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I want my Earthlink email to automatically be removed from the Earthlink Inbox when I open Earthlink using Thunderbird, and to continue saving to my CPS Inbox.

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  • Last reply by Thomas

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I don't know how to set it up so that my mail automatically is deleted from my Earthlink Inbox when I open up Thunderbird, which is set up to connect to my Earthlink account. I have little space in my Earthlink account.

I don't know how to set it up so that my mail automatically is deleted from my Earthlink Inbox when I open up Thunderbird, which is set up to connect to my Earthlink account. I have little space in my Earthlink account.

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Hi DJ_Melton,

first, you have to decide whether you want Thunderbird to use the POP protocol or IMAP protocol at Earthlink. See here: https://support.earthlink.net/articles/email/imap-email.php#1-2

If you connect to your Earthlink email account from only 1 single place you can use POP and tell Thunderbird (in its respective account settings) to not leave mails on the server. Thus, when you connect to Earthlink and retrieve your emails, they immediately get deleted on the server, saving you storage space.

If you have more than 1 place from where you connect to the email account (like a computer at work, a laptop when on the road, a smartphone, ...) then use IMAP so that the mail account is kept in synch across these devices. Equally, there are account settings also for IMAP that can be used to tell Thunderbird to delete emails. Note that with IMAP, it can become tricky to really ensure that emails are deleted. By default, most mail servers respond to IMAP "delete" requests by just moving the respective message to a folder named "Trash", which is on the server too and thus in fact does not save any space.

Possibly helpful information at Earthlink:

Hope that helps, feel free to ping back if further assistance is needed, Regards, Thomas

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Chosen Solution

Hi DJ_Melton,

first, you have to decide whether you want Thunderbird to use the POP protocol or IMAP protocol at Earthlink. See here: https://support.earthlink.net/articles/email/imap-email.php#1-2

If you connect to your Earthlink email account from only 1 single place you can use POP and tell Thunderbird (in its respective account settings) to not leave mails on the server. Thus, when you connect to Earthlink and retrieve your emails, they immediately get deleted on the server, saving you storage space.

If you have more than 1 place from where you connect to the email account (like a computer at work, a laptop when on the road, a smartphone, ...) then use IMAP so that the mail account is kept in synch across these devices. Equally, there are account settings also for IMAP that can be used to tell Thunderbird to delete emails. Note that with IMAP, it can become tricky to really ensure that emails are deleted. By default, most mail servers respond to IMAP "delete" requests by just moving the respective message to a folder named "Trash", which is on the server too and thus in fact does not save any space.

Possibly helpful information at Earthlink:

Hope that helps, feel free to ping back if further assistance is needed, Regards, Thomas