Thunderbird to back up Gmail

[parminides]

Thanks for all the replies. Sorry about my initial grumpiness, but I can't afford to lose all my messages on Gmail.

If you allow Thundrbird to download gmail as an IMAP account, you would have mail physically on your computer.

The email is physically on my computer now with the POP account. All the messages are in a huge file called ~/.thunderbird/hreipadj.default/Mail/pop.googlemail.com/Inbox. I know they're there because I opened it in a text editor and looked.

I also use thunderbird and POP3 to backup my email. Gmail remembers which emails have been downloaded via pop3 so that they will not be downloaded again. Here is how to reset this and start over, making all the email downloadable again.

[instructions omitted]

This trick worked for me and more or less fixes my original problem. However, it would be nice if I could have complete but independent backups on my laptop and desktop. I will experiment with IMAP, which is what almost everyone recommends. So I won't mark the thread solved yet.

Can I create separate IMAP and POP accounts in Thunderbird for the same Gmail account?

Thanks for all the help. As far as I know I haven't lost any messages yet.

[pfeiffep]

Not sure of your meaning of "separate imap and pop accounts" Accounts provide the ability to connect to mail servers via a protocol Post Office Protocol or Internet Message Access Protocol.
So if you have one email address user @gmail.com Thunderbird will access the mail by using 1 of those 2 protocols. If you have another email account user@isp.net then you can configure Thunderbird to access isp.net with either pop or imap.
So if I guessed correctly - The direct answer to your question about separate imap and pop accounts in Gmail is no if you want to use the same email address.

The method I outlined earlier will accomplish exactly

"if I could have complete but independent backups on my laptop and desktop"

Here's a quick outline of how I would proceed:

1. configure one of the two computers with thunderbird imap access (select the one with wired access if exists)
2. arrange the email folders on that pc
3. allow some time for the email to migrate (imap is a 2 way protocol)
4. configure whichever folders you desire to have available 'off line'
5. once you have the configuration the way your desire then all that should be necessary is to change to other computer's Thunderbird to imap (the folder heirarchy you created on first will migrate to second - no need to duplicate)
6. You might need identify the folders you want for off line access again

[parminides]

So if I guessed correctly - The direct answer to your question about separate imap and pop accounts in Gmail is no if you want to use the same email address.

I did mean separate POP and IMAP accounts for the same email address.

Your outline of steps implies that POP and IMAP accounts for the same email address can coexist on separate computers. I know almost nothing about Thunderbird, but it's not clear to me why they couldn't coexist on the same computer. Both POP and IMAP are already enabled in Gmail.

However, that sounds like a recipe for losing some messages, so I'm not sure if I'll try to do it!

[pfeiffep]

Many email providers have both imap and pop access as a choice .... I do NOT suggest IMAP on one PC and POP on the other to access the same email account for a permanent solution!
On a single PC I believe that Thunderbird will only enable one access method to a single email account.
This is a simplistic analogy -
you can either drive your car to the bank OR you can take a bus to the same bank - at the same time you CANNOT take the bus and drive your car.
imap and pop are only methods to access your email ... this has nothing to do with Thunderbird.

Might I suggest that you create a test email account at gmail and experiment with possibilities

[parminides]

On a single PC I believe that Thunderbird will only enable one access method to a single email account.
This is a simplistic analogy -
you can either drive your car to the bank OR you can take a bus to the same bank - at the same time you CANNOT take the bus and drive your car.

I like that analogy. Admittedly, I am a Thunderbird novice (~24 hr of experience), but let me expand on it.

It seems to me that Thunderbird is the garage. The garage can have a bus (POP account) and a car (IMAP account). If I log onto the POP account, that's taking the bus to the bank (my email messages).

If Thunderbird allows multiple accounts, I don't see why in principle it wouldn't allow POP and IMAP accounts to the same gmail account. This assumes that the offline messages would be stored in different locations.

Of course, it's all theoretical since I'm afraid of things going fubar if I actually tested my idea!

Might I suggest that you create a test email account at gmail and experiment with possibilities

That's a great suggestion. I will try that soon.

[parminides]

Just now I was looking at the settings for the POP account I created and saw something that really worried me. In the Server Settings, it had both options checked for "Leave messages on server," i.e., 1) "For at most 14 days" and 2) "Until I delete them."

One problem is that those options are inconsistent! Maybe (hopefully) "Until I delete them" trumps "For at most 14 days." But my guess is that it means that any messages I don't delete manually will be deleted automatically after 14 days.

Of course I can just deselect these options, but this is just the thing that really scares me and makes me wonder if that's how so many people lost their email.

I had selected in the Gmail settings to "keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox." I thought I was safe. Was Thunderbird really scheduled, by default, to delete *all* my messages from the Gmail server after 14 days, without my knowledge, just because I hadn't noticed those settings? That's scary.

Have I mentioned that I can't afford to lose the messages on the Gmail server?

[Slim Odds]

Thanks for all the replies. Sorry about my initial grumpiness, but I can't afford to lose all my messages on Gmail.



The email is physically on my computer now with the POP account. All the messages are in a huge file called ~/.thunderbird/hreipadj.default/Mail/pop.googlemail.com/Inbox. I know they're there because I opened it in a text editor and looked.



This trick worked for me and more or less fixes my original problem. However, it would be nice if I could have complete but independent backups on my laptop and desktop. I will experiment with IMAP, which is what almost everyone recommends. So I won't mark the thread solved yet.

Can I create separate IMAP and POP accounts in Thunderbird for the same Gmail account?

Thanks for all the help. As far as I know I haven't lost any messages yet.

Yes, you can do both. IMAP is definitely the modern one, POP is old.

Another advantage of IMAP is that it allows you to manage your mailbox from any of the computers and basically sync them. As an example, if you really do want to delete a email from your account, IMAP will allow that decision to propagate to each client in a very natural way (i.e., the deleted item will be removed from each client automatically when you sync). Whereas with POP, you would have to delete that same email from each client yourself. Things can get pretty disorderly that way. IMAP keeps it clean.

[pfeiffep]

It seems to me that Thunderbird is the garage. The garage can have a bus (POP account) and a car (IMAP account). If I log onto the POP account, that's taking the bus to the bank (my email messages).

My analogy breaks down ... the garage for a car has entirely different specifications than does one for a bus ... more significantly if the bus is already parked in the garage there's no room for the car.

The Synchronization and Storage page in account settings enable keeping all messages on a local PC while also keeping messages on the gmail server.
The advanced button provide fine grained control for folders to be available 'off line'
This seems like it would be a HUGE advantage to you since can't afford to loose any email ... it a 'real time back-up' of your email. If you choose to install Thunderbird on a second PC you would have 3 identical email containers.

If you'd like we can take this off line in private messaging and I'll walk you through the steps