I can't get messages on my computer and have read the help page but don't understand it because I'm 75 and a social scientist so need real person help.
When I try to get email [after Jan 12] I see a circling thing like it's trying to connect to server, and it finally times out, sometimes after over half an hour. It did send a new one and a reply, but both said 'your message was sent but a copy was not placed in your sent folder (Sent) due to network or file access errors. You can retry or save the message locally to Local Folders/Sent-[my email]' I retried both and they didn't work. A tech person at my email service said it might be related to too many messages and I have been getting quota warnings and deleting messages. The max is 15,000+ and I'm up to 14,200 but it's worked in the past as I deleted them. Once I got to 14, 243 and it still worked and I'm down from that. I'd also like to be able to increase my quota if possible, but that's another question - unless doing it would be a solution. Email is my main way to communicate for business and I'm really missing it. In fact I can get it on a web server, but the email options are way below the standard of Thunderbird.
Chosen solution
Thank you, Matt. I can contact my mail provider again and ask about the quota and raising it.
You said "Have you got the expunge on exit set in your account settings > server settings? It probably should be." Does that mean emails would disappear after I sent them? Or exited email? Because I like to have many of them to refer back to for business.
Mine says I can 'expunge inbox on exit' but if that makes messages go away, I don't want to do it. It is not checked now.
AHA! I just got a message that said 'tds.com usually doesn't support encrypted passwords' - although I had just done that when told by the TDS person. So I set it back to 'normal' - and now my email comes in, and is saved as it goes out! So hopefully it's fixed and I don't need to worry about 'expunged' - though I'd still like to know what it means if you have time.
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quota is managed and set by your mail provider... those same people that you have already talked to I guess.
It is however strange for a quota to be set based on a number of emails. Normally it is set as a fixed allocation of space on the server for your account and usage is expressed as a percentage of that total.
Have you got the expunge on exit set in your account settings > server settings? It probably should be.
Chosen Solution
Thank you, Matt. I can contact my mail provider again and ask about the quota and raising it.
You said "Have you got the expunge on exit set in your account settings > server settings? It probably should be." Does that mean emails would disappear after I sent them? Or exited email? Because I like to have many of them to refer back to for business.
Mine says I can 'expunge inbox on exit' but if that makes messages go away, I don't want to do it. It is not checked now.
AHA! I just got a message that said 'tds.com usually doesn't support encrypted passwords' - although I had just done that when told by the TDS person. So I set it back to 'normal' - and now my email comes in, and is saved as it goes out! So hopefully it's fixed and I don't need to worry about 'expunged' - though I'd still like to know what it means if you have time.
When you expunge, a command is issued to the server to delete the mails you have marked as deleted. If you also turn on the "just mark as deleted you will see the mail in your inbox with a line through them that the expunge affects. But it allows the server to delete the mail you have deleted is the short answer. Just because you say delete, it does not necessarily happen at the time, it is just hidden until it is expunged to finally remove it. Thunderbird does exactly the same thing when you "compact" a folder. It removes from the store mail marked as deleted. Basically compact reduces the storage required locally by allowing the store file to shrink to the size of the mail in it. Expunge clears out the deleted mail server side so it is no longer consuming quota.
Thank you - I think I get it! Thunderbird does compact folders fairly often. So 'expunge' just clears out emails I've deleted, not others, right? That sounds like a good idea. Right now the deleted ones go to a file called trash and I empty it daily. Will it be empty if I set the 'expunge' setting, so I won't need to empty it?
We are moving into more "complicated." areas.
When you delete. The mail is copied into a folder called trash and the original mail is marked as deleted and hidden.
When you compact in Thunderbird an expunge is implicitly issued to the mail server as well. However having expunge on in setting just keeps things tidy IMO. I have never heard of it actually causing troubles
Thanks for all your help. I'll try putting the setting on expunge.