Automatically download messages

You can set up Thunderbird to check for new messages when the application starts up, as well at at regular intervals (such as once every 10 minutes). To do so, go to Tools | Account Settings | Server Settings and then check the appropriate boxes for "Check for new messages at startup" and/or "Check for new messages every __ minutes."

Thunderbird will not, however, automatically download new messages for these settings unless you also select the box for "Automatically download new messages." If Thunderbird pops up an alert saying that you have one or more new messages but no new messages appear in your Inbox, it is probably because you have not selected the "Automatically download new messages" option.

If you have more than one email account, the above settings need to be set separately for each account.