Sync E-Mail between Thunderbird and Andriod

[TimTDP]

I am looking for an app that will sync data between Android and Mozilla\'s Thunderbird\'s e-mail client. Data that needs to be syncronised includes:
* e-mail (multiple e-mail address's)
* contacts
* tasks
* events

E-mails must include received, sent, deleted, drafts

It needs to be both both ways:
Android -> Thunderbird
Thunderbird -> Android

It must support multiple devices. (I have a desktop, smart phone and tablet and all need to be syncronised)

I am happy to pay!

BTW, I have thought of using IMAP instead of POP to keep e-mails in sync. But, as far as I know, IMAP only works for received e-mails and not for sent e-mails.

 

[Member282753]

IMAP is what you want to use. You are incorrect that IMAP only works for received emails. It works for received and sent emails as well as anything else on the server, including folders of stored or archived emails. You MAY be referring to a problem in some Android versions with the built-in email client where Android's email client will not allow you to use a server-side sent folder as the folder used to store sent email from the phone. It insists on using a local phone sent folder when sending email. This means that the sent folders of your phone and your server will not be in sync. This is an Android problem and not a IMAP problem. If you insist on using the built-in Android email client, you can periodically manually bulk move all of your local phone sent emails into your server-side sent mail folder. This is a pain. I'd just switch to K-9 or MailDroid instead, which properly allow the use of a server-side sent folder for sending messages. You can switch your phone's defaults for your email client to K-9 or MailDroid and it will act as if it is nicely built into Android.

 

[takeshi]

Mail apps don't sync with your desktop email client (Thunderbird) for email. They sync directly with the mail server. You don't want the mail app on your device relying on your desktop email application for email delivery.

POP is going to be a mess. Your POP clients (Thunderbird on your desktop, whatever you're using on your device) won't sync with each other. I'd strongly suggest switching to an email account type that supports sync. Once you've done so Thunderbird and your mail app can both sync with the mail server.

 

[MacLinDroid]

IMAP sometimes stops listening for mail on some installations. It works right but goes awry after a few weeks; I had a similar issue and was forced to use POP instead. IMAP works best with a single mail account.

I am also in need of a full sync app as I am presently forced to use Google. I do not want any contacts data in the cloud but am forced to. Just this week, we heard the new of the data of 145 million eBay clients that was stolen. Here in South Africa, Section 11 of the newly promulgated Privacy Protection Act, it is a CRIMINAL OFFENCE to disclose the contact details of anyone to a third party . Using cloud services could put the user at great risk, yet another reason why local sync is important to users.

 

[MacLinDroid]

Mail apps don't sync with your desktop email client (Thunderbird) for email. They sync directly with the mail server. You don't want the mail app on your device relying on your desktop email application for email delivery.

POP is going to be a mess. Your POP clients (Thunderbird on your desktop, whatever you're using on your device) won't sync with each other. I'd strongly suggest switching to an email account type that supports sync. Once you've done so Thunderbird and your mail app can both sync with the mail server.

For incoming mail, a compromise can be reached if Thunderbird on PC side is set up to leave a copy of the message on the server. That won't work for Sent mail but you can always set it up to always Bcc yourself, then all your mail lives in the Inbox. It is not ideal but at least a consolation that provides a crude solution.