I hope my comment helps: you are viewing the same account through two different windows. what you see on the POP account are messages downloaded to your PC. What you see on the IMAP account folders are messages that are on the server and downloaded to your PC ONLY for your viewing. So, POP messages are no longer tied to the server and deleting the POP account does not affect folders and messages on the server. If you delete messages appearing on your PC of the IMAP account, the copy on PC is deleted and also the copy on server. So, on your question, deleting the POP account does not affect messages on the server. BUT, messages MOVED from IMAP account to LOCAL FOLDERS are still part of the IMAP account. Your post makes it unclear on what messages are moved from where to where.

Hello david,

Thanks for taking time to respond.

Sorry I didn’t get to your answer until today. The forum did not send a message that you had posted.

I’m sorry I didn’t make myself clear. I will try again.

My biggest concern is losing any of the emails in the sub folders of my ‘Main’ account. I realize that those folders are ‘on my computer’ and not on the server. I am concerned because when I have deleted (right-click > delete) other folders I get the message, “Deleting this folder is not undoable and will delete all of the messages it contains, and its sub-folders. Are you sure you still want to delete the folder ? “ I know you can’t delete a main email (shown in bold typeface) by right clicking on it. You would have to go to Account Settings and click on the account name you want to delete and then click on the red colored box with ‘Delete’ displayed.

Now to explain my coping problem: I created the attached photo showing 5 of my email accounts (2-POP & 3-IMAP) as they are shown in Thunderbird (TB). I erased (white out) anything I didn’t think I should post.

Listed first is “Main@Main.com” account. That is my domain name account. My overall goal is to have ALL the sub folders listed under the “Main@Main.com” POP Account copied (saved) to the “Main@Main.com” IMAP account (listed 3rd in the display - First IMAP account).

I have been moving (copying) sub folders for the past 2 days from the 1st POP & 2nd POP account to the 1st IMAP ‘Main’ account. Not shown is the 22 sub folders I moved from the ‘Archives’ folder in the 2nd POP account to the ‘Archives’ folder in the 1st IMAP ‘Main’ account. I still have 6 sub folders to go from the 2nd POP account in ‘Archives’. There is over 17000 posts in these 6 sub folders. The very first sub folder I moved (several days ago) had 5363 posts and the transfer worked just fine.

I still have 17 sub folders from the 1st listed ‘Main POP’ account to be moved to the ‘Main IMAP’ account.

For some unknown reason, TB refuses to copy any more of the sub folders from the 2 POP accounts to my ‘Main’ IMAP account. I try to drag and drop the sub folders and TB says it is creating the folder at the bottom of the display and starts to copy the 1st message and then nothing happens, the display line just goes blank. I have even gone into ‘Safe Mode’ and managed to copy a couple of the large sub folders but now it will not move or copy and of the remaining sub folders.

I have tried the drag and drop method and the right-click on a sub folder and subsequently click on sub folder names until I get to the right location and this doesn’t work anymore. (Worked a couple of times).

Any help on how I can get the rest of my sub folders moved (copied) would be greatly appreciated.

I hope I made myself clear this time. If not, is there a way to send a ‘private’ email or text to explain further ?

My suggestion is this: - create the desired folders in your online account, not via Thunderbird - since IMAP not designed for massive uploads, getting messages uploaded will always be problematic - I suggest copying in small groups, folder by folder. It is a gardening project, done little by little. thunderbird is not 'doing' anything, but is acting as a conductor, directing internet server to upload a message at a time and the server is also serving thousands of other users while doing that. if you want to be rid of the POP account, you could create a new Local Folder called OLDPOP. Then, exit thunderbird, and in profile folder, locate the POP account in the Mail folder, such as Mail\<POPaccountname> and COPY the entire contents and save in the Mail\Local Folders\OLDPOP folder. Then restart thunderbird and check carefully that you copied everything. You can now delete the POP account and continue your project of getting all content safely uploaded.

david,

Thanks again for your informative response.

What you propose sounds great, only, I don't know how to create folders in my 'online account'. What 'online account' are you speaking of ?

So, I should create a new Local Folder called OLDPOP in Thunderbird, then exit Thunderbird ?

Where is the profile folder ?

Copying the entire contents from the Mail\<POPaccountname> and saving in the Mail\Local Folders\OLDPOP folder sounds great. I just don't know how and with what program to accomplish that with. Could you tell me how to do that please ?

Ok, by online account, I am referring to logging on to your IMAP account at your email provide's website. That is the place to define the folders. Thunderbird will recognize them after you create them. Once defined, you may, in thunderbird, need to click synchronization&storage for the account to verify that they're ok for offline use.

Now, create the OLDPOP folder in thunderbird. Then, click help>troubleshootinginformation, scroll down to 'profile folder' and click 'open folder'. You will then be in the profile. Note it's drive location, which is probably at c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles\<yourprofilename> IF THIS IS NOT TRUE, stop and let me know. Next, exit thunderbird, you are now in the profile in Windows File Explorer. Your POP account is in the Mail folder as Mail\<yourPOPaccountname> In that folder, you should see files such as inbox, inbox.msf, sent, sent.msf etc. that folder should represent your many folders. If unsure, please post a screenshot. If I'm right, then COPY the entire contents of that folder and paste into the Mail\Local Folders\OLDPOP folder that you created and then restart thunderbird and let me know status.

david,

I'm sorry, I am just not knowledgeable enough to login to on to my IMAP account at my email provider's website.

The only way I know to get on my email provider's website is by CORE FTP (File Transfer Protocol) That is how I update my website. See photo below.

You're probably familiar with FTP programs - the left side file listing are from my computer and the right side file listing are on the provider's website. Listed is the IMAP account that I am working on. I found that exact listing in two locations in a 'Mail' folder.

Are you saying create folder names from my current POP account that I want transferred to the newly created OLDPOP account?

Then got to Thunderbird and create the OLDPOP account ? and see if Thunderbird will recognize them after you create them ?

I hope I am making myself clear. I understand your instructions, I just don't know exactly how to do it. The creating OLDPOP on the provider's website.

david,

Using CORE FTP I went ahead and created the folders needed to copy the emails from my current POP account to my newly created OLDPOP account on my IMAP provider's website.

I hope this is what you needed me to do. See photo below.

I will now create the OLDPOP account in Thunderbird and wait for your response.

Thank You.

david,

Well, I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I can't create a new email account in Thunderbird. Can't create a POP account nor an IMAP acccount. (fixed below)

DISREGARD! I created an email name old_____@____.com in cPanel. I tried again in TB and was able to create the POP account.

david,

I created a message before this one stating that I was UNABLE to create a new POP email account or IMAP.

Got a flash message the a Moderator had to approve it before it would be posted.

Well, I did get the new POP account created in Thunderbird. It only created an Inbox and Trash folder under the email heading.

My apologies. I'm getting you confused My suggestion about OLDPOP was a temporary means to save the POP files and remove the POP account. I regret having made the suggestion. Please just forget all about OLDPOP. We do not need it on your online account. Let's proceed without it.

1. first, you create a folder on the server for each POP account you want to be there. I think you said that's been done
2. now, one-by-one, highlight and COPY all messages from a POP folder to its corresponding online folder. If this is too cumbersome, I suggest creating a manual filter to copy the entire folder contents
3. after copying all folders, do a thorough review to ensure that you have all the messages copied. Uploading to IMAP is problematic, so a review would be prudent
4. once you're content, you can remove the POP account. (but if you're a bit nervous about that, do a full copy of the folders elsewhere.

As a side comment, I encourage you to learn how to access the IMAP account online, as there may be times when you need to. Most email providers even recommend that access and provide a login button for that purpose.

david,

No problem on the confusion. I just didn't know as much about this stuff as I thought I did. I've never had a reason to contact my 'online account'. The person I use, "Jim", hosts 62 websites and he also hosts my domain name. I have been with him over 13 years. I make contact with him through email in Thunderbird (TB). I update my website through CORE FTP and cPanel (Jim helps me with cPanel). I will contact him and see if he can offer any help in this little saga of mine :)

I did learn that my oldest email (an AOL account) can be accessed at their (AOL) website. I can go in and delete **SPAM** emails that come to that account. This is a POP account created in TB when I started using TB. I have NEVER received a **SPAM** email on that account (listed as Local Folders) on my TB display.

In my recently created IMAP accounts (3). I get and can delete **SPAM** and JUNK emails. I never used to get those emails when they were POP accounts.

I do think I understand how you wanted me to use the newly created old___@___.com POP account to copy everything from my current main POP account BEFORE I delete it. I knew where the mail files are stored on my desktop by going to C: Users > XPS > AppData >Roaming > Thunderbird > Profiles. I also like how you showed me to get to that folder quickly in TB: email > Help > Troubleshooting Information > click on > Open Folder.

I looked into those files under Mail and I believe I found the two files that I need to work with. I found the current POP folder I need to copy from and the newly created blank 'old' folder, that I need to copy to.

I attached photos of each of those filenames.

So, at this point, I would (using Explorer) copy all of the files from the current POP folder to the newly created 'old' folder ?

I am willing to try if you think that will work.

I will back up the complete Profiles folder before I try.

Please let me know what you think.

I will still try and contact my provider.

Thanks Very Much for your valuable time and informative help.

david,

Just wanted you to know that the above copy procedure worked like a charm. The new old (filename) received all the messages and sub folders.

I was able to delete the main POP account with no problems.

My service provider offered no help in accessing my IMAP account online (other than FTP programs and cPanel).

I did achieve my main goal, delete the main POP account.

Thanks for all your help and advise.

It was a pleasure to assist. :)