I have a number of email accounts at zulq.net, GMail and some other domains that I used to access via multiple accounts in Thunderbird. I would access these accounts from my laptop and desktop using POP. For spam filtering I would use Thunderbird’s built-in adaptive controls. This was OK until:
* The volume of spam getting through increased dramatically
* I got an Android phone and wanted access to all my email from it
I decided that I’d kill two birds with one stone and setup all my email to come through GMail and after a lot of trial and error, I think I’ve got a set-up which meets these requirements:
1. GMail spam filtering on all accounts
2. There should be no delay on my primary email account (zulq.net)
3. All email is available from all my devices
4. Bulk email is not synchronized onto my phone
5. Recieving email on my desktop or laptop should stop it being delivered to my phone
6. Desktop and laptop should receive all the same emails
To achieve this, I had to first move my zulq.net email service to Google hosting so that I could send and recieve email through the GMail spam filter without any delay - (1) and (2). I then used GMail’s multiple account feature to suck up emails from my other accounts - (1). Then I configured each device to access that single account - (3).
To stop bulk email from being delivered to my phone required adding some GMail filters that match the mailing lists and archive the emails immediately. By default, my phone does not synchronise archive emails - (4).
For (5), I had to modify GMail’s POP settings so that when emails are accessed using POP they are archived and therefore not synchronized with my phone. After doing so, I noticed emails were either being delivered to my desktop OR laptop which contradicts (6). To remedy this, I discovered here that if you prefix your username with “recent:” you receive ALL recent emails.
While doing all of this, I found this Thunderbird add-on useful to clean duplicate emails up after I made a mistake.
