I do not want the content of messages I receive or send to linger in the "cloud" any longer than it takes for the messages to be delivered and read, leaving it accessible to all kinds of hackers. I want to store the content only on my own computer system. I would also like to be able to move the messages off my computer and store them on one or more external drives, leaving only the Thunderbird software on my computer. But I do not know how to do that. The discussions about the "Profile Folder" require more knowledge of IT than I possess. It seems to me that there should be a simple menu item for choosing whether to keep message data in the "cloud" or not. I believe that Microsoft's Outlook Express had such an option, but Outlook Express is no longer available for current computers, and the full-up Outlook is overpriced and too cluttered with bells and whistles to be worth "buying" and using. When I had Outlook (on an older computer), I used Outlook Express instead because it was cleaner than Outlook was. Thanks for any help you can give.