I am using IMAP email in Thunderbird 3 using an account I setup on my hosting account. I don't want to overload my server with email so I have decided to start archiving my email.

Thing is, my archived email is still on my server! Is there a way I can set Thunderbird to remove these emails of the server when they are archived? I would even like to just drag the emails to a folder in Thunderbird, but I can't seem to set a folder to offline only unless I create a new email account.

Am I missing something?

The IMAP protocol is designed to leave message on the server and only flag them as deleted

However in
Tools -> Account Settings -> Server Settings -> "When I delete a message" you can choose from --
"Move it to the Trash folder"
"Mark it as deleted" or
"Remove it immediately".

Ahhh I see, what if I wish to keep a record of the emails for future use?

Is there a way to store the emails in a separate folder that is ignored by the server altogether? Basically a way for me to drag them out of the folder that is synched and then into my own custom 'archive' folder, and for the emails to be removed off the server as I drag them out.

Is that possible in Thunderbird?

The Mozilla Knowledge Base has some tools and tips for archiving messages in Thunderbird and Sea Monkey

Thanks, I've setup some sub-folders in the local folders section (never noticed that bit!)

I've set the "Remove it immediately" option like you suggested. But whenever I delete them in Thunderbird (and from the trash) they still show up in my webmail, only ghosted out.

See attached image.

Is this normal behaviour?

Ahhh, but as a little test, I just tried moving some large emails to make the usage / quota information (in cPanel) increase. Then when I moved them back into the local folders the usage went back down.

Could the ghosted emails in my webmail pane simply be stored in the cache for now or something?

Yep, cPanel normally does it's "house keeping" routines every four hours or so. If you are using Horde for webmail you can purge (or hide) the deleted messages immediately with the link that is at the top right of the message listings.

Ah right thanks.

One thing I've just noticed however, if I download a new email in Thunderbird, it will not download on my iPhone also, and vice-versa!

Is this normal? I thought the whole idea behing IMAP accounts is that email would sync across all devices?

...having said that it seems to work fine with Gmail, just not with the email account on my hosting

Ignore my last two messages, it's working fine! Think my brain is a bit fried at the minute

Consider yourself ignored