If you set up Thunderbird for IMAP, which is generally used nowadays, it will be a client that displays what’s on the server and hence anything removed there will disappear from any client too after they synced with the server content, so this is default behavior.

From what I can find, Optusnet instructs users to use POP, so your use of IMAP is an assumption. If not, I assume you meant email isn’t gone in Thunderbird after it was already retrieved by it, but it is not retrieved after removing them from webmail first. (?)

Generally you could do 2 things if you want email to be stored locally and not (or no longer) on the server:

- either make sure local messages are copied or moved to the Local Folders (also see this question), or - set up TB to use POP, which allows you to keep messages despite the fact they were removed from the server. The latter is default behavior and similar to fetching a package at the post office and by doing so, making sure nobody else is able to get a copy of that package, and therefor still preferred by some users. A drawback is there is no ability to synchronize folders to other clients, including sent messages.

Howdy

This is the third time I have attempted to respond to your message.

I thank you for your response and was encouraged that I could solve the problem from it. Thunderbird would not allow a change from IMAP to POP - although I was sure I selected POP when I installed Thunderbird.

I asked TB to keep copies of emails in Local folders (I use two email addresses).......and then it went berserk. It dragged up strange windows when I attempted to type; opened up Firefox windows all over the place........and more.

Short story - I have deleted TB altogether. In the short term I will keep my emails on Optusnet whilst I find out more about TB.

Again, many thanks for your reply.

I've restarted my computer twice, which has nicely tidied everything up and all is as it should be.

Cheers Martin

Just select POP instead of IMAP when adding your account to Thunderbird. It is that simple.

POP and IMAP are email standards. They work the same no matter which email client software you use.

Thanks for the feedback, and sorry to see you go (at least for now).

Changing an existing account setup from IMAP to POP is not really possible, hence the FAQ Changing IMAP to POP article was created. As Airmail said, you therefor need to set up the account again, which should be possible even when keeping the IMAP account.

Don’t forget Thunderbird (and Firefox, as well as most other applications) work(s) with multiple profiles that aren’t anything more scary than a set of user files such as settings, fetched mail and other dynamic files. That means you should always be capable of having one Thunderbird install, but creating another profile allows you to set it up and use it in a different way/setup, i.e. with other accounts, without uninstalling or reinstalling, as if it was a fresh copy or one on another machine. And of course, any POP or IMAP mail client can work together with other clients, that’s why they are clients, so you could use several, even at the same time. The only thing you need to watch out for is to check Leave messages on server after setting up an account for POP in any client, or other clients will no longer see the messages - usually only one of them will be set up to remove them from the server.

Hope you are willing to give it another try some day. ;)