My gmail spam folder is being downloaded by Thunderbird

Try this. Right click on the name of the email account at the top of the list of folders. Select subscribe. You should be able to check all folders you want to sync with Google. Uncheck Spam to remove it.

right-clicking on the account gives me: get messages - open in new tab - open in new folder etc. no 'subscribe :(

Here is what it looks like for me. You need to right click on the account name. In the attached image it is highlighted in solid blue (mark@mark.....).

strange, mine is exactly the same but 'subscribe' is missing

Are you perhaps using POP instead of IMAP? It is my understanding that you only have a choice with IMAP. I believe POP just downloads the Inbox, and other folders are local. If you are using IMAP, I would probably check the settings for your account, including the sync settings and spam settings, and make sure everything looks correct. Perhaps TB itself is creating the items in the spam folder. Beyond that, I am afraid I don't have any good ideas.

i'm using pop and yes, only the inbox was downloaded until a day or two ago. then, for whatever reason, thunderbird is also downloading spam from gmail. no idea what happened but sure would like to get back to how it was. :(

Be sure to check you account settings under Junk Settings to be sure it is not TB itself identifying spam and putting it into the Spam folder locally from the Inbox.

absolutely sure - as i said i get very few spam emails and this morning the 2 from gmail's spam folder were downloaded to my thunderbird inbox. it's a mystery to me

The reality is POP mail has a single "mail drop", for convenience we tend to call it the inbox, but that is not technically correct. It is a drop for ALL new mail arriving in the account, including spam. If a POP implementation is doing what it is supposed to do, all mail arriving in the account should appear for the POP mail client to download. In saying this, I am aware that my ISP simply dumps something like 80% of mail addressed to accounts on their mail server as spam and no one sees that at all. But if they accept the mail then it is offered to the POP client.

Some mail providers operate a server side spam folder and remove mail from the mail drop to it, technically they should not do this as POP has no folders of any kind. But what is contained in the specification has never stopped a mail provider yet in doing their own thing and this may well be where you get the impression that spam folders should not download to pop accounts.

If what you are seeing has changed, in all probability it is because your provider has changed the way they manage your mail in your account on their mail server.

thanks, mark and matt! if it was gmail's doing that included the spam folder in thunderbird's mail download it has fixed itself. as of this morning the few pieces of spam stayed in gmail's spam folder and were not included in my thunderbird inbox. and, thanks to matt, if it should happen again i will blame google and not thunderbird! :)