Phil said

What I would *really* like to do is simply point TB to a directory and say "make that directory a local folder. Is this possible?

YOu can do it, it in in the account settings. But it is a very very bad idea at the best of times and actively prevented it the location is in one of the "danger" locations. Including you documents etc.

As you appear to have the sdb and mbox part of the structure down. simply place the folder structure into the existing profile in Mail\local folders. Be aware that whatever you do, it will be a sub folder of "local folders" you can not place files into a higher location and have them appear in the user interface.

Okay, thanks for the tip, it worked the first time. I created the empty folder in Explorer, then in TB I created the Local Folder that pointed to that folder. Then I closed TB, moved the content to the empty folder, opened TB and there the content was.

But if in TB I subsequently remove the "account" of the local folder, and then add it again as I did before, with the content already there, TB doesn't recognize the content, even after I close and reopen TB several times.

This would be a problem for me; I would like to be able to not clutter up my daily experience with all my local folders, but from time to time consult what is in those local folders by adding them to TB and accessing them.

Thanks for any help.

I suggest you just collapse the local folders so it occupies a single line in the interface and get over the idea of putting stuff in and out of Thunderbird on a whim. It is not designed for that.

I'm not sure I understand your suggestion. It sounds like you're saying not to use Local Folders at all.

Re: what it's designed for, isn't this what the LocalFolders plug-in is supposed to provide? You're saying that TB is not designed to recognize its own content when you point it to it?

If it isn't designed to do this, maybe they ought to change the design, because I have to believe this is not an uncommon use case for an email product that is advertised to be full-featured.

Phil said

I'm not sure I understand your suggestion. It sounds like you're saying not to use Local Folders at all.

I said collapse the local folders so you only see one line in the folder pane. How you turned that into don't use local folders is beyond my simple comprehension.

Re: what it's designed for,

isn't this what the LocalFolders plug-in is supposed to provide?

It is not some addon or plugin, it is an account in Thunderbird just like any other. It has mail in it, just that this account is on the local hard disk and is not associated as such with a "real" email address. (although it can be used as the global inbox for POP mil accounts.)

You're saying that TB is not designed to recognize its own content when you point it to it?

No I am saying it is not designed to add and remove folders or move the local folders account location to access your "pseudo" archives.

If it isn't designed to do this, maybe they ought to change the design, because I have to believe this is not an uncommon use case for an email product that is advertised to be full-featured.

Sorry, but the outlook style PST file is not even being considered. either your mail is in Thunderbird or you have to go through a process of importing it and exporting it. I told you how to "import" mbox files into Thunderbird to save you time. but you can't just take them out today and put them in tomorrow as that will break a good number of things including the global index. There are a number of files that would need to be deleted each time to force full indexing and clear caches. it would also make startup times unacceptable long as they are recreated. Like setting your choice of account location in the account settings, you can do it. But it is not a good idea. Data loss will most likely be the end result.

Your only other real choice is to use another profile that points to your archive and switch between your active and archive profile.

I can tell by your response that you have misunderstood what I'm trying to do.

I said collapse the local folders so you only see one line in the folder pane. How you turned that into don't use local folders is beyond my simple comprehension.

I turned it into don't use local folders because "collapsing local folders so you only see one line" is a non-sequitur to me. It doesn't address anything I've been talking about. It's like you're saying "click the down arrow and it will collapse the hierarchy into one line", like in Windows explorer, like "forget it, pal, give it up, you can't get there from here". I'm not talking about some display thing.

as a permanent local store of mail on your device. it is not meant to have mail or folders added and removed. Nor is it meant to have you moving files in and out using the filesystem on a regular or even semi regular basis.

"Moving files in and out using the filesystem on a regular basis" is *exactly* what I'm trying to avoid - I don't plan on doing it unless TB makes me! The files stay in place on the file system. I just want to add or eliminate additional "local folder" accounts using the local folder plugin (you know how that plugin works?) in the TB UI.

https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/localfolder/

It is not some addon or plugin, it is an account in Thunderbird just like any other. It has mail in it, just that this account is on the local hard disk and is not associated as such with a "real" email address. (although it can be used as the global inbox for POP mil accounts.)

I think it's clear now that you don't know about the LocalFolders plugin or how it works. It allows you to *add more local folders* to TB than just the default, as additional "accounts" . You get a "Add Local Folder..." option to the "Account Actions" dropdown menu. It lets you point TB to the folder where you want the content to exist, or (in my case) where the content already exists. Except when I do the latter it doesn't recognize the content.

I know nothing of the add-on. Never heard of it until I got you latest email.

If you want support with using it the author of the add-on and the support site registered on the addon page is where your quest starts. https://github.com/cleidigh/Localfolder-TB/issues

This forum is for basic Thunderbird and the lightning add-on. All addon support is offered by addon developers, not The Thunderbird support forum. I suggest you take your query to the addon support forum.