This tutorial will help you to return e-mails already fetched from your local POP e-mail client back to the mail server you are using. I.e. if you have downloaded all your messages with this option: “Leave a message on the server” - not enabled:

So, if you have setup MS Outlook, Outlooks Express, Eudora, Thunderbird, etc., and during the settings you forgot to check the above option and now want all the mails back on the server … this tutorial is for you.

Certainly you could forward all the messages to yourself. However, that would add new headers and they will be rather different. Also most of the mail clients are not allowing bulk forwarding unless the messages are not send as a one big mail including all the rest inside.

If you want to restore all downloaded e-mails as they were, you will need two things:

1. Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client.
2. Mail redirect plug-in for Mozilla Thunderbird.

First download and install Mozilla Thunderbid 2.0 e-mail client, and when you are ready download and install the Thunderbird mail redirect extension (add-on, plug-in). Thunderbird version must be 2.0 because the plugin is not working on the new version 3.0

Maybe here is the place where you are asking yourself: “Well I messed my mails with Outlook. How Thunderbird will help me?”

The answer is simple. Thunderbird has option to import settings from other mail clients.

So, if you have Outlook Express for example and you want to return fetched messages back to the server just use Thunderbird to import the mails and then proceed here.

In the example I’ve created there is an e-mail box and send some messages with different size and attachments.

Then I setup my mail client without the option to leave copy of the message on the server as it is on the first image, and click Get Mail.

Then all the mails were downloaded from the server to my local mail client.

Gosh! I need these mails all the time.I need them accessible from other PC’s and webmail. What should I do?

Well now I will just select the messages I want back, and will start my mail redirect add-on installed already as per the tutorial above.

This will open a pane with mail redirect options. There I have chose where to redirect the mails and pressed ‘Redirect’. The redirect process will start and according to the size and number of mails it has different ETA.

Once the process is finished the mails are back to my mailbox. The good part here is that they have the same mail headers as the initial ones and basically they are the same messages.