Thunderbird Start Screen Layout & Appearance

Is there any reason that's a silly idea?

One possible reason is that you might need access to the folders that you want to hide. Do you put messages from those accounts into the trash? Do you receive spam in those accounts? Do you save drafts in those accounts?

Another reason is that it seems impossible to hide those folders. I cannot do it in my installation. Some folders are "special", privilleged server (IMAP) folders.

What's the Local Folders thing, at the bottom?

It is a way to store messages only on your computer, not on a server.

Another way to simplify the layout when you have many accounts is by using unified folders. View menu > Folders > Unified folders. I do not know if your version of Thunderbird has that option.

If some of your accounts are not actively used, you could copy their messages to local folders and delete the accounts. That would make the layout less busy too, especially if you consolidated several accounts' messages in the same local folders. You can also collapse everything that is in local folders into a single line in your layout.

Make a back-up copy of your Thunderbird profile on an external drive before doing something like that. And do it regularly.

I'm not sure I understand what your intent is, but an answer depends on whether these are IMAP or POP3 accounts.

If POP3, all folders are local and there is only one truly necessary folder, Inbox, which will hold messages you download from the server. Thunderbird will create some other folders (Trash, Sent, Drafts, etc.) for management purposes. I believe you can remove these, but do you really want to? What if you delete a message by accident?

If IMAP, necessary folders are created on the server and are mirrored in Thunderbird. You can also create your own folders. Again, without some of those folders you will have difficulty managing your messages.

Local Folders is a special "account" that is just what it says, folders you can create at will to that live on your computer whose purpose is to store messages locally.

You will probably find eventually that Thunderbird version 52 is not going to work for you. It's not Thunderbird itself per se, but authentication and security protocols on mail servers have moved on and may no longer be compatible with old mail agents, as you found with Eudora. I'm test-trying to set up a Gmail account with that Thunderbird version and it's not working. I'm not going to spend time troubleshooting it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's not compatible with that provider any more.

said

Another way to simplify the layout when you have many accounts is by using unified folders. View menu > Folders > Unified folders. I do not know if your version of Thunderbird has that option.

It does!

said

Make a back-up copy of your Thunderbird profile on an external drive before doing something like that. And do it regularly.

YES YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES!

O.K.

Thanks for the replies. I'm the better informed for them. I appreciate you each taking the time to offer insights and guidance from your knowledge and experience.

I'll ponder the possibilities which you've all described. After the if / when I get around to any implementation, I'll let you know how I fared.

Particular mention for Rick. You jogged my memory. My back-up program to my 6Tb server (out in the shed) needs tweaking to now do that TB, not Eudora!

Greetings from New Zealand.

A latter-thought P.S. (I'm being lazy, I know.)

Which files / folders (and default locations) are critical back up targets? Rick mentions a profile. Does all the essential stuff lurk therein?

A latter-thought P.S. (I'm being lazy, I know.) Which files / folders (and default locations) are critical back up targets? Rick mentions a profile. Does all the essential stuff lurk therein?

Profiles - Where Thunderbird stores your messages and other user data

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data

Profile backup

https://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup#Manually_back_up_the_profile