Windows 10: Configuring IMAP Thunderbird/gmail to work like POP?

Apologizing in advance for a question that invites a "why would you want to do that?" response.

But I'd like my Thunderbird, working with my gmail, configured for IMAP, to function as it did when I had it configured for POP.

What I'd like is that:

• My Thunderbird has all my gmail messages, that go back 10+ years
• When I fire up Thunderbird, it gets my "new" messages - those that have arrived since the last time I opened Thunderbird
• The action of Thunderbird "getting" or syncing new messages, causes gmail to archive those messages
• Thunderbird won't always get caught up in trying to sync the nearly 300,000 messages I have in gmail, most of which I have captured elsewhere in Thunderbird folders

I realize that this isn't exactly what IMAP is set up to do; I'd had Thunderbird set up for POP for a long time, but when I was trying to get it to send messages, there were server problems that I solved by switching to IMAP.

Perhaps there is a way to tell gmail to only sync the all mail for messages after a certain date? How do I set up for the type of behavior I want?

:)

 

Google Adds IMAP Support to GMail

GMail has gained IMAP support, one of the most requested features for Google's web-based e-mail service. If you log into your GMail account and head to "settings", the tab for "Forwarding and POP" should now read "Forwarding and POP/IMAP." If it doesn’t, be patient, Google will be rolling out the new IMAP features across the service over the next few days. With IMAP you can access your mail via your desktop client, read mail, make changes and have those changes mirrored by any other client accessing the account. If you access your mail from multiple machines, IMAP allows them all to stay in sync. To enable IMAP in GMail just head to the settings page and change your access from POP to IMAP.

Source: Wired News

 

Thunderbird does not show GMail folders

I am running Thunderbird 45.2.0 on a Windows 10 Pro X64 desktop PC without any problems. I access 2 GMail accounts, and a Yahoo account for a couple of years.

I also access these accounts on a Windows 10 Pro X64 laptop running the same version of Thunderbird. Recently, the IMAP folders disappeared in Thunderbird.

I cannot retrieve the IMAP folders, even after uninstalling Thunderbird, deleting all unused folders in Program Files and in Appdata. I also removed unused registry keys in the hope of getting rid of any corruption associated with Thunderbird installation.

After installing Thunderbird again, the problem remains: I only see an Inbox folder for the accounts, no other accounts as are still available on the Desktop installation.

I selected imap.gmail.com port 993 as the IMAP server and smtp.gmail.com port 465 as SMTP server as Thunderbird suggested. I changed the authentication to Normal password, as used on the desktop PC. However, Thunderbird reports User Name or password incorrect. The user name and password I use is correct: I can log in to GMail in Windows Edge with the user name and password I try to use in the Thunderbird setup.

I suspect the problem to be with Thunderbird as I tried to copy the profile files from the desktop PC to the laptop but the problem persists, even with the Yahoo account.

Any suggestions to get this going on the laptop?

 

Gmail IMAP on Outlook 2019

If some of you folks would take the time to actually read the user posts you might resist making comments about "just google it" or "read the instructions". I have looked for a solution to this problem for several months and can provide a few details:

• The issue is becoming widely discussed by many users with the same problem - it's not confined to just a few people. The MS web sites contain many posts.
• The problem seemed to begin in May 2019
• It appears to be confined to Gmail on Outlook 2019
• It isn't clear if it's a Microsoft issue, or a Google issue, or both.
• It is not a problem when using a client such as Thunderbird, which I have installed and use - the Gmail account was an easy (trivial) set-up. For me, Gmail continues to work on Thunderbird without issue.
• There are many suggested fixes - enabling IMAP is a given, changing port numbers, server names (e.g, imap.gmail.com to imap.googlemail.com), the use or non-use of 2FA, app passwords, allow less-secure apps to run, etc. I have tried all of these singly or in various combinations.

For me, the problem started a few months back when Outlook puked up the Gmail settings and would not proceed with re-installing the account. I continuously received messages that it could not find the IMAP server - the fault code is noted in a couple of messages above.
Initially I thought I had re-mediated the problem by doing an on-line repair of MS Office (Pro Plus, 2019). This meant re-activating Office, Project & Visio, which I do not want to do continuously. I was able to set-up my Gmail account easily, and thought the problem was resolved. This lasted about a week.
Now, after a system restart, I can generally set-up Gmail again easily, without repairing Office - just as some of you suggest that this is all that is necessary. It may last for a day or two, but frequently only a few hours.
I'm not willing to give up on 2FA.
I am cutting away from Gmail so I'm not going to obsess over a solution any longer. For the limited number of Gmail I still receive I can manage with Thunderbird or by browser.
If this isn't an issue for you, that's great. Happy days. But don't discount the issue as being one of user failure to follow instructions.

Peace

- - - Updated - - -

For Sygnus21: It's enabled on my account, disabling it seemed to be the root cause of Janice Reid's issue. I could try turning it on and off and might give that a spin in the next day or so. I really should be working :/