[Thunderbird] Archive Email Locally Action

[zigzag]

The Archive Email Locally action that copies an email to a local folder and deletes it from the server (freeing up storage space on the server). 

Free email server storage is often limited (typically 5–15 GB), while many users have over 1 TB of available space on their computers. 

This action differs from standard Archive feature, which archives an email on the server. Archive Locally should perform delete operation on the server, after copying email to a local archive folder.

Some email providers, such as Gmail, have non-standard IMAP implementations where deleting an email from the Inbox folder does not actually remove it from the server. For these providers, Archive Locally should perform all necessary steps to ensure the email is fully removed from the server. In the case of Gmail, Thunderbird would need to delete the email first from the Inbox folder, then from the All Mail folder and finally from the Trash folder.

In my experience, Thunderbird users often want to free up server storage by deleting or archiving emails in Thunderbird and are surprised, when they don't gain any additional free storage on the server.

The Archive Locally action would provide Thunderbird with an unique value proposition, compared to web-based email clients: the ability to free up server storage while preserving messages in a local archive folder.

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.