Closed Bug 1759576 Opened 3 years ago Closed 1 year ago

Thunderbird syncs all message headers regardless of sync settings

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Networking: IMAP, defect)

Product:
MailNews Core
Component:
Networking: IMAP
Version:
Thunderbird 100
Platform:
x86_64
Windows 11
Type:
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED INVALID

People

(Reporter: saschanaz, Unassigned)

References

Details

Account Settings > Synchronization & Storage > Disk Space > Synchronize the most recent 30 Days

TB still tries to download everything even after a few restarts.

I'm using @outlook.com account for this, on Thunderbird Daily.

Version: unspecified → Thunderbird 100
OS: Unspecified → Windows 11
Hardware: Unspecified → x86_64

Unclear whether this would be imap, or somethign more backend.

When did this stop working for you?

Component: Untriaged → Networking: IMAP
Flags: needinfo?(krosylight)
Product: Thunderbird → MailNews Core

This was IMAP, yes.

I installed Thunderbird today, so no idea.

Flags: needinfo?(krosylight)

If you just installed TB and setup an existing imap account with many messages going back more than 30 days, you will see all the messages not just the latest 30 day. So they all appear to be "downloaded". However, only the messages within the last 30 days will be stored locally. At least that how I think it works.

Sorry but this feature is not well documented. A few years ago I researched how it actually works and you can find my results here: bug 1564421. The conclusion of that bug was it needs to be formally documented, but that never occurred.

See Also: → 1564421

Well, it actively downloads all the things, at least per the status bar. ("Downloading message header 601 of 47266 in INBOX...")

(In reply to Kagami :saschanaz from comment #4)

Well, it actively downloads all the things, at least per the status bar. ("Downloading message header 601 of 47266 in INBOX...")

It always downloads the headers for all messages. But it shouldn't download the full message bodies (i.e., the messages text and any attachments) except for the newest 30 days. The headers typically take much less space to store than the bodies.
So you can still access all your old messages but only the newest 30 days will be fully stored locally on disk for somewhat faster access and to be able to access them if you are offline.

Thanks for the details! But downloading all the headers still matters, as the emails column includes all the 60k emails and makes the scrollbar super small, when I typically don't even bother with old emails. Is there a way to hide them?

You can archive them to the "Archives" folder or just make a new folder with whatever name you want and copy move them there, and if you really don't want to see that either you can always "unsubscribe" the folder which will "hide" it. Otherwise, I don't know of a a way to hide a group of messages in a visible folder.

Well, I don't want to do anything manual to manage old mails, so this is not ideal to me 😬

I expected something similar to what Outlook and Gmail apps do (scroll to load older ones), but maybe it's just me?

Kagami,
Do you still encounter this with current beta version?

Flags: needinfo?(krosylight)

Yes, or at least I still have all 73,227 Messages since 2012 even with the settings. And it seems it's currently expected per comment #5, right?

Flags: needinfo?(krosylight)

(In reply to Kagami [:saschanaz] (they/them) from comment #10)

Yes, or at least I still have all 73,227 Messages since 2012 even with the settings. And it seems it's currently expected per comment #5, right?

Yes.
If I understand the issue, this is really a INVALID or WONTFIX resolution.
I don't think the reporter is saying the headers get downloaded at start of every session, just that all headers are stored and all messages can be seen even though they only want to see the last 30 days. But that's just not how TB works.

Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 1 year ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID

(In reply to gene smith from comment #11)

(In reply to Kagami [:saschanaz] (they/them) from comment #10)

Yes, or at least I still have all 73,227 Messages since 2012 even with the settings. And it seems it's currently expected per comment #5, right?

Yes.
If I understand the issue, this is really a INVALID or WONTFIX resolution.

Or a feature request?

I don't think the reporter is saying the headers get downloaded at start of every session, just that all headers are stored and all messages can be seen even though they only want to see the last 30 days. But that's just not how TB works.

At least it's not how K-9 Mail works, which is going to be named Thunderbird, right? There should be a way to not do this.

Flags: needinfo?(gds)

At least it's not how K-9 Mail works, which is going to be named Thunderbird, right? There should be a way to not do this.

Wayne, I don't know the roadmap for merging k9 and tb. If that's the plan and/or you think the reporter's request is good, then I guess you can reopen this and mark it as an open enhancement request. But from a historical TB perspective, it's INVALID since there's an easy solution to the reporter's issue: move the old messages to an archive folder.

Flags: needinfo?(gds)

Did you intend to add an NI?

Anyway, I don't think moving to archive is an equivalent easy solution as search will exclude the archive. (k9 supports "Search messages on server" for this)

(In reply to Kagami [:saschanaz] (they/them) from comment #14)

Did you intend to add an NI?

No. Wayne is is on the CC list so I didn't want to bother him with a NI for this. He sees all comments (especially when a bug is closed) and if he objects to me setting this to INVALID he can change it.

Anyway, I don't think moving to archive is an equivalent easy solution as search will exclude the archive. (k9 supports "Search messages on server" for this)

From comment 13:

there's an easy solution to the reporter's issue: move the old messages to an archive folder.

When I said "archive folder" I meant it in a generic sense, not necessarily the "Archive" folders produced by TB when you archive a message.

So you say formal "Archive" folders are excluded from search. I'm not a big search user and haven't dealt with the search code, so I'll take your word for it. So instead of "archiving" the old messages, create a new folder called, for example, "Old Messages" and move them there. Surely that would get searched.

If you object to my bug resolution, feel free to post a new bug marked as an enhancement describing exactly how you would want it to work.

Well, having a searchable archive means the headers should still be fetched. That's useless as the purpose is to not fetch headers.

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