2000 emails of my previously sent emails appear in my inbox each day
Background: - I use Gmail as my email provider - I backed up and then imported into my new gmail account 100k emails from another gmail account. I suspect this has screwed some things up - I had initially erroneously setup the setting on my new gmail account so it would save a copy of sent mails into my Sent mail folder. I have now fixed this so copies of sent mail are not made.
Nevertheless, for the last 5 days, every day in the morning, 2000 emails appear in my inbox from 2014. These are a mix of a) emails that were labelled and archived but now re-appeared in Inbox still with their labels, b) emails that were labelled and archived but now re-appeared in Inbox WITHOUT their labels, c) emails that were just Sent and now appeared in my Inbox.
I would have to sort through the 2000 emails, re-label, re-archive, or delete unwanted old Sent emails.
Yet the next day, another 2000 appear.
I suspect it is related to the setting to save copies of Sent mail... and maybe it is just catching up as my Thunderbird folder is saying its over 90% at quota (no idea why as its now emptied).
Should I just delete my gmail account from Thunderbird (including all data) and then re-install it fresh on Thunderbird? Or anything else?
All Replies (6)
re :my Thunderbird folder is saying its over 90% at quota (no idea why as its now emptied).
That quota is refering to the amount of emails you are currently storing on the server. Importing into gmail has increased the number of emails you are currently storing in the 'All Mail' folder and according to the info it is now at 90%. Note: All your emails are actually stored in 'All Mail' folder. Gmail also uses it as the 'Archive' store as well. If you apply any label to an email eg: 'Inbox', then it will also appear in that virtual folder for viewing purposes.
Thunderbird merely shows you whatever the server has got in those folders/labels.
re :imported into my new gmail account 100k emails from another gmail account.
These emails are likely to be imported into 'All Mail' and issued with the label 'Inbox'. Hence you see them in Inbox.
Gmail may also have a limit on number of emails it allows to download etc in a defined period eg: hour or day and so you may be seeing the effects of this. 2000 per day.
Do you compact folders to remove all traces of marked as deleted items? Right click on folder and select 'Compact folder' - it will remove all traces of previously deleted emails and may gain you space.
When deleting you would need to put unwanted emails in gmails 'Bin' if uk otherwise 'Trash' folder. Gmail will auto delete after 30 days.
If you logon to webmail account. You may find it easier to do a load of moving/ lableing of emails. However, note that you can delete a label, but it does not necessarilly mean that the email has been deleted from 'All Mail' folder. Note anything you have labeled as 'Archive' will be in the 'All Mail' folder.
Thanks for your reply! However, the issue is still happening. Even after yesterday uninstalling my Gmail account from Thunderbird, restarting my computer, and then re-installing my Gmail account with Thunderbird, this morning, for the 6th time in a row, I open Thunderbird and 2000 emails I sent in 2014 flood into my inbox. It makes one want to weep.
The rest of your suggestions and tips are useful, thank you, and I know most of them, but it doesn't explain or solve this weird thing Thunderbird is doing, resurrecting 2,000 four-year old emails for no reason into my my Inbox each morning.
Please more thoughts?! Thanks in advance! (now off to once again sort/delete 2000 emails....)
you uploaded your 1000,000 emails to where in gmail? My guess is gmail has the send mail in your inbox as new mail and it sending it to you.
I have further deduced that the problem was NOT to do with the restore of 100,000 emails to Gmail, as this was completed fine, back to their original labels, and all was good for a while. I am fairly confident now the problem is because during one of my re-installs of my gmail account to Thunderbird, I enabled the setting that placed a copy of Sent mail into my account. I think that triggered a call to create a copy of the 35,000 Sent emails I had imported, and place them in my Inbox. I guess it is doing 2000 a day as that is the Gmail API call quota, or similar. The question is: how do I stop that command. I figure if its done 2000 emails a day for 7 days now, that is 14,000 emails... it is likely to do this for the remaining 35,000 Sent emails it must have created a copy of. How do I stop a command like this? I've reset my Gmail password, restarted my computer... the only thing I haven't tried is uninstalled Thunderbird completely, but I don't think this is Thunderbird now, I think this would happen even if I used Gmail now, as the command has been triggered by Thunderbird but will now be completed by the Gmail server. Urgh!
re : I enabled the setting that placed a copy of Sent mail into my account.
Can you confirm: Did the old gmail account in Thunderbird use a POP or IMAP mail account ? I'm assuming the new gmail account uses IMAP because you mention 'quota'.
If POP then the original sent mail would have only been on your computer, not the server.
I'm wondering if this is because when you imported the emails from other account, they were all imported into the gmail 'Inbox' because they were newly received emails. Now they are slowly being downloaded to Thunderbird Inbox.
re :imported into my new gmail account 100k emails from another gmail account Did you do the import emails using gmail webmail account, so sending emails from old to new?
https://www.lifewire.com/move-or-copy-mail-from-one-gmail-account-to-another-1171948 Best answer at this link: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/gmail/KhjfvZybyOQ/JB9jaNNJMwAJ Did you do the import as described in the links? Gmail will download messages in your old Gmail account's Sent Mail label in addition to messages you have received. If you have set up the address from which you imported as a sending address in the new account, sent mail should appear under the new account's Sent Mail label.
If you did the above import method, did you set up the address from which you imported as a sending address in the new account? If not then this might explain why the 'Sent' label is not being applied.
If those imported emails are being imported in gmails Inbox, then Thunderbird is just showing what you have imported into server Inbox.