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  • From: Gloria Morris <gloriamorris59 AT gmail.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] OT: Thunderbird and Gmail Problem
  • Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:46:52 -0600

I muddled through it. In case anyone else decides to try this at home, I'm going to share what went wrong (and right) so that you can hopefully avoid my mistakes! :)

1) The individual email files on my computer were all in the IMAP account of T-Bird, having been automatically created from my Gmail account - having never used IMAP, I did not understand its behavior and thus thought this was dandy.

2) I DELETED the individual email labels on Gmail and moved all mail to trash (fortunately, I did NOT empty the trash).

3) While I was pondering my next step, T-Bird checked in with Gmail and removed all of its computer-side folders from the IMAP account, and dumped all the emails to trash, mimicking what I'd done online in Gmail. I was temporarily horrified! :D

4) Once I recovered from the shock of seeing my files and emails automatically empty into trash, I went into Gmail and turned off IMAP in the settings area (both POP and IMAP were enabled - my mistake).

5) I created a POP account in Tbird and deleted the IMAP account.

6) I moved the trash in Gmail to the online Inbox.

7) I re-downloaded the whole shebang into the POP account.

8) I created new folders in Tbird in the Local Folders section (duh - I missed this important distinction the first time around and did not realize that my IMAP account folders were so ephemeral).

9) And then I painfully moved files, created new folders, and created new filters. This took some time.

But now, I believe I have a workable email system. I hope that this reduces the potential security hazards that I perceived with using Gmail and leaving emails in on-line folders. I really like Tbird's tabbed email system, its filters are easy to set up, and now that I understand the distinction between local files and POP account files and IMAP account files, I find its file system to be very usable.

So, for those who were thinking about doing it, learn from my mistakes. And jump on in - the water's fine. :)

Gloria
Feeling a bit more Geeky :)




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