First, open the account in webmail and move old messages from Inbox to another folder. Since POP only downloads Inbox, the moved messages will not be downloaded. In TB, delete the passwords in Options/Security/Passwords/Saved Passwords, set the authentication method on the incoming and outgoing servers to OAuth2, check that cookies are enabled in TB Options/Privacy, then restart TB and enter the account password in the OAuth browser window when prompted.

THANK YOU!! Your fast response saved me from pulling out my gray hair! I struggled with this for a few days now, was about at the end of my rope. I really would like to know if this happened due the automatic update to 68.10.0. It has worked great for years, all of a sudden it would not any longer. At least it now seems to be OK, thanks again.

Well, it still does not work right! I archived all the messages in gmail except for the past few weeks, but TB seems to download from the "ALL MAIL" folder, not just inbox. I even selected all the folders in the ALL MAIL folder and hit archive again, this time all the "Inbox" labels were removed. Now only a few mails are in the "Inbox", yet TB still insists on starting at the bottom of the list, mails from 2015, and downloading a small batch every time TB is started, never downloading the new emails. I found a work around, I went into gmail and set the POP setting to "Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on", instead of all mail.

I am at a complete loss as to why TB changed for me in a really bad way, when I had done absolutely NOTHING to any settings, either in gmail or TB!

One, I believe part of the issue is with Gmail, as I am having trouble with one particular account where it asks for my password but says it is incorrect. Google wants everything to have 2-factor authentication which TB does not. The solution is to go into your google account, under security, app passwords and have it generate a password for you. you then paste that into TB and it works. It used to stay working but lately I'm having to do that every single day. Not sure why.

Two, TB saves all your gmail, whether you want to save it or not, in the All Mail folder. It can get huge and that was causing TB to freeze for me, over and over. Go into Advanced, Folder subscriptions and uncheck the All Mail folder. I think that will stop it from continuing to download all your old mail.

BTW, not sure why you are using POP instead of IMAP, since gmail and TB support it. IMAP would then allow you to access your email from different devices and maintain folder structure, while saving space locally since it only downloads headers until you read something. But you may have your own reasons for using POP.

(not an expert by any means, just some things that have helped me)

Thanks drmeow! My password issue was working correctly for the past couple days, so that seemed to be solved already.

I have pretty much solved the download problem by changing to the "enable POP for emails from now" setting, it will only download any new messages after that date and time. I never could stop TB from downloading old messages any other way. I just tried your suggestion "Advanced, Folder subscriptions and uncheck the All Mail folder", but could not find that in either TB or Gmail. Is that an IMAP only setting?

Gmail is not very friendly, that is why I have rarely use the web access, but use TB almost exclusively. Now Gmail is receiving new emails into the "All Mail" folder as always, but is not moving the "inbox" labeled ones to the inbox., making web access to gmail even worse. I have not found the answer to that problem.

I have used POP for several years, with emails automatically sent to my large number of folders in TB, do not want to mess that up. If I switch to IMAP, will that still work, or will I be limited to the "folders" in gmail? I have read up on the differences between POP and IMAP, but it is still confusing to me.

I don't know how you're downloading All Mail with a POP account, as POP only downloads the Inbox. Check the Server Type in the Server Settings section of Account Settings. Note that Gmail doesn't 'move' messages in the usual sense, but applies labels to identify which 'folders' are associated with an account. Most users with IMAP setups unsubscribe to All Mail.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_Gmail_with_Thunderbird_and_Mozilla_Suite

Believe me, I tried everything I could think of, and all suggestions, but no matter what, TB would start downloading the oldest emails every time it was started. Even after archiving all emails, twice, once from the inbox, and again in the All Mail "folder". That removed the "inbox" label from the emails in the All Mails, and there were only a few moved back to the inbox. Shut down TB, restart, and it again started downloading emails from 2015 from the All Mail folder, even though none were labeled Inbox. the only way I got it to work, was to set Gmail to "Enable POP for Emails from Now", instead of all emails. Now it only downloads new ones. In POP, there is no ability to "Unsubscribe to All Mail", as there must be in IMAP. I have it working well now, may play with IMAP later.

I do have a problem with gmail now, but I will have to do some investigating on that one. New emails come in, and are not in the inbox, but only in All Mail. For some reason, gmail is not moving them into the Inbox, although they are labeled inbox. TB is still donloading them though, so the statement that TB only downloads from "Inbox" does not seem to be correct. It is downloading mails from All Mail that are labeled Inbox. That was the crux of my problem when TB started acting strange, it was trying to download ALL emails from the All Mail folder that were labeled Inbox, starting at the bottom, and never getting to the top.

The short answer is to go to the gmail web site and change POP to download mail that arrives from now on.