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What happens to local stored mail if I delete account then re-create it

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  • Last reply by blitzfuge

blitzfuge
blitzfuge
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One of my email accounts is with Verizon / AOL. On my computer I use Thunderbird to access this email. It is no longer my main email account, but I do have a fair number of old emails that are stored locally on my computer. I also occasionally get email on this account (that I may want to store locally).

AOL/Verizon has sent me an email saying that they don't want people "using non-AOL applications (such as third-party email, calendar, or contact applications) that may use a less secure sign-in method". By December 7 I have to take steps to make AOL / Verizon happy.

One method is to delete the Verizon account on Thunderbird, then re-create it. Once I do this, somehow AOL / Verizon and Thunderbird will set up a signin that will make AOL happy. (Sounds like magic to me.) This seems like the easiest to me, but I'm concerned that once I delete the Verizon.net email account from Thunderbird, when I re-create that account Thunderbird will no longer have access to these historical (for me) emails that I save locally. I don't want this to happen.

So will these old emails magically show up once I add back in my verizon.net email account? Or will I lose them. I would be very unhappy to lose them.

My other choice is to use an app password, but so far I've been unsuccessful figuring out how to logout from an email account on Thunderbird.

One of my email accounts is with Verizon / AOL. On my computer I use Thunderbird to access this email. It is no longer my main email account, but I do have a fair number of old emails that are stored locally on my computer. I also occasionally get email on this account (that I may want to store locally). AOL/Verizon has sent me an email saying that they don't want people "using non-AOL applications (such as third-party email, calendar, or contact applications) that may use a less secure sign-in method". By December 7 I have to take steps to make AOL / Verizon happy. One method is to delete the Verizon account on Thunderbird, then re-create it. Once I do this, somehow AOL / Verizon and Thunderbird will set up a signin that will make AOL happy. (Sounds like magic to me.) This seems like the easiest to me, but I'm concerned that once I delete the Verizon.net email account from Thunderbird, when I re-create that account Thunderbird will no longer have access to these historical (for me) emails that I save locally. I don't want this to happen. So will these old emails magically show up once I add back in my verizon.net email account? Or will I lose them. I would be very unhappy to lose them. My other choice is to use an app password, but so far I've been unsuccessful figuring out how to logout from an email account on Thunderbird.

Chosen solution

So will these old emails magically show up once I add back in my verizon.net email account?

They won't if your account is POP.

so far I've been unsuccessful figuring out how to logout from an email account on Thunderbird.

You don't. Thunderbird will prompt you for your password when it's needed.

One method is to delete the Verizon account on Thunderbird, then re-create it.

See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1356195

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christ1
christ1
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Chosen Solution

So will these old emails magically show up once I add back in my verizon.net email account?

They won't if your account is POP.

so far I've been unsuccessful figuring out how to logout from an email account on Thunderbird.

You don't. Thunderbird will prompt you for your password when it's needed.

One method is to delete the Verizon account on Thunderbird, then re-create it.

See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1356195

blitzfuge
blitzfuge Question owner
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Thanks for your help. I will use the suggestions from the support question you linked to.

I did try an experiment with another account I had but don't care about too much. Before I saw your response. I deleted the account then re-created it. I got access to local files. So I tried that with Verizon as well. And my local files came back. I think I got lucky - the other account is IMAP but Verizon is POP. I don't think that my settings on Thunderbird were created like Verizon / AOL wants them to be (hence why I will change Authentication to Oauth2, delete Verizon passwords and restart).