Windows 10: Thunderbird question - imap vs pop

I have downloaded Thunderbird and have watched an install video. I do have a question tho. If I understand correctly, it is an imap function (correct word?) rather than a POP. I guess you can choose either but it sounds like imap creates a copy of the emails on a server not just on your pc. Is this the function that then allows you to save/offload all of your emails? Thanks.
V20H2

:)

 

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?

 

Thunderbird: Switch POP to identical IMAP profiles on 2 computers

I have Thunderbird on 2 computers & have a POP profile on both. I want to switch to IMAP & make sure that the profile names are identical on both computers. If I change POP to IMAP on 1 computer first, how do I make sure that the IMAP profile I create on the 2nd computer is identical?
Thank you in advance.

 

Thunderbird - IMAP vs Profile Copy

Your email account information is just one of the many things stored in the profile. The profile contains everything that makes your Thunderbird installation different from the bare software and default settings. If you look in the profile, you'll see the range of content.

If the profiles will be very similar, copy the profile, then modify what you want.

You can access IMAP accounts from as many computers and profiles as you want. Each profile will sync with the IMAP servers independently of other profiles.

If you do all of you emailing in Thunderbird, your address books will be stored in the profile. Copying the profile will copy the address books.

If the only information in the webmail addressbook is what it captured from messages involving contacts that Thunderbird also processes messages for or from, Thunderbird may well already have it. Compare the addressbooks; you might not need to do anything.

But if you also do some emailing from the IMAP provider's webmail client, its addressbook could contain contacts or added details not in Thunderbird. If you're talking about just the initial Thunderbird setup, yes, that would typically be done by importing the addressbook.

How to do that depends on the IMAP provider. IMAP only deals with messages. The email provider chooses a format to use for their webmail client's addressbook. There are a number of formats commonly used. Worst case, you may need to have the webmail client export the addressbook in a format Thunderbird knows how to handle, then import that into Thunderbird. There's a lot of online guidance on how to import addressbooks from specific email providers. This article by Mozilla, Sharing address books, will give you some general background (the article is a little dated, so you'll want to verify the utilities it mentions, and there are likely newer ones).