

You could try taking Thunderbird offline, and then ''copy'' the folders (ctrl+drag?) to Local Folders.


The '''right-click|Move to''' method has to be used with individual messages. So - I've tried to move the TB email account (inbox + others) to the "Local Folders", but I don't see a mechanism to accomplish this.īut - to my question - since the emails are 'downloaded' - somewhere, (I assume on my computer under the TB program, Do I need to them move to 'local folders'? If so why & how? I'm only concerned that since the original GD email account won't exist anymore - all those emails will be preserved on my computer under the TB program. (Old emails just as an archive, not to be used anymore.) I want to delete the GD email account to be used for something else, but want to retain the old emails on my computer - that's why I've subscribed to TB. So - I assume that on setup, all the emails are now on my computer. These numbers were updated as the green progress bar indicated the download. At the bottom of the TB window, there is horizontal message bar which shows "unread" & "total" - in the right corner, which is correct. TB now mirrors exactly what is in my GD email account. I did the same for the other folders to match in GD - ie.: sent, trash, templates, etc. It now matches what I have in the GD inbox. When I clicked on the TB inbox, it downloaded all the emails. TB set up matching folders to what I have in GD. I set up TB, and linked to my GoDaddy email via IMAP, as previously suggested. I appreciate your help in getting me to understand how TB works. Read this answer in context 👍 1 All Replies (14) In this case, the messages stored in an email client would not be complete. Some implementations of IMAP download headers and fetch the complete message only when you open it. IMAP as a protocol expects to be online, so if a message is absent or incomplete it can be fetched ad-hoc. This would cut the server out of the operation and save you a lot of internet traffic, but I would be nervous that not all of the messages would be fully represented in Thunderbird's folders. You could try taking Thunderbird offline, and then copy the folders (ctrl+drag?) to Local Folders. Normal email traffic is "little and often", but in moving a nest of folders you're asking it to handle a huge number of messages, and maybe a complex folder structure in one big hit. All well and good if all works well, but potentially destructive to the store on the IMAP server if any of the transfer fails at the client. I'm also nervous because if you move message from an IMAP account to an external store, this has the effect of removing that message from the server.

Try it one folder at a time I'm wary of this method because if you grab and drag the top level of a nested set of folders you could be picking up hundreds or even thousands of messages, and this isn't a good match to the purpose for which email protocols were designed. I'm surprised you can't drag-and drop folders. The right-click|Move to method has to be used with individual messages.
