Are you using POP mail accounts ? How many pop mail accounts have you created? Have you created all the pop mail accounts as 'Global Inbox' mail accounts?

Check account settings to make sure all settings are correct for Global Inbox.

• In 'Account Settings' > 'Server Settings' for each pop account
• click on 'Advanced'
• select 'Inbox for different account'
• Choose : 'Global Inbox (Local Folders)'
• Select checkbox 'Include this server when getting new mail'
• click on 'OK'

• Select : 'Copies & folders' for each pop account
• Select 'Place a copy in'
• Select 'Other' and choose 'Sent on Local Folders'

Whilst in that area - check all the other settings are also using 'Other' and choose folder on Local Folders. eg: 'Drafts on Local Folders'

• Select 'Junk Settings' - do this for each pop account.
• Select 'Move new junk messages to'
• Select 'Other' and choose 'Junk on Local Folders'

Confirm all the above has been checked.

Thank you TH,

I have only 1 POP mail account - set-up that way years ago and made no changes to that

In Folder Pane the top 4 folders -Inbox ,Drafts, Sent, Trash look like they are the pop account folders and not 'Local folders' folders. Is the pop name folder written above it ?

You do not have any designated 'Drafts' or 'Sent' folder in 'Local Folders' and you should have them. I'm not talking about the various non designated sent folders appearing in other random folders.

You say you set up pop as Global and made no changes since, but that does not tell me if the POP account really has the settings I mentioned. I need to know if for some unknown reason things got altered without your intervention. Did you check? Post an image showing the pop account 'Copies & Folders' window.

If you have rechecked everything because you really have to be certain you have checked those Account Settings and everything is pointing to the correct folders on the Local Folders account and not the pop account.

It's worth checking to see if a new 'prefs.js' file has recently been created.

• Help > More Troubleshooting Information
• Under 'Application Basics' - half way - Profile folders - click on 'Open folder'

A new window opens showing the contents of your profile name folder.

• Exit Thunderbird now.

• scroll down and look for 'prefs.js' file

This will be the current prefs file Thunderbird did using.

Do you see any more, maybe with additional number eg: 'prefs-1.js' ? The one with the highest number will be the last used prior to current used. Does that one with highest number have a good size and reasonably recent date. If yes, you need to try and use it - so try this

• Rename 'prefs.js' with a high number - higher than any other so you can easily remember it is the current - eg: 'prefs-100.js'
• then rename the one with highest number eg: prefs-4.js to say 'prefs.js'

You can always swap it back if it does not work.

If you are unsure - post an image showing the profile folder and all the 'prefs' files, so I can check dates and sizes etc.

There will also be a file called 'folderCache.json' - this keeps record of folders in Folder Pane. It can be safely deleted and a new one gets created when you restart Thunderbird.

Dear TH,

sorry for my late reply. I had been a user of the much loved Eudora for some 25 years when it was disabled by Windows10. I was desperate to get an emailing program going quickly and did not much reading about how to use Thunderbird. I started TB with POP as I had been using that with Eudora.

My TB seems to me to messy to easily correct and clean up. Currently major broadband providers are trying to eliminate small ISPs like the one I have been using. I have discussed the problem with my son and decided that it will be the easiest way to deal with the problems to set up my own domain and then start afresh with a new TB account, importing the data from the current one.

I have MUCH appreciated you efforts to help me.

Cheers, Joe