How do I setup Thunderbird to not store email data locally?

I'd like to use Thunderbird as strictly a frontend interface for Gmail. I don't want any offline availability or anything like that. Is there a way to setup Thunderbird to not store any of the email data locally?

Solution 1:

You want to use GMail's IMAP setting.

• Tutorial on how to setup IMAP on TB2 for GMail.
• Tutorial on how to setup IMAP on TB3 for Gmail. (follow the thread)

UPDATE: Assuming TB3

ImapMail – Mail Synch and Cache

Assuming you are using IMAP with your mail accounts, you will have an ImapMail folder, caching email and headers for your Imap accounts. If you take a look into this directory you’ll find sub-folders for each of your accounts. If you have “Message Synchronization” activated (which, I believe, is the default), you should have a local cache of all your mail in this folder.

If you’d prefer to disable this feature to regain disk space, you can do the following:

1. Delete the contents of the ImapMail/mail.domain.tld/ folder (where mail.domain.tld is your mail server(s)).
2. Disable “Message Synchronization” in Edit > Account Settings > Synchronization and Storage
3. I would suggest leaving the remaining settings at their defaults. This post doesn’t cover them.

Resource: Disable Thunderbird 3 Bloat!