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Thunderbird and IMAP folders disabled in subscription manager

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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Hello. I am using Thunderbird on 2 hosts, current version on one and old 38.5.0 version on the other. I liked the fact in older version that IMAP folder disabled in subscription manager stayed in TB as typical local folder. But in the current TB, when I uncheck subscription the folder disappears locally as well. Is there any way to return to previous behaviour other than just instal old thunderbird? The older solution allows me to organize folders more efficiently.

Hello. I am using Thunderbird on 2 hosts, current version on one and old 38.5.0 version on the other. I liked the fact in older version that IMAP folder disabled in subscription manager stayed in TB as typical local folder. But in the current TB, when I uncheck subscription the folder disappears locally as well. Is there any way to return to previous behaviour other than just instal old thunderbird? The older solution allows me to organize folders more efficiently.

All Replies (3)

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the old as you refer to it was a bug, I don't see anyone going back down that rabbit hole voluntarily.

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Well, i liked it that way. You could organize folders efficiently and keep it under given branch. Folders which have to be imap, folders which should keep messages only on Your desktop/laptop. The "current proper solution" i treat as a bug which discourages me from making update on my main machine.

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The purpose of subscribing to see folders on the server allows to see and access that server folder and it's contents in the imap account.

If you unsubscribe from seeing an imap folder then it is not displayed.

This is how all imap accounts work.

In the old version there was a bug which did not obey the unsubscribe instruction. It was fixed.

This explains the difference you experience between different versions.

If you want to keep seeing copies of emails that are in a folder which you wish to unsubscribe from seeing, then highlight batches of emails and use the right click 'Copy to' and select a suitable folder in the 'Local Folders' mail account. Providing you originally downloaded full copies then those emails are now accessible in 'Local Folders' and you can unsubscribe from seeing the imap folder. As you did not Move those emails, they are still on the server.