" and the older pc is "Win7 - Home Premium"

I have gone into my account in Gmail, "other Google account settings" and cannot find where I would subscribe

Please tell me the correct settings for each pc...I think the values I have on the refurb were set automatically.

lets stat by installing the latest version. That would be version 52, not 17. Then you might have all the menus and buttons that everyone would expect.

Second. Are you sure the newly added mail account is a POP account. Thunderbird defaults t IMAP, not POP. The most common cause of confusion starts with that point. Perhaps it is your issue as well.

Third. check you POP and IMAP settings on gmail. They offer all mail to download or only mail after a date. perhaps you have changed that option to be all mail in one of the numerous setting checks they push on you.

Matt,

On my refurb pc, the version of Thunderbird was 38.5.0, and a popup message said there was an update available, which I selected and now it is at version 45.0.1

I know early on in the posting, I said it was version 17. It is as though I downloaded a much older version, and it seems to update itself but not to the current version.

I will probably uninstall it again. I tried downloading it again from download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net, the file name is Thunderbird.Setup 45.5.1.exe. Based on it being lower than version 52, I did not save the file and ask you to post the link to get the most current version.

The version on my older pc is 52.4.0

Earlier, I was so concerned that my account settings were wrong (on the refurb pc) I deleted the account from within Thunderbird, then selected the option to add an account, where I entered my gmail address, and it automatically adjusted the account settings and nowhere in them was any mention of a server containing the word POP . However, it did not accept my password after several tries, checking the case was correct, and using the same password I have working on my older pc, or on the same pc if I use a web browser to log in.

Each time I try to complete adding the new account, in, it may take 5 minutes or longer to tell me it is incorrect. When I reboot and come back in, the login fails immediately.

I did 2 full virus scans using Microsoft Sec. Essentials and Malwarebytes and both detected no threats.

I have no theories as to why the password is not accepted other than concluding that the program is corrupted. I will await for a link to the correct, latest version.

I downloaded version 52.4.0 from Mozilla and added my gmail account, and it DOES accept my password and does send mail.

It DOES receive mail, though it said it was downloading 8 files but I only saw the one I just sent myself.

I will mark this as solved after I do some more testing. Thanks everyone for your help.

Another test. I had not sent myself any more mail, but after restarting Thunderbird, it took about 2 - 3 minutes for the screen cursor to change to normal. During this time, there were different messages printing on the bottom bar saying "sending login information", then after about 45 seconds, it says "looking for folders" or "checking for folders".

For the most part, everything works, but this initial delay when I first start the program suggests to me that something is still not right. This delay was not happening on my older pc, but it is now.

You have set up the account as IMAP. Almost certainly your old one was set up as POP. Read about the differences here. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/glossary-terms-including-types-accounts#w_mail-accounts

My older pc has gotten worse...just trying to re-read messages in my inbox that were read yesterday, now has a longer delay without me making any changes. After reading about the differences between IMAP and POP, I changed it to POP. Now there is no delay to open messages in my inbox, but there is still a 2 to 3 minute delay for it to check for new messages.

I tried to test sending a message and it fails....it did not accept my password. After 3 or 4 tries, it did accept it. I did receive the message on my Yahoo account, which I check using a web browser ,not Thunderbird. I replied to my own message, went back into Thunderbird to see if it has received my reply, and it did, after a 2 minute delay.

I have yet to turn on my refurb pc today (which is still set to IMAP). The last time I had that set as POP it kept downloading the same messages each time I entered the program.

So as of now, I cannot say whether this has been solved or not.