Are you using All Folders view? Press Alt to make the menu bar appear, choose View > Folders to check that.

Thanks for the response. Thanks for the information and suggestion, but yes, 'All' is and was selected in the 'View' - 'Folders' window. Still no 'Drafts' or 'Sent' Folders visible when I returned to the machine this morning.

However, now, after trying to access my mail this morning, they are back and able to be accessed without having to do anything at all (in spite of my having checked and trying all sorts of things such as - help / forum / get messages / restarts of both Thunderbird and computer - and every Thunderbird menu option that I could find, etc - for nearly two hours! Perhaps there was some some sort of sync process that I am unaware of that did the trick. Wish I knew how to instigate it for future reference.

I do however much appreciate your helpful suggestion, many thanks.

I am guessing your account is IMAP and the original folders were eventually replaced with those synchronised from the server. It may be that they were finally populated with mail. Thunderbird tends to only show folders after they are used Drafts, sent etc.

For the future, right click the account in the folder pane and select subscribe should any folders disappear.

Also Right click the account again, select settings. Select the server settings and the advanced button. Turn on or off the "show only subscribed folders" (In the case of yahoo there is a yconversations folder that appears if the setting is off)

Thank you for your constructive response - very much appreciated.

You have added to my knowledge and understanding of what seems to be an exceptionally wide featured product that I look forward to enjoying using.

Once again, many thanks!

I have tried all the above suggestions, but my sent box is still missing. I am, however, able to bring it up by going into folders and clicking the "recent" button. the sent items are shown, but they disappear when I go back to "all".

At the help-page for non-functional "Trash" folder my 3 accounts. http://mzl.la/1ApHx1w the troubleshooting instructions sorta worked to add the missing Trash folder which is necessary for the "Delete" button to work.

However, my settiings for those 3 accounts is to use the Trash folder of Local Folders Trash folder for all Trash, but Delete still does work for that.