Windows 10 reached EOS (end of support) on October 14, 2025. If you are on Windows 10, see this article.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More
Asara ya

Unified Folders not working properly, no unified Inbox

Thunderbird Email and messaging
h.mccunnell replied
h.mccunnell
h.mccunnell

This morning I realised I did not have a Unified Sent folder. There was a Sent folder in my list of folders in the Unified Folders section but there were no child folders and it was empty when I clicked on it. The Unified Folders for Inbox and Deleted were fine and I could click the arrow and select individual email accounts, it was only the Sent folder which was affected.

I tried numerous things, including clicking on each email account's Sent folder and clicking on 'Repair' and I think this iis what fixed it and now I have child folders in Sent and that seems to be working correctly... BUT now my Unified Inbox has disappeared!!! There is a folder called Inbox in the Unified Folders list but it is empty. If I right-click on it, there is no option to 'choose' any folders. I've tried clicking on each inbox and clicking repair (as this seemed to fix the sent folder issue), but it had no effect. I've renamed my virtualFolder.DAT to virtualFolder.old and I can see a new virtualFolder has been created, nothing has worked. Can anyone please help??

This morning I realised I did not have a Unified Sent folder. There was a Sent folder in my list of folders in the Unified Folders section but there were no child folders and it was empty when I clicked on it. The Unified Folders for Inbox and Deleted were fine and I could click the arrow and select individual email accounts, it was only the Sent folder which was affected. I tried numerous things, including clicking on each email account's Sent folder and clicking on 'Repair' and I think this iis what fixed it and now I have child folders in Sent and that seems to be working correctly... '''BUT''' now my Unified Inbox has disappeared!!! There is a folder called Inbox in the Unified Folders list but it is empty. If I right-click on it, there is no option to 'choose' any folders. I've tried clicking on each inbox and clicking repair (as this seemed to fix the sent folder issue), but it had no effect. I've renamed my virtualFolder.DAT to virtualFolder.old and I can see a new virtualFolder has been created, nothing has worked. Can anyone please help??

All Replies (2)

Mapenzi
Mapenzi
  • Top 25 Contributor

Go to Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Folder > Open folder, then quit Thunderbird. In the profile folder look for a folder "Mail" and open it. Look for the folder "smart mailboxes" and delete it. Restart Thunderbird ...

h.mccunnell
h.mccunnell Jụọ onye nwe ya ajụjụ

Asịsa Ahọpụtara

It worked!! Thank you so much, I faffed about for over an hour with it this morning. I had read about smart mailboxes while Googling, but could only find 'virtualFolder' in the list. This time I searched the Profile folder & found the smart mailboxes folders inside a folder just called 'mail' (which is why I hadn't seen them earlier). I actually found THREE smart mailboxes folders! I deleted all of them and re-started Thunderbird and everything is BACK! I am very grateful for your help.

D
Jụọ ajụjụ

You must log in to your account to reply to posts. Please start a new question, if you do not have an account yet.