If you are getting all those old messages then it is likely something is wrong; probably a corrupt Inbox folder. It is unlikely you have 10 copies of each email on the server, so it is more likely they are 'reappearing' rather than 'downloading'.

Please do the following:

• Move all wanted emails out of Inbox into other suitably named folders for organising and storage.
• Delete anything you do not want.

When Inbox is empty:

• Right click on Inbox folder and select 'Compact'.

Compacting Inbox removes all old previously marked as deleted emails from the Inbox file.

Normally, you would not need to empty the Inbox before compacting, but I'm guessing you have not been compacting the Inbox for a while and as a result the file has become corrupted.

I would also suggest you: Empty the Junk folder and compact it. Compact the 'Drafts' folder.

Dear Toad, I started to follow your instructions, but got the jitters when I got to: "Move all wanted emails out of inbox into other suitably named folders for organising and storage." To confirm that I could RETURN those wanted emails to my INBOX, I tested a single email: moved it from inbox to Archives/2019. When I tried to move it back to my inbox, I got this message: l"The operation failed because another operation is using the folder. Please wait for that operation to finish and then try again." I tried several minutes later and got the same message. Any further advice? Thanks, Bruce Ratcliffe

Please tell the forum a bit more about your setup.

• Q: Are you using an Imap or a Pop mail account?

If imap:

• Q: Is the 'Archives/2019' folder, an imap mail account folder in the same imap account as the 'Inbox'?

If yes, have you just created that 'Archives/2019' folder?

• Q: Have you subscribed to see it?

If no : Subscribe to see that folder.

• Right click on imap mail account name in Folder Pane and select' Subscribe'.
• Select to highlight the 'Archives/2019' folder in the list
• click on 'Subscribe'
• click on 'OK'

• Q: Is that 'Archives/2019' folder visible in the webmail account viewed via a browser? It is important to know this.

Regarding creating new folders for organising emails: Q: Are those folders in the same mail account OR are those folders in the 'Local Folders' mail account?

General info: Ideally, the 'Inbox' is not the place to store emails in the long run. It is designed to be a folder for new incoming mail and emails needing to be sorted for storage. It's like keeping all your eggs in one basket - somewhat risky.

Generally, old emails store in 'Archive' folders and more recent emails emails into suitable folders such as 'Friends', 'Family', 'Online Orders', 'Business', 'Hobby' etc.

Usually, 'Archives' is a folder already available and not a folder you necessarilly need to create. Although some servers use a different name eg: gmail use 'All Mail' folder.

Pop mail accounts create and use 'Archives' folder and use these settings to create them:

Info on Archiving:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/archived-messages

You should not be needing to move them back to the 'Inbox' especially since you are going through the process of organising them; although that is something one can do.

Dear Toad Hall, I am using a POP mail account.I tried to follow your advice (see above, from 4/29/19 6:52 AM) and got all the way to "Right click on INbox folder and select 'Compact'. When I clicked on Compact, I got an error message I've gotten many times before: "The operation failed because another operation is using the folder. Please wait for that operation to finish and then try again." I waited for hours, and got the same message. INterestingly, when I tried to "Compact" another account I have, I got a similar error message: "The folder "INBOX" cannot be compacted because another operation is in progress. Please try again later." If you have an idea what this "another operation" is, and how I can get it to stop so I can actually follow your directions and compact my INBOX, please let me know! Bruce Ratcliffe

Maybe Thunderbird file is being scanned by Anti-Virus product.

We can do this another way.

Assuming Inbox for the pop account is empty. You can delete the Inbox completely to force a new one.

In Thunderbird

• Help > Troubleshooting Information
• click on 'Open folder' button

A new window opens showing the contents of your profile name folder.

• Exit Thunderbird.

• Click on 'Mail' folder to see mail account names
• click on the pop mail account name

• delete the 'Inbox' (no extention) file
• delete the 'Inbox.msf' file

• Start Thunderbird

This will create a new empty Inbox for the pop mail account.

Dear T.Hall, I'm with you all the way in your instructions up to "click on "open Folder" button" . But I don't know how, at that point, to do the next step: "Exit Thunderbird", except by clicking the "X" in upper right corner of whole screen. If I do THAT, I don't see sny 'Mail' folder to click on, because I"m no longer in T-bird. I DID get to a table that listed my email accounts, but not my name, just by "Account 2",, "Account 3", etc. How can I figure out which account -number is my email account that keeps getting flooded with thousands of old emails? Thanks for any MORE help you can provide! Bruce

How to know what pop mail account name is used by the problem account:

In Thunderbird Right click on pop mail account name in the Folder Pane and select 'Settings' Select 'Server Settings' Bottom right, look for 'Local directory:' using mouse left click in the text box area and then use the right arrow key repeatedly to get all the way to the end. This will show you the name of the pop mail account. Make a note of it. See example image below. In this example, the 'Mail' folder contains a pop mail account called 'mail.btinternet.com'.

re :I'm with you all the way in your instructions up to "click on "open Folder" button" .

When you click on the 'Open folder' button a new window opens showing the contents of the profile name folder - this is where the 'Mail' folder can be found. In the image below it is the seventh folder in the list. You may have a shorter list. see example image below.

re:But I don't know how, at that point, to do the next step:"Exit Thunderbird", except by clicking the "X" in upper right corner of whole screen. If I do THAT, I don't see sny 'Mail' folder to click on, because I"m no longer in T-bird.

The 'Mail' folder is not in the Thunderbird program, it is a folder stored on your computer. Thunderbird needs to be closed to stop it using the 'Mail' folder, so you can get access to make changes.

The 'Mail' folder contains all your pop mail account names and also 'Local Folders' folder. Click on the pop mail account name which you earlier found in 'Local directory' setting.

• delete the 'Inbox' (no extention) file
• delete the 'Inbox.msf' file

Start Thunderbird