It's an executable program installed and running on your computer. That doesn't mean it can't use "the cloud", or more prosaically, IMAP servers to store messages. But you can choose to use POP and thereby oblige it to store messages locally, on your own hardware.

Your question leads me to infer that you think Thunderbird is part of some greater system. It is just a client, a tool, that connects to mail providers' servers. It does not offer any servers or online storage.

Thank you Zenos, it answered my question. But you are somewhat correct. Although I hope Thunderbird will help me, I'm not sure how this all IMAP & POP3 works other than one receives and one sends emails using the internet. After many, many years, I switched from a windows PC to a Mac. My email client (from what I understand) is Windows Live Mail. It works thru an ISP that I have to pay for & that ISP keeps my emails as webmail. Beyond all that, I don't understand how to make the switch to Thunderbird. It sounds very complicated.

You have an email account. It works through servers and you use the internet, or parts of it, to connect to them to get and send your email messages.

Messages sent to you arrive in a mailbox, which is managed by a server on the internet. You read the messages in that mailbox in one of three ways:

1. webmail: you use your browser to look at your email;
2. IMAP: you use an email client to look at your email;
3. POP: you use an email client which collects the messages from the server, deletes them and makes copies of them on your computer.

1 and 2 both leave messages on the server, on "in the cloud" to use modern parlance. 3 is the only one which by its nature removes messages from the server. IMAP can be used in a way that removes messages from the server. Webmail doesn't give you that choice.

Thunderbird will by default use IMAP, but most email providers also support POP. Where Thunderbird is aware of there being both IMAP and POP, it will offer you the choice. In other cases, it may only detect an IMAP server and you need to feed it the appropriate settings to make it connect using POP.

By and large, it's not the email client that determines the choice between POP and IMAP; you can only use what the server offers. Having said that, some modern email clients seem unwilling to support POP, in the light of the increasing trend of users having multiple devices (e.g. computers, phones, tablets) where IMAP allows all your email to be available to each of your devices.

I'm sorry Zenos - I'm feeling pretty dumb right now. Let me see if I understand:

1 - I use a Thunderbird account to send and receive emails, yes? 2 - In order to save these emails on my hard drive, I would need to set up the Thunderbird acct as an IMAP? 3 - I cannot save these message from webmail to my hard drive, correct?

Thank you for being patient and as thorough as you have been doing with me.

1. You use the Thunderbird program to recieve and send email messages, in conjunction with an email provider such as your ISP or someone like Googlemail, gmx, Yahoo, outlook.com. 2. No, POP. And it's not a "Thunderbird account". 3. Webmail is based on working with an email account via a Web browser. Your messages would be stored in the cloud so it's not suitable for you. Web browsers don't naturally download and store material such as email messages.

Pretty much all email accounts can be accessed via any of the three methods: webmail, POP, IMAP. These systems are not mutually exclusive. For instance, I have an account with Gmail that I can use on my phone, on my tablet and via Thunderbird (all using IMAP.) If I have to use a shared or borrowed computer then I can also use webmail, the advantage being that it doesn't leave my messages on a computer that isn't mine. Sometimes storage in the cloud has positive benefits.

Thanks Zenos, I think I'm starting to understand:

1 - I need an email client (like Thunderbird, or Windows Live Mail) to send and receive emails; 2 - But I also need an ISP (an internet service like ATT.net or TWC.net or earthlink.net) to work with the email client; 3 - Then, I would setup the email client with IMAP settings of the ISP (earthlink or att or twc) 4 - By using the email client on my own computer, I can save my emails to the hard drive; 5 - If I am not at my computer, then I can use the webmail of the ISP (earthlink, ett, twc).

Is that right?

Zenos said

1. You use the Thunderbird program to recieve and send email messages, in conjunction with an email provider such as your ISP or someone like Googlemail, gmx, Yahoo, outlook.com. 2. No, POP. And it's not a "Thunderbird account". 3. Webmail is based on working with an email account via a Web browser. Your messages would be stored in the cloud so it's not suitable for you. Web browsers don't naturally download and store material such as email messages. Pretty much all email accounts can be accessed via any of the three methods: webmail, POP, IMAP. These systems are not mutually exclusive. For instance, I have an account with Gmail that I can use on my phone, on my tablet and via Thunderbird (all using IMAP.) If I have to use a shared or borrowed computer then I can also use webmail, the advantage being that it doesn't leave my messages on a computer that isn't mine. Sometimes storage in the cloud has positive benefits.

_________________________

Thanks Zenos, I think I'm starting to understand:

1 - I need an email client (like Thunderbird, or Windows Live Mail) to send and receive emails; 2 - But I also need an ISP (an internet service like ATT.net or TWC.net or earthlink.net) to work with the email client; 3 - Then, I would setup the email client with IMAP settings of the ISP (earthlink or att or twc) 4 - By using the email client on my own computer, I can save my emails to the hard drive; 5 - If I am not at my computer, then I can use the webmail of the ISP (earthlink, ett, twc).

Is that right?