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can't re-download emails from gmail

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by sfhowes

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Linux mint 19.3. I have placed my thunderbird mail profile in a 'data partition' that is regularly backed up. I can restore this profile on my laptop and thus have the same emails as my desktop. When I'm running the laptop I can download my emails from gmail, backup the profile onto the external drive, and reload it into my desktop, which now has the same emails. Everything is synced, locally.

But recently made a mistake. On the laptop, in thunderbird I downloaded the emails, then accidentally restored the old profile, which wiped out the recent emails.

Now I'm back home with my desktop, which has the old profile, unchanged, pristine. In the browser I went to gmail > all mail, and moved all those new emails to the inbox and marked them 'unread'.

But thunderbird still says there are no new emails.

This means that gmail, not thunderbird, is preventing these from being downloaded.

How do I tell gmail to download those recent files?

Linux mint 19.3. I have placed my thunderbird mail profile in a 'data partition' that is regularly backed up. I can restore this profile on my laptop and thus have the same emails as my desktop. When I'm running the laptop I can download my emails from gmail, backup the profile onto the external drive, and reload it into my desktop, which now has the same emails. Everything is synced, locally. But recently made a mistake. On the laptop, in thunderbird I downloaded the emails, then accidentally restored the old profile, which wiped out the recent emails. Now I'm back home with my desktop, which has the old profile, unchanged, pristine. In the browser I went to gmail > all mail, and moved all those new emails to the inbox and marked them 'unread'. But thunderbird still says there are no new emails. This means that gmail, not thunderbird, is preventing these from being downloaded. How do I tell gmail to download those recent files?

Chosen solution

Is the account POP or IMAP? If it's POP, gmail doesn't allow downloading to multiple computers or mail programs unless 'recent mode' is enable.

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Chosen Solution

Is the account POP or IMAP? If it's POP, gmail doesn't allow downloading to multiple computers or mail programs unless 'recent mode' is enable.