Thunderbird Community Forum

Title: POP3 mail delivering into Archives/Inbox instead of real Inbox — folder appears mis-flagged as special Inbox

Thunderbird version: 152.0.1 (Windows 11)

Problem: After migrating my profile to a new computer (copying the profile folder and profiles.ini, both with relative paths), new mail for a POP3 account (server1, account1) is being delivered into a nested folder "Archives/Inbox" instead of the account's real top-level "Inbox".

Evidence gathered so far: - Real Inbox: mailbox://ABC@savba.savba.sk/Inbox — only 1 message, effectively untouched for weeks - Archives/Inbox: mailbox://ABC@savba.savba.sk/Archives/Inbox — 31,186 messages, 10.9 GB, actively receiving new mail (confirmed with a test send) - Both folders display the same "special Inbox" folder icon in the folder pane - Neither folder can be renamed (rename option greyed out on both) — normally only true special folders are rename-locked - Account Settings shows only 3 legitimate accounts (POP3 savba.sk, IMAP Yahoo, Local Folders) — no hidden/orphaned account pointing at Archives - No message filter is causing this (only active filter is an unrelated SpamAssassin rule) - Identity's archive_folder pref is set to .../Archives (not .../Archives/Inbox), so this isn't the manual-archive-target setting either - Checked prefs.js directly: no mail.server.server1.* pref names an explicit "Inbox" folder path, so the special-folder designation doesn't appear to live in prefs.js - Renamed folderCache.json to force a rebuild — did not fix delivery, and also temporarily broke the Send button in compose windows (fixed by restoring the original file) - Ran "Repair Folder" on Archives/Inbox — only rebuilt the message index (.msf); did not change where new mail is delivered

Current hypothesis: The special-folder (Inbox) flag seems to be stored per-folder (likely inside each folder's own .msf index or an internal DB row) rather than in prefs.js or folderCache.json — which would explain why neither cache rebuild nor folder repair touched it. Two folders under the same account appear to carry this flag simultaneously.

Questions: 1. Where exactly is the special-folder (Inbox) designation stored, if not in prefs.js or folderCache.json? 2. Is there a supported way to clear/reassign this flag from a specific folder via the UI or Config Editor? 3. Could deleting just that one folder's .msf file (Thunderbird closed) force it to regenerate without the incorrect flag, without affecting the 31,186 messages in the mbox file itself? Is this safe?

Happy to provide further logs or additional prefs.js excerpts (redacted) if useful.

Thanks in advance.

When I login into Thunderbird, I continue getting the following error message "Login to server imap.comcast.net with username kfn.appraiser@comcast.net failed". I put in correct password and happens again. Mail server is Comcast. Running Windows 11

I am plagued by demands that I allow Thunderbird to "permanently delete all" my email from Gmail. Why would I want to do that????? I'd like for Thunderbird to be able to compose, send, receive, and delete emails in Gmail, but not permanently delete all of my email there. What can I do?

I am using Thunderbird 152 on a Windows 11 desktop computer. I want to be able to include a hyperlink in the text of an email message. Please advise. Thank you.

Martin Belonje

Jul 15, 2026, 13:24 CST

Goodday,

Unfortunately I could not add a screenshot to this message. Under my account [redacted]@zonnet.nl there is a "Postvak IN". This means inbox. In this inbox should new mails appear. Right now there comes nothing in it. However, two lines below there is suddenly another "Postvak IN 22". New emails appear here now. I already tried to drag this inbox into the inbox under [redacted]@zonnet.nl but that doesn't work.

New emails now appear with a yellow bar: The text in the yellow bar at the bottom says: (I translated)

No unique identity was found matching the sender address. The message will be sent using the sender field and the settings of the identity Martin Belonje <[redacted]@zonnet.nl>.

To my opinion this has to do with the fact that the inbox has moved from its original position.

I hope you can help me out.

Hello,

I'm currently using the thunderbird client to open a zoho mail account. I've set several filters (around 40) so that incoming emails are automatically redirected to the appropiate folder. If I click on the download/refresh icon (the little cloud with the downwards arrow), new email isn't received. On the bottom, a small message appears ("No new messages on the server" or something like this). You may think that that is precisely because I don't have new emails but if directly go into any of the folders and once again click on the download/refresh icon all of the emails that were supposed to go into that particular folder appear all at once (even mails that are 2 or 3 days old). Now every day I have to go into all of my 40 folders and click on the refresh button.

I look forward to your help. Kind Regards.

Thunderbird is not responding. Xfinity is working just fine I need help resetting is there any way I can speak with a person? I am totally bogged down caring for my partner with dementia. I am able to go to my settings, etc.

I have an hotmail.com account with no problems whatsoever while logging into Apple Mail, G-Mail etc. but when it comes to Thunderbird it does not let me login. I tried to login first to outlook itself, changing the servers ports etc. but nothing works.

For refrence my current server settings are: Incoming (IMAP): Server: outlook.office365.com Port: 993 Security SSL/TSL and OAuth2

Outgoing (SMTP): Server: smtp.office365.com Port: 587 Security: STARTTLS with OAuth2

I cannot send messages from any of my accounts after migrating to Greenby. I have tried to setup their outgoing server as per their instructions but it does not work. They have a AI tool which I keep going round and round in cycles

After several years of working perfectly,For no reason, I am getting this message when trying to connect to Xfinity email server

"  Login to server mail.Comcast.net with username t_m_f@comcast.net failed."

I have set all Comcast server settings to the default. Going directly to Xfinity email works great . So it must be something wrong with Tbird. I also uninstalled & reinstalled Tbird. This is frustrating !!!!!!

I have about a dozen accounts with over 50 folders, most with a matching filter. About 100k messages, taking up about 1G of disk space. All but one account is merged under my Inbox to have fewer duplicate In/Draft/Sent boxes eating up window space. I'm using 152.0.1 (aarch64) Release branch on a Mac OS X 26. All are POP accounts on a DreamHost server.

At some point it started to show the draft message on every email, which means on incoming as well. I've had this phenomenon for years.

Recently filtering has started to not automatically run on some emails forcing me to run the filters manually. I've run the repair folder options which does not seem to make any difference.

Since switching to macOS 26 it also does not allow me to move Thunderbird child windows, they simply show up on the default location. But that's for another ticket.

I can't send emails from my Thunderbird account. I am however receiving them. Using IMAP. All server settings appear to be correct. Error message reads " Sending of the message failed. The message could not be sent because the connection to Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.stackmail.com timed out. Try again." What's going wrong?

When I try to send a message I get the following error message: An error occurred while sending mail: Outgoing server(SMTP) error. The server responded: Cannot connect to SMTP server 209.71.208.9 (209.71.208.9.25) connect error10060 How do I fix this?

I have 2 hotmail accounts - one gets mail as normal the other stopped on 28 April. Checked and settings are same for both except actual email address name. Till 28 April both worked normally. Haven't tried either starting another account for the problem name or deleting existing as don't want to lose anything. Haven't updated to latest version for same reason. How to fix please?? Cheers and thanks