Using Thunderbird with Gmail IMAP

Filed under: Video, Features, Windows, E-mail, Productivity, Mozilla

Using Thunderbird with Gmail IMAP

by Grant Robertson Nov 9th 2007

If you've got a hankerin' for Gmail over IMAP bliss using Mozilla Thunderbird as your mail client, we can show you how. This sub 4 minute video walks you through configuring Thunderbird to stay synced with your Gmail account.

Tags: gmail, IMAP, mozilla, thunderbird, video

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

geekbee said 1:17PM on 11-09-2007

Appreciate the effort, but I think it's going to be a waste. The video is too dark, and everything is too small.

Blu-Sam said 1:41PM on 11-09-2007

Here is the best to look up instead waste to watch whole video.

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=77662
-cheerful!

Grant Robertson said 1:47PM on 11-09-2007

Uh, blue-sam: "We're sorry, but the information you've requested cannot be found."

chill said 1:52PM on 11-09-2007

Also, an even more in depth tutorial to get more use from Gmail's IMAP can be found here:

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tips/2007/10/27/turn_thunderbird_into_the_ulti.html

It shows you how to remap your "Sent Items", "Drafts", and "Trash" to sync up with Gmails default folders.

Chrispy said 2:10PM on 11-09-2007

Thanks for that! Was helpful for me, didn't know the benefits until i changed my google over to imap in thunderbird just now.
Much much better, will probably use gmail more now as thunderbird is my main client for news via rss and e-amil. Wish thunderbird would show embeded movies in it though :(

Cams said 6:29PM on 11-09-2007

I still haven't got IMAP available yet in my primary gmail account :(

Walt said 6:48PM on 11-09-2007

I have used Thunderbird/Gmail with POP for a long time. As far as I can see, it works exactly the same way. So what is the big thing about IMAP? Using IMAP I have to download old messages every time I want to have a look at them. With POP they are there all the time, even off line.

michael said 7:31PM on 11-09-2007

Any way of doing this on Windows Live Mail?

I've recently been using WLMail and I kind of prefer it more. So is there a way to get Gmail and IMAP for WLMail?

MrKniceGuy said 10:43PM on 11-09-2007

Good video... GREAT SONG! Thanks for turning me on to brad sucks! I'm grooving on it now and am going to kick him some cash. I'll be sure to tell him how I found him!

www.bradsucks.net

Colin said 11:06PM on 11-09-2007

@7/Walt:

Basically, IMAP is server-side, POP is client-side. Using IMAP, if you file a message in a different folder, that will also happen in the Gmail web interface. (Actually it'll be labeled with whatever folder you drag it into.)

If you mark a message as read via IMAP, it will be marked as read in the Gmail interface. This is the killer for me. If you're like me and access your Gmail account from several computers and a cell phone, IMAP is a blessing.

Think of IMAP as an instant way of synchronizing the state of your account from whatever computer you're using it on.

Colin said 11:10PM on 11-09-2007

@7/Walt:

Most IMAP clients have some option along the lines of Download entire message/Download headers/Cache entire message/Offline messages etc.. You want to make sure you have the entire message option selected.

Colin said 11:11PM on 11-09-2007

@8/michael:

Google sez:
http://techalerts.blogspot.com/2007/11/set-up-windows-live-mail-for-gmail-imap.html

tim said 4:40PM on 12-01-2007

given that gmail does not use folder (instead relying on labels), how to avoid the problem of ending up with email in both the [gmail] folder and in the label folder? or in several folders (as labels are not hierarchival like folders....
i decided to delete all labels, have all the mail in one folder ([gmail]/allmail) and let spotlight and google sort it all out.

wolf said 4:45PM on 12-16-2007

Thanks! Nice job. Only confusing thing was you had to go back to gmail and change to imap from pop...and you had to FIND "settings" on the gmail acct. to change to imap. That was a bit confusing, but now it works great. Might want to add that on gmail acct., you DON'T want to tell gmail to FORWARD! Duh. Who'd a thought?
Appreciate the help!

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