Thunderbird & GMail: Put sent items in their place

When Mozilla released Thunderbird 2.0, GMail support was built in. The WebMail extension for Thunderbird was no longer required. The only problem is how Sent Items are handled.

Sending messages through the GMail web interface always go into the Sent Items directory. That works fine if you are only using the web interface. When connecting to your GMail account with a POP client, the items sent via the web interface will show up in the Inbox. This is easily remedied using mail filters or rules.

In Thunderbird 2.0.x, simply do the following:

  1. Right-click the account name in the left navigation panel.
  2. Choose New Folder and give it a name.
    • In this example, the folder is named Sent.
  3. Click on Tools → Message Filters.
  4. In the Message Filters window, click the New button.
  5. Give the new rule a name (Untitled Filter isn’t very descriptive).
  6. Under For incoming messages that:
    1. You can leave the default enabled option Match any of the following.
    2. Set the first drop down box to From.
    3. Set the second drop down box to contains.
    4. Type the GMail account address in the text field.
  7. Under Perform these action:
    1. Set the first drop down box to Move message to.
    2. Set the second drop down box to the Sent folder created in step 2.
  8. Click OK and then close out of the Message Filters window.
    • Before closing the window, you can click on the newly created filter and choose Run Now to execute the rule against the messages currently in the Inbox.

Now, if you use the GMail web interface to send messages, they will no longer show up in the Inbox of Thunderbird. The same principal can be used in other mail clients (Outlook, Eudora, etc.).

Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all. – Voltaire

23.Jul.07 Software

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9 Responses to “Thunderbird & GMail: Put sent items in their place”

  1. anon | August 9th, 2007 at 4:24 pm

    :mrgreen: Many thanks

  2. wyckedone | August 9th, 2007 at 6:50 pm

    You’re welcome. :smile:

  3. Anonymous | August 15th, 2007 at 6:07 am

    Thanks! Just the information I was needing.

  4. wyckedone | August 15th, 2007 at 12:44 pm

    Glad it helped. :)

  5. Constantino | September 11th, 2007 at 7:12 am

    Quick question, before you applied the filter didnt you also find that any email you sent through TB would also find its way into your Inbox (when using your Gmail account)?
    I ask because I wanted to avoid this method. I have a habit of emailing myself reminders and other things and if I do this they will end up either in my sent items or deleted (I am considering applying the latter filter as otherwise I will end up with two copies of every mail I send from TB).
    Does any of that make sense?

  6. Nissan Enthusiast Forums - Gmail -> Outlook 2k3 | March 10th, 2008 at 8:47 pm

    [...] be something very similar to this: Thunderbird & GMail: Put sent items in their place | wyckedone.net its weird… cuz just tonight i was in the middle of getting thunderbird to work with gmail and [...]

  7. Tobbe | September 30th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

    Hey Constantino,

    I thought the same thing, but then I realized I could add another row to the filter. Now my filter checks if the from-address is my e-mail address and the to-address isn’t then it moves it to the sent folder. If it’s from me, to me it does nothing.. voilá, you can mail yourself.

  8. suneel | January 14th, 2010 at 2:54 am

    Thank you. It worked

  9. grateful | June 3rd, 2010 at 2:55 am

    you rock! worked like a charm :)

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