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No IMAP folders except inbox and deleted (Linux)

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  • Last reply by Tode

Tode
Tode
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I've just installed Linux Lite with Thunderbird on an old PC. I manually set up IMAP email using the server on my web hosting company. (I always have to do this as the server name isn't obvious.)

I have 21 server folders but none of them appear except for 'inbox' and 'deleted.' Not even junk or spam appear. I've checked that these folders with their contents still appear on EM Client (Windows) Aquamail (Android) and Roundcube webmail.

If I search for a message in one of the missing folders it does not appear although "Search subfolders" is selected.

I've seen advice to right-click on the account name and select "subscribe" but there is no such menu item. (The menu has only Get messages, Open in new tab, Open in new window, Search messages, New folder, Mark all folders read and Settings.) I've been all around the settings and cannot find any option to subscribe to folders. I've shut down and re-started but no change.

There is another odd thing, I presume unrelated: a group of messages from one sender appear in Thunderbird with today's date although they are a few months old. They appear correctly in other clients.

I've just installed Linux Lite with Thunderbird on an old PC. I manually set up IMAP email using the server on my web hosting company. (I always have to do this as the server name isn't obvious.) I have 21 server folders but none of them appear except for 'inbox' and 'deleted.' Not even junk or spam appear. I've checked that these folders with their contents still appear on EM Client (Windows) Aquamail (Android) and Roundcube webmail. If I search for a message in one of the missing folders it does '''not''' appear although "Search subfolders" is selected. I've seen advice to right-click on the account name and select "subscribe" but there is no such menu item. (The menu has only Get messages, Open in new tab, Open in new window, Search messages, New folder, Mark all folders read and Settings.) I've been all around the settings and cannot find any option to subscribe to folders. I've shut down and re-started but no change. There is another odd thing, I presume unrelated: a group of messages from one sender appear in Thunderbird with today's date although they are a few months old. They appear correctly in other clients.

All Replies (2)

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
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The menu options you mention are what appear for POP accounts. Please recheck your account setup. That may not be the issue, but it's all I could think of this morning. Good luck.

Tode
Tode Question owner
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Thanks! You are right of course, it was obviously behaving like POP3 once I stepped back and thought about it. But I had so carefully tried to set it up as IMAP. And I was able to repeat the problem. I tried to set up a second account with the same mail server, being very careful that it was IMAP and repeatedly checking, only to find that it again changed to POP3 at the very last moment.

On that second occasion, when I first tested a connection, with security autodetected, it set SMTP to "no security." So I set SMTP to SSL/TLS and, having confirmed that incoming was still IMAP, checked again. When I confirmed the dialogue, Thunderbird started connecting and downloading mail as POP3 before I had the chance to stop it. It never occurred to me that a client would silently make such a fundamental change.

But I decided to have one more go and this time it worked. The only difference was that, having selected IMAP, I left the port numbers blank. So it seems that it will set port 993 itself but somehow fails when I do it. But it's worrying to find a POP3 account live, although thank goodness the default setting seems to be to leave messages on the server.