Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Wo archive tread sia. Meɖekuku bia biabia yeye ne ehia kpeɖeŋu.

Backing Up Email Labels and Inbox

  • 1 ŋuɖoɖo
  • 1 masɔmasɔ sia le esi
  • 14 views
  • Nuɖoɖo mlɔetɔ sfhowes

eadent3
eadent3
more options

Hi all,

Recently, I backed up a very large number of emails from my gmail account into Thunderbird's local files using .mbox files and importexporttools. In the import process, I ended up with all of my labels, my inbox, and my sent mail. I am looking to save some space and delete my inbox and sent mail folders. However, I want to make sure that any emails that happen to be in both my inbox/sent and also one of my labels won't be deleted from my labels if I delete my inbox and sent mail. Thanks in advance for any help or advise you might have!

Hi all, Recently, I backed up a very large number of emails from my gmail account into Thunderbird's local files using .mbox files and importexporttools. In the import process, I ended up with all of my labels, my inbox, and my sent mail. I am looking to save some space and delete my inbox and sent mail folders. However, I want to make sure that any emails that happen to be in both my inbox/sent and also one of my labels won't be deleted from my labels if I delete my inbox and sent mail. Thanks in advance for any help or advise you might have!

All Replies (1)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Because gmail keeps only one copy of a message, the option for deleting should be 'Just mark it as deleted' in Account Settings, Server Settings.

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/78892?hl=en#zippy=%2Cthunderbird

Before you do any mass deletions, test with a few messages to make sure you're doing what is expected by gmail.

https://support.google.com/mail/thread/4933937/deleted-mails-are-still-in-all-mails-and-important-and-under-default-labels-like-updates?hl=en