I'm presuming you are refering to 'My Pictures' - the Windows OS auto created Folder? Emails are auto downloaded to Thunderbird profile folders which are hidden files and folders located here unless you deliberately chose a different location: C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>\ The AppData folder is folder is a hidden folder; to show hidden folders, open a Windows Explorer window and choose "Organize → Folder and Search Options → Folder Options → View (tab) → Show hidden files and folders". If they are appearing in other places then you must have made a setting to put them there. You may be selecting an email then right clicking and using Save as, then locating your 'My Pictures' folder and saving them there. I did come across one person who though they were saving an image attachment to My Pictures, but they were actually saving the email itself. Could you be doing the same? I also have come across someone who had saved an image in My Pictures, but then went to save an email and it auto opened on the 'My Pictures' folder because that was the last place they saved to, so they auto clicked on the Save button without first selecting the correct place to save. So the email ended up in the same folder as the previously saved image. Could you have done the same?