If this is a Gmail account, then you should exclude the All Mail folder from being checked for new messages. Right-click the All Mail folder, select Properties then uncheck that option. The Local Folder is not an IMAP folder, so whatever action you take on it and the messages it contains will not be replicated in All Mail, which is an IMAP folder. Visit https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-gmail for additional information that just might prove helpful in understanding how Gmail works (with Thunderbird).

Gmail stores all your messages; Received, Sent, Archived. Everything is stored in the 'All Mail' gmail folder and tag- like 'labels' are applied to show in Folders.

When you delete an email in gmail accounts, how you 'deleted' the email will determine whether only the label is deleted or whether the actual email is deleted.

If you delete an email and that email is put into the gmail Trash folder, then when the 'Trash' folder is emptied by you or auto emptied by gmail, the email is deleted and it is removed from the 'All Mail' folder.

If you do not have that email put into the gmail Trash, then you have only deleted the label which means email has been moved from Inbox, but is still in the 'All Mail' folder. This explains : "filters that MOVE my received email in designated folders in Local Folders. These work great but, as it should, I still can see those email in All Mail. "

Stans has explained that any folder that has nothing to do with that imap account does not communicate or synchronise with server. So any email fully downloaded and stored in a folder in 'Local Folders' is independent of the imap server. It is stored on your computer, so you can mark it as read, apply tags etc and this has no effect on anything stored on server.

Really, there is no point in subscribing to see the 'All Mail' folder as it a pure duplication of everything you have in all other folders.

Thank you guys for your inputs...

I guess my real problem is not that my mail still lives in my All mail folder but the fact that it remains flag as Unread.

I tried many combination on my filter (Copy vs Move, set to Unread, etc.)

• If I only Move: "both" messages remain Unread.
• If I only Copy: "both" messages remain Unread.
• If I Move and then flag to Read: "both" messages are flagged as Read.
• If I Copy and then flag to Read: "both" messages are flagged as Read.
• If I even have a Filter targeted on my Local Folders tagging all incoming messages as Unread: Nothing happens.

I realize that once a message is stored inside my Local Folders it loses its "link" to the original one, from Local to Imap, but it would appears that the reverse is not true (or why would a Copy of my message ALSO turn Read when I set the original to Read?)

There must be a way to have my Mail "read" in All Mail but not in Local Folders...

re :If I Copy and then flag to Read: "both" messages are flagged as Read.

I'm presuming this is an automatic filter that acts on 'New' emails which are by definition 'New' and 'Unread' and not just 'Unread'.

This mean do two things to email on server. Copy AND mark as read.

The Message filter will be set up for the imap account. This instruction only occurs on the imap account which marks as read and copies the marked as read message to Local Folders eg: Inbox.

It is not an instruction to copy Unread email on server to Local Folders and then access the server again to mark as Read.

Suggestion to try:

In the Message Filter that auto runs on New messages just set to copy the message to Local Folders. Then the message in 'Local Folders will be marked 'Unread'.

Then on the imap Inbox, right click and choose 'Mark folder read', everything in imap Inbox will get marked as read and at some point the folder will synchronise with server and update the server.

So why do I set an order for things to happen if they all occur at the same time?

Your suggestion is interesting but this would affect ALL my mail, not just the one I filed. So it ends up creating another problem: All my "untouched" mail will be marked as read wether I did or not.

re :So why do I set an order for things to happen if they all occur at the same time?

You have not set an order for things to happen. when you set 'Perform these Actions' in Message Filter, it is not do A first and then go back and do B. There is no double access to server. It is do all actions at once. You are basically saying copy this specific new email that I want marked as read on the imap account into Local Folders. So the copied email is marked as read before it is copied, which is fine for the server side of things but not so great for finding emails in 'Local Folders' as they not marked Unread.

re :Your suggestion is interesting but this would affect ALL my mail, not just the one I filed. So it ends up creating another problem: All my "untouched" mail will be marked as read wether I did or not.

OK, I'm with you, I can see your point. Here is another idea you could try.

Is there a TAG that you can apply? For demonstation below I'll use the 'Important' tag.

EG: in Message Filter, 'Perform these Actions' , Copy, Mark as read, Tag Message - Important.

Then in imap account you will see emails as read and tagged Important, so you know which emails were copied to Local Folders; perhaps an additional bonus :)

In 'Local Folders' account, all emails tagged with Important are new and technically unread at this point even though they look 'read' because they are not bold.

So, you have an option, you can use Important tag to mean unread, thus removing tag when read. This is a slightly different way of knowing what is new and unread, but it is workable and those emails would stand out because they would be a different coloured font rather than just bold and can be filtered/sorted based on the TAG. It also means emails on server have been marked as read.

OR if you have quite a few emails, you could create a Message Filter for the 'Local Folders' mail account which is run 'Manually' to Match all the following, Tags contain Important, Action : Mark as Unread.

However, it does mean the Tag still remains and would need to be manually altered or removed after reading otherwise running the Manual filter could mark all the 'Important' tagged emails that you did read, get marked as unread again. That could potentially be annoying.

In preference I would only use the TAG option, removing when read or applying a new tag. Using the Manual filter is an additional action and you would still need to alter that tag to stop 'read' mail being made 'unread' by accident.

I really thank you for your help on this topic.

The TAG way will not work as I need to SEE which folders (I have over 50) contain unread mail. However, our "talk" sprouted an idea that seems to work. I created another folder in my IMAP account named "Filtered" and I move my mail there AND copy it to my Local Folders. I have another filter that marks Messages inside of the "Filtered" folder as read.

This seems to be working so far... I just need to modify all my filters now.

Thanks a bunch.