Actually, with IMAP, copies are on your PC. The main issue to remember is that they are deleted from PC if deleted from server. In moving to inbox, maybe if you mark the message unread, that may help. Long term, I suggest considering a switch to IMAP for your consistency and, when there is a message you want saved 'forever', to use the PC to COPY to Local Folders.

Thanks for the response. I understand imap and pop, the advantages and disadvantages of both, but that is not my question.

Moving the message to inbox and marking it unread does not cause thunderbird to download it when configured as pop.

Is anyone able to assist?

Art

I believe this relates to the popstate.dat file that tells thunderbird the next email to download. This is to prevent downloading messages that have been previously downloaded. More info is at https://kb.mozillazine.org/Popstate.dat.

Thanks David.

I read through the information and, honestly, I'm not sure what to do. The message is still on the pop server (gmail) but is not in Thunderbird because I deleted it. My goal is to recover an email deleted on Thunderbird but sitting in gmail.

Maybe my best solution is to just forward the email to myself from gmail?

Art

As a follow-up, I'm on the latest version of Thunderbird. 140.4.0esr (32-bit). I cannot find popstate in the local directory as indicated in the article. Art

The popstate.dat file is in the Mail\<POPaccount> folder. Yes, sending to yourself will make it the 'latest' message and it should then be downloaded.

I found an inelegant solution. I created my same email account in Thunderbird as IMAP. I simply find the missing email and click/drag it to my POP account. FYI - My POP account is my email filing & storage system so I do not have to be concerned about gmail file sizes or IMAP deleted emails.

Thanks for all the assistance.

Art

Thanks for the feedback. I would call your solution elegant; simple, and it works. :)