Thunderbird Community Forum

Can I use Thunderbird to build an incremental local backup/archive of all messages transiting (incoming/outgoing) a webmail account ?

Any idea how to achieve this ?

My problem is:

• A POP3 account will miss all folders except the Inbox. (It's a pity that POP4 has not gained traction yet.)
• An IMAP account creates a mirror, not a backup. Remote deletions in the webmail account must not delete messages from my backup and vice versa.

detailed requirements:

• one-way sync only, since a local backup/archive must be built, not a mirror (two-way synchronization):
• Remote deletions must not cause local deletions (otherwise it would be a mirror, not an archive/backup).
• Local move/delete operations must not be reflected back to the mail server.
• Read‐only access to the mail server: no moves, deletes or flags remotely.
• All messages in all folders must be included in the backup: Inbox, Sent, custom folders, etc. Since POP3 can only back up the Inbox, I will probably have to settle for IMAP to include all folders.
• No duplicates: Messages must not be stored locally more than once.
• Messages must be stored as full offline copies locally (not just headers).

Since 17th June any email I send to an hotmail account is being returned with the message

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed permanently:

  * (removed)@hotmail.com

Reason: A message that you sent to the following recipient could not be delivered due to a permanent error. ** The remote server ?? responded with: ** (removed)@hotmail.com ??:?? This message was created automatically by mail delivery software on the server .

I have not made any changes, and it worked previously for years - do you have any suggestions as to the problem? I have tried sending to 3 Hotmail accounts and are all being returned - all other emails work correctly.

I am using plusnet.

I just donated 30 dollars to Thunderbird then uploaded the new version When I tried to login, it won't accept my password I tried to change it, but it won't accept that either Now all my important email information is not accessible to me. Get this working today or please refund my money and I will not use this anymore I have used Thunderbird for many years. <redacted>@comcast.net John Guntkowski

<phone redacted> Do so today, I am a very busy man and my email is very important to me and I relied on it to be reliable.

Hej! Min dator har kraschat har köpt en ny dator då vill jag komma in på mina mejl via Thunderbird men tyvärr så har jag glömt mitt lösenord och då undrar jag hur jag ska komma in för ni kan inte sända mig ett nytt via mail kan ni smsa via Telefon? MVH Lena Dahlgren Jonsson

I just setup a new version of Thunderbird and imported email from gmail. this seemed to work but I have no saved passwords and can't get the calendar to import and no address book.

I have authentication method set to OAuth2. server is imap.gmail.com

Any clue as to why this is not working. Dan

I can send without problem if I'm not attaching anything but when I try to attach, the program freezes and I have to force stop it. I don't have any addons and I tried disconnecting my vpn. This just started happening today. I can't find any answers elsewhere on the interwebs, I hope someone here can suggest something! Thanks

I am unable to get my e-mail, address book onto this new computer. I have e-mail on my travel computer which should show on the laptop but doesn't. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for your help.

Dianna

In the past, as Thunderbird was spell checking (triggered by pushing Send), it would highlight the words it questioned. For the last few weeks, maybe longer, it still spell checks, but the words it stops at are no longer highlighted. So I don’t know where in the body of the email the issue occurs. Without seeing the context around the potential misspelled word, I can’t tell if I should accept the suggested correction, or push Ignore.

I’ve attached a screen shot of Thunderbird stopping at “interlibrary” but there is no indication at that word in the body of the email.

When I tried a simpler example - one sentence with a misspelling - the misspelling was given a red underline. And occasionally, a questioned word would be highlighted. But it use to work reliably ALL the time.

What can I do to bring back highlighting the questionable word? I didn’t realize how much more useful it made the spell checking.

I have been moving and saving starred emails in folders. When I read email on my iPhone, I can see a total number for flagged emails but cannot find messages easily. When I go to Thunderbird on desktop, I have to look through folders. I would find it helpful to be able to view all flagged emails in one place, to periodically see if the flags are still helpful, if I have missed something, etc.

Starting yesterday 4-3-2025 my Thunderbird email keeps locking up and saying it is not responding. I can close it and open it and then work with it for 2 or 3 minutes and it will start not responding again. This is a consistent problem the last few days. I did check and it said there was an automatic update on 4-2-25. I am not sure if this had anything to do with it but i did go in and request an update about 2 hours ago today. This has not helped as I still consistentaly get the not responding problem. Please advise what I can do to fix this.

I am getting the attached message when I try to send emails from this account on Thunderbird. I have checked my server settings and in any event I have not changed anything recently. Can you help?

I have had an ongoing problem with Thunderbird being unable to log into the various mail servers that I use. I've tried repeatedly to solve this problem and have been able to cure it in the past by clearing the cache, but it recurs over and over again. I cannot keep wasting my time like this. I'm an independent contractor and I need to be able to use my e-mail client consistently. I've got work to do! This morning, it's suddenly decided that it cannot log into any of the three services that I use.

Is there a lasting solution to this problem? If not, please tell me and I'll move on peacefully, but please don't keep me chasing my tail for something that cannot be fixed.

For a few days a banner persists on the lower left of the message window. It obscures content. ""Upgrade to Thunderbird Release"" I have checked twice to make sure there is no update available. Why does this annoying message persist after I run the update. I have rebooted the application multiple times. I do not want to click "Learn more" on the annoying banner promoting "Get monthly updates. with new features and improvements in the new Thunderbird Release" Is it malware? If the application is up to date why are you forcing me to "Learn more"? This is not a good user experience. My MacBook Air is up to date. Thunderbird release 128.11.1esr