Using Thunderbird in our small office
I have a small office with 5 stations to access our one email account and we'd used thunderbird for years, but the lack of integration between the stations meant we changed to Outlook and of course that's a shitshow, so I'm coming back to ask you my self (rather than the tech guy) if there's a way to set up thunderbird so that if desk 1 opens and responds to email 17, that all the desks can see both that it happened and access the responce that desk 1 sent.
We have an IMAP email account hosted locally (as in, not a gmail account, or the like).
I'd be more than happy to pay for a piece of software that I could use. I've used Thunderbird (and Eudora) for decades and I'd like to continue to support it. But moreover, I'd like an email server that doesn't limit my account size (I use email for "corporate history") and one that would allow my individual staff members to see everyone's activity in the email server.
I had most recently (like 6 months ago?) been using thunderbird. My Tech guy said it was the most current version, but I couldn't tell you what it was.
We run on Windows -- most on 11 but a couple still on 10 until I can take the time to set up the new computers.
All Replies (3)
Welcome back to Thunderbird!
It sounds like you had the right idea all along—your tech guy's assessment was likely incorrect. The good news is that Thunderbird is actually the perfect solution for what you want to do, and there's no paid software needed.
The feature you're looking for is built directly into how Thunderbird works with your email server. You just need to flip a single setting to make it happen.
The reason your five stations couldn't see each other's activity before is almost certainly because Thunderbird was set to save sent emails to a "Local Folder" (which only lives on Desk 1's computer) instead of the "Sent" folder on your server .
Here is how you fix it on each of the five computers:
1. In Thunderbird, go to Edit > Account Settings. 2. Select "Copies & Folders" from the left menu for your email account. 3. Look for the section "When sending messages, automatically:" . 4. Select the option "Other" and use the dropdown menu to choose the "Sent" folder that is located under your email account name (not the "Local Folders" section) . 5. Close to save
After this change, when Desk 1 replies to email #17, a copy of that reply will be saved to the "Sent" folder on your server. Because Desks 2 through 5 are also connected to that server via IMAP, they will see that same reply appear in the shared "Sent" folder almost instantly .
1. Your "Corporate History" (Storage Limits) You mentioned wanting an email server that doesn't limit your account size. This is actually separate from Thunderbird. Since you are hosting your own email locally (which is very smart for data control), you have total control over the storage limits. You can set the server to have a multi-gigabyte (or unlimited) mailbox size. Thunderbird will handle it perfectly fine, especially if you keep an eye on the sync settings .
2. Desktop Visibility (Flagging & Status) When Desk 1 replies to an email, Thunderbird also has a feature that will automatically show a small arrow icon on the original message in the Inbox (or turn the email a different color) indicating that it has been "Replied to" . However, this specific icon is visual confirmation for Desk 1. For the shared workflow of "Did someone handle this?", it is usually easier to create a shared folder called "Processed" or "Desk 1 Done" and drag the email there after replying, so everyone knows it has been handled.
Since you already have the local server set up, all you need to do is adjust those "Copies & Folders" settings. You are very close to having a system that works exactly the way you want it to.
hi WXIE...I sure do appreciate your comprehensive and quick response. Honestly!
So, I was reminded why this also came up....it had to do with storage. Thunderbird was storing everything on everyone's computer. So each of our 5 computers had a duplicate of all the mail folders...which was causing us to run out of room.
Is there a way to utilize our NAS to store all the emails and have each of the individual computers access their email through the NAS?
The other option is buying every computer a gigantic drive...but there may be a better way.
thank you again!
Kathi The Paper Trail Whitehorse Yukon
Does my above suggestion work for you? If you have further problems with Thunderbird or Firefox, the community are glad to help.
Regarding NAS, I think the answer is yes. You can just change each Thunderbird's "Local Folders" to your NAS folders with correct permission.
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