Hi, I'm probably not the only person who has an e-mail account that contains, 1000+ or more older messages. I want to install Thunderbird and start fresh and clean. But when I set up the new account, my fresh new Thunderbird account seems to automatically download every e-mail I've ever received on that particular server :-(. Can someone ask help me find the setting that I would use during the initial creation of the e-mail account to prevent Thunderbird from describing the first 3000 e-mails that finds on the account I am trying to establish? I'm sure it's in there somewhere, but I do not see it. It seems a simple question. I often get carried away, and screw up the point. When I finish my brand-new install Thunderbird, out like to be okay just start from the beginning, and tell Thunderbird. Not to download any existing messages outside of a preset date parameter. I appreciate any help and assistance you can give. I have tried and tried, other e-mail programs and realize I should never have walked away from Thunderbird, way back when. So I repent :-) and just want to set up, clean. I have a number of e-mail addresses, which is why Thunderbird is so well built for the job, but there are just too many e-mails on my existing servers that I don't want on my computer. Like most, I think I just want to be in control of the date parameters. In what messages to download. Hopefully I can install create the account in Thunderbird, and just download my e-mails from that moment on. Thank you in advance for your time and your assistance. John