'Get Messages' will get mail from the currently selected account, no matter the server settings. To get mail for a specific account, click the drop-down beside the Get Messages button.

Many thanks for your speedy response.

I had assumed that the "Get Messages" button would have performed the same action as startup but as you say, it ignores some of the settings.

I have 10 email accounts and all messages arrive in a single Inbox. One of the accounts is receiving a lot of spam, so I want to temporarily disable fetching messages for it. I can then login to the offending account via webmail, block select the spam and delete it, rather than clog up my Thunderbird inbox.

Is there a way that I can temporarily disable the offending account in Thunderbird until the spam dies down?

I realise that I can download the messages from the other 9 accounts by selecting one account at a time but this is cumbersome. I could delete the account but this means that I'd have to set it up again at a later date. I could also close then reopen Thunderbird but I was hoping for a more expeditious way of excluding an account from the message fetching process.

If you are using a Global Inbox for all the POP accounts, there is a way to remove one account:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Global_Inbox

If you are instead using Unified View, it's possible to create a Saved Search, from File/New, and add the Inbox folders for just the other 9 accounts.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Saved_Search

Thanks for the info.

Yes, I am using a Global Inbox. I read both links but it looks somewhat overcomplicated for what I feel should be a relatively simple task.

Having said that, I was re-evaluating the settings, when I noticed an Advanced button on the lower right of the Server Settings page, where the setting: "Include this server when getting new mail" was selected.

I deselected this setting, restarted Thunderbird, and so far, it has worked exactly as I wanted - messages are no longer fetched from the offending account when I press the Get Messages button, which now seems to act in the same way as if I restarted Thunderbird.

With further experimentation, I also discovered that if first login to webmail and delete the spam, then select the account from the drop down list (to the right of the Get Messages button), the remaining (non-spam) messages are downloaded (overriding the Server Settings).

It can't help but feel Thunderbird is inconsistent - it seems to comply with some Server Settings but not others!

Anyway, problem solved.

Many thanks for your assistance.

A quick and simple change to the incoming server name would have worked great compared to toggling all those settings, which are NOT in effect when you manually command Tbird to fetch messages. You would of course get error notifications about failure to connect to the wrong/modified server name when the servers are polled for messages, but that's a small price to pay for what you want to achieve. To restore connectivity, simply change the server name back to the correct one.

I'm not sure that I want to be pestered with an error message each time I start Thunderbird or each time the server is polled.

The settings I have changed (on a one time basis) do exactly what I want but as for "toggling all those settings", I thought I'd investigate the possibility of reducing the number of settings that I would need to change.

In doing so, I discovered I only need to toggle three Server Settings and only uncheck the following:

  "Check for new messages at startup"
  "Check for new messages every 'n' minutes"
  and under Advanced, "Include this server when getting new email".

This leaves "Automatically download new messages" selected.

Although these settings achieve the same end, I did notice an odd side effect. If I set "Check for new messages every ..." to (say) 2 minutes, after 2 minutes, "Local folders" turns blue, which could cause other users with the same settings to wonder why there are no new messages to be found anywhere in Thunderbird. Additionally, the taskbar icon inherits a message count of "1" (on a small red background disc).

Without clicking on any folder (which would revert "Local folders" to a black font and remove the message count from the taskbar icon), after a further 2 minutes, the number on the taskbar icon increments to 2, then after another 2 minutes it increases to 3, and so on ad infinitum. Clicking on any folder clears the message count, but if left alone, the count start incrementing again!

Unless my installation is corrupt, perhaps this need to be investigated by the developers.

I did notice an odd side effect. If I set "Check for new messages every ..." to (say) 2 minutes, after 2 minutes, "Local folders" turns blue, which could cause other users with the same settings to wonder why there are no new messages to be found anywhere in Thunderbird... Unless my installation is corrupt, perhaps this need to be investigated by the developers.

None of that is happening on my end. None of my accounts turns blue if it has NO new messages.

Well, it is certainly happening at my end!

Thinking there may be corruption on my computer, I set up another computer with a fresh install of Windows 10, then installed Thunderbird v 91.3.2.

I added a Hotmail account, and in Server Setting/Advanced..., selected "Inbox for different account", and selected Local folders, leaving "Include this server when getting new mail" deselected.

I restarted Thunderbird.

I went into Server Settings, deselected both "Check for new messages at startup" and "Automatically download new messages". I also set "Check for new messages every ..." to 2 minutes and left the option selected.

Finally, I sent a message to my Hotmail account.

About two minutes later, the font of "Local folders" turned blue, and the number "1" appeared over the Thunderbird taskbar icon. No new messages appeared in Thunderbird. Two minutes later, the number "1" on the taskbar icon was replaced by number "2" ... and so on, just as I explained previously.

At least I am satisfied there is nothing wrong with my computer or my Thunderbird installation which, by elimination, leads me to think the problem must lie with Thunderbird.

As an aside, perhaps someone could kindly correct my typing error in the title. It should of course read "..... EXPECTED".

At least I am satisfied there is nothing wrong with my computer or my Thunderbird installation which, by elimination, leads me to think the problem must lie with Thunderbird.

I have no idea why you're seeing what you're seeing, but I can't get Thunderbird to behave the same way on my end. I just tried to reproduce this again, using a fresh new Thunderbird profile, but what you're describing just isn't happening. After the first check for messages and all messages from my account are downloaded, subsequent checks every two minutes end up with a "there are no new messages" message in the status bar. The Activity Manager also corroborates the same with the message "no messages to download".

I suggest you setup a different account (not the Hotmail account) preferably in a new profile and see if this happens with that account as well. My trials included a Yahoo and Outlook (Hotmail) account and couldn't reproduce that behaviour no matter how many times I tried to. I've also not seen any reports here of the same behaviour.

Thanks for that - I too got the same results as you when I logged onto a friend's machine via AnyDesk, changed his settings (as described previously) then sent a message to himself.

After some experimentation and head scratching, I eventually cracked it and got the exact same results that I previously described.

I discovered one vital missing step - after changing the options in the Server Settings and sending an email, I think you will be able to replicate the issue if you first close the Account Settings tab, and if that does not work, restart Thunderbird.

In fact, I found that I get the same blue "Local folders" effect and incrementing unread badge numbers on the taskbar icon without the need to deselect the setting "Include this server when getting new mail" in "Advanced Server" settings.

Have a go - I'll be intrigued to know how you get on.

I discovered one vital missing step - after changing the options in the Server Settings and sending an email, I think you will be able to replicate the issue if you first close the Account Settings tab, and if that does not work, restart Thunderbird.

Still not happening. Account Settings tab was closed as soon as I had made all the required changes to the server settings, so that's not the trigger. Likewise, I have done multiple reboots during testing, because it is necessary to quit and restart Thunderbird when deleting files that are in use when it's running. On each trial, I delete files to force Thunderbird to redownload all mail and each time, it only shows new mail when there actually is new mail.

In fact, I found that I get the same blue "Local folders" effect and incrementing unread badge numbers on the taskbar icon without the need to deselect the setting "Include this server when getting new mail" in "Advanced Server" settings. Have a go - I'll be intrigued to know how you get on.

After multiple trials to reproduce said behaviour it's simply not happening. My Thundebird is just not detecting non-existent new messages in any of the accounts involved. The messages sent to self were found only once for each account. Subsequent checking for new messages simply says no new messages found and it stays that way until a new message is actually found.

Sorry about the delay in following up - i was awaiting delivery of a new computer.

Reference your last, perhaps you are not understanding and/or are not setting the the same options that I discovered would produce the anomaly.

You say "My Thunderbird is just not detecting non-existent new messages". Well, in my case, the new message does exist - it's just that the settings are preventing the message from being downloaded.

Anyway, with my new computer, I installed Thunderbird, added an AOL account (set for POP3), configured the account for Global inbox, restarted Thunderbird. In Server Settings, deselected "Check for new messages at startup", deselected "Automatically download new messages", and set "Check for new messages every .... minutes" to 2 minutes. Restarted Thunderbird again, then sent a message to the same account.

Five minutes and nothing happened, so thinking the problem had been fixed, I reached for another computer to double check, when after about 6 minutes from sending the message, the taskbar icon on the mew computer became adorned with "1" and "Local folders" turned blue.

Waiting longer, after another 4 minutes, the icon badge incremented to "2", then after a further 4 minutes, became "3" and so on. This seemed odd, as I had set the interval to 2 minutes.

I then deselected "Check for new messages every 2 minutes" and added another email account with the same settings i initially set for the AOL account, and sent a test message to the second account.

This produced the same results as described previously - after 2 minutes, the taskbar icon gained "1" and "Local folders" turned blue. The number continued incrementing every 2 minutes.

Whilst this is happening, I can create new messages, select menu items, open messages, delete messages, and the icon badge number just keep incrementing. Clicking on any other folder (than the folder in focus) clears the message count and returns "Local folders" to black .... then the icon badge numbers start incrementing from "1" again.

As for the badge numbers incrementing every 4 minutes instead of 2 minutes, when testing with the AOL account, I can only assume this had something to do with AOL's servers.

I have now been able to easily replicate this anomaly on four different computers.

Bottom line is that it does not really bother me, as I had already achieved my goal of temporarily disabling an account from downloading messages some time ago. I only mentioned the anomaly i discovered (when checking out other combinations of settings) because I thought someone ought to be aware that all was not well with Thunderbird.