Thunderbird: inactive email account, still access emails [solved]

[Netherprovinc3]

Linux Mint 19.1 Cinnamon
Thunderbird 68.7.0 (64-bit)

I have an email account that is no longer active. In other words, I no longer have services through the company that hosted the email.

I still have plenty of emails in the older account and I still want to be able to access those emails easily. I have downloaded all of the emails into Thunderbird. I am not concerned about being able to reply to the emails using my new provider's server.

In searching the web, I found some instructions. I think that the best instructions that I have found so far is this:
https://makandracards.com/makandra/875- ... nderbird-3

Code: Select all

1) Open Edit -> Account settings and select your incoming mail account.
2) Under Server settings uncheck "Check for new messages on startup" and "Check for new messages every X minutes".
3) Under Advanced, uncheck "Use IDLE command if the server supports it".

The 3rd instruction must be for a different version than the one that I am running.
Is something to replace that with?

Edit: When I click on an email folder that I had in the old account, Thunderbird still tries to connect to the email server (and is unsuccessful).

Edit2: I see that
Edit -> Account Settings -> Synchronization & Storage -> Advanced
Items for Offline Use
Choose mail folders and newsgroups for offline use.
Inbox and many other folders are checked off.
what do checking or unchecking those really do?

[dave0808]

The synchronisation settings allow you to manage how many of the emails stored at the provider, are also downloaded and stored locally. When your remote inbox is accessed via IMAP4 (rather than POP3) the latest emails are downloaded for you to access. These settings can be used to remove the oldest local copies to make way for the newest emails. Upshot is that it won't help you here.

I don't know if there's a way to disable connecting to the server completely, beyond the settings that you've already noted for checking messages at startup and every X minutes. Thunderbird will connect if you click on the inbox, otherwise there'd be a lot of complaints about it not downloading emails

Personally, I would create a new folder (or more if required), e.g. "MyOldProvider-Inbox", "MyOldProvider-Sent", within the "Local Folders" area, and then copy all messages from the account's folders into these new folders. Once everything is copied, simply delete the account in Thunderbird if it is no longer of any use.

[mikeflan]

The 3rd instruction must be for a different version than the one that I am running.
Is something to replace that with?

I was thinking that if you uncheck all 3 of these you might be good:

[Netherprovinc3]

The 3rd instruction must be for a different version than the one that I am running.
Is something to replace that with?

I was thinking that if you uncheck all 3 of these you might be good:
tb.png

My screen looks different than yours. Thunderbird 78.11.0 (64-bit)
Edit -> Accounts settings -> server settings
screen shows

I moved to this approach.

Personally, I would create a new folder (or more if required), e.g. "MyOldProvider-Inbox", "MyOldProvider-Sent", within the "Local Folders" area, and then copy all messages from the account's folders into these new folders. Once everything is copied, simply delete the account in Thunderbird if it is no longer of any use.

I am just wondering if you lose any functionality by having the emails in a local folder. For example, the format in which the emails can be exported.

[mikeflan]

My 2 IMAP Mail Server accounts look just like yours. Most of my e-mail accounts are POP Mail Server.

[dave0808]

I am just wondering if you lose any functionality by having the emails in a local folder. For example, the format in which the emails can be exported.

It would depend on the email client. In Thunderbird's case, the emails are stored in an EML file, one file for each "Local Folder" that you create. Any email client can read these files, so you're not locked in to Thunderbird forever more.

Other than that, there's no functional difference on the client, between having your emails stored locally or remotely.

[Netherprovinc3]

I don't know if there's a way to disable connecting to the server completely, beyond the settings that you've already noted for checking messages at startup and every X minutes.

Not long ago, I deleted the account (after copying the emails to "local folders" in Thunderbird).
When I deleted it, there were these 2 choices:
"Remove account information."
"Remove message data."

Maybe if you remove the account information, then you can have your emails still without creating the local folder. Only in hindsight did this occur to me.

You do have to be careful when dealing with "live" IMAP folders. I read a thread where a user had an email account that he/she accessed it through Thunderbird. The account was then deleted on the server. Later, the account was recreated on the server but as a fresh new account with no emails. The user connected to it using Thunderbird, it synced and deleted all of his emails. So, I am glad that I have the account as a local folder because now I am more protected against the mistake that I described here.