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Thunderbird occasionally “Automatically downloads all (not just new) messages from the POP server.

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  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by _ms_

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Thunderbird occasionally “Automatically downloads all (not just new) messages from the POP server. The number of download messages are based on the client server settings “leave messages on server” and “for at most <number> days”.

This has happened several times (maybe eight, with four different accounts and two different POP servers) within about a month. Nothing “I have” changed around that time; maybe some automatic updates or server-side changes I haven’t kept track of.

To clean up the Inbox To remove the hundreds of re-downloaded old messages as new: 1. Upon discovery “sort by read” and select and move to new folder. 2. Then “sort by date” looking for matching date & times and then matching subject. 3. When found identify by comparing that time with the time found by selecting View > Message Source (or Ctrl+U), the first line contains either the original same date or a different recent redownload date. 4. Move original message back to Inbox. Once complete delete all remaining redownload messages which all should have the same first line date & time when viewing Message Source info.

Doing this every few weeks is becoming a pain this last month or so.

Leaving messages on the server for a few months is required for recovery if required. Have been operating this way with TB since 1999; excite@home days.

Thunderbird occasionally “Automatically downloads all (not just new) messages from the POP server. The number of download messages are based on the client server settings “leave messages on server” and “for at most <number> days”. This has happened several times (maybe eight, with four different accounts and two different POP servers) within about a month. Nothing “I have” changed around that time; maybe some automatic updates or server-side changes I haven’t kept track of. To clean up the Inbox To remove the hundreds of re-downloaded old messages as new: 1. Upon discovery “sort by read” and select and move to new folder. 2. Then “sort by date” looking for matching date & times and then matching subject. 3. When found identify by comparing that time with the time found by selecting View > Message Source (or Ctrl+U), the first line contains either the original same date or a different recent redownload date. 4. Move original message back to Inbox. Once complete delete all remaining redownload messages which all should have the same first line date & time when viewing Message Source info. Doing this every few weeks is becoming a pain this last month or so. Leaving messages on the server for a few months is required for recovery if required. Have been operating this way with TB since 1999; excite@home days.

Chosen solution

Who are your email providers?

I ask because of this thread: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1212501#answer-1097676

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UPDATE: Just happen again, around "Sat Apr 7 07:07:12 2018" eastern US.

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Chosen Solution

Who are your email providers?

I ask because of this thread: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1212501#answer-1097676

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Zenos said

Who are your email providers? I ask because of this thread: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1212501#answer-1097676

Email provider is AOL also, after a Verizon moved me there a few months ago.

Thanks Zenos for making this connection, this is what I was looking for if others were having the same issue. When I asked my wife about her account (she setup the same way) she didn’t notice. Since then she realizes it was happening to her too.

I’ll investigate the suggested option and see which, if not all, will work for me.

Again, Thanks Zenso and Thanks Matt

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I'm slightly skeptical about the idea that this is just an aol problem, although all but one of reoccurrences for me happened with my pop.verizon.net account hosted by aol. But the one other occurrence happened on my other account, which uses an imap server: imap.csail.mit.edu