If you set the account as IMAP, that is exactly what will happen .

Hi David, thank you for your reply. If only it was that simple ... :)

How I wonder do I set the account as IMAP?

The background is that if it ain't broke don't fix it ... I came to Thunderbird from Eudora. When Eudora said no more then I imported everything to Thunderbird, it worked and I moved forwards ...

I have looked at the account settings 'Server Settings'. It says "Server Type: POP Mail Server". The next line says "Server Name: imap.googlemail.com" So there apparently is the problem. I guess.

The question is how to fix it. I guess I will be able to edit one of the configuration files since there is no apparent way of selecting IMAP as a server instead of POP. Any idea which file to edit please?

Okay, you cannot change an account from one protocol to another. Reset the POP account to whatever it was. First, stop downloading from the POP account. Now, click to create a new account alongside the POP account. Make that one IMAP. Next, create the needed folders on the IMAP account that you want to have in the account. Then, COPY (not move) desired messages from the POP account to the IMAP account. Since IMAP was not designed for high-volume uploads, I suggest creating a manual filter for each folder to do the copy. After copying all messages to IMAP and reviewing to ensure all looks okay, you can then remove the POP account.

Gosh. Thank you for the roadmap David. That is actually quite a lot of work. But at the end of the day I will get the result I need.

I will allocate some time to do this later in the week. Thank you for your help. I will reply later if I get into difficulty ....

Good luck. Please keep this email so if you have questions, they will stay in the same thread. :)

IMPORTANT: you need to log onine to Gmail to authorize using IMAP account on email client. I also suggest when setting up the account that you do NOT subscribe to AllMail folder or Important folder, as those contain duplicates of what is in inbox and sent folder. It's a "Gmail thing" - You can also set online what folders to allow from email client. In fact, I suggest creating the desired new folders while online.

When you eventually start thunderbird with the IMAP account, it may not show all folders. To see them, you will need to highlight account name in the folder pane, rightclick and select 'subscribe' and then tick the folders you want accessible from PC.