Assuming you are talking a gmail impap account....

First, you don't want to be touching retention policy.

Second - to prevent all messages from being stored on the laptop in the future and delete the cache that is already stored there:

1. In tools | account settings | Storage | uncheck "keep messages". Click OK 2. In Help | Troubleshooting click on "Show Folder". 3. Shut down thunderbird. 4. delete global-messages-db.sqlite 5. navigate to the folder imapmail, and to the directory for your gmail account. 6. in the Windows directory delete all files 7. restart thunderbird

hnielsen said

I use Thunderbird on several computers for the same gmail account. I have a small laptop with very little memory and it runs out of disc space when it downloads all my folders. I would like to only download a few of my folder on the laptop but keep all folder on my other computers as these have no problems with disc space. When I unsubscribe the folders in "manage folder subscriptions" then it unsubscribes on all my computers, not just the laptop. When I go into "properties" on the individual folder and sets "retention policy" then these setting are not applied at all. What can I do?

Thanks Wayne. My problem is that the only "tools" I can find is in the Thunderbird Menu and that drop down menu doesn't contain "account settings". Am I being thick?

No, I'm just stuck in the old menu UI, which you can accesswith the ALT key.

For the new UI, Account settings is under "Options", so ... 1. In Options | account settings | Storage | uncheck "keep messages". Click OK

Hi Wayne Thank you for your help but even with the "Keep messages for this account on this computer" unticked it still seems to download all the messages in all the folder. I have tried to untick some of the folders in "Manage folder subscriptions" and then restart TB and then tick them again and restart but ir still downloads it all. Is there no way I can limit the number of folders on one computer without it affecting the other computers? Sorry to be a pain. Henrik

All the messages in every folder will appear in your message list. But that does not mean all message bodies are downloaded, if you've properly configured the disk settings. If what I outlined above stuck in your settings then Message bodies should only be downloaded "on demand" when you click on each message.

To confirm this install the glodaquilla addon which has an "on disk" column which shows whether a message is on disk. If you want, after installing the addon set Thunderbird to work offline so it does not download a message body when you click in the message list.