OK. I made a totally new profile, and it still has the same issue with the Message Filters - it won't let me do anything on the Local Folders except choose "Trash".

What now?

In the test Profile, other folders under "Local Folders" may not exist yet. Right-click "Local Folders" and choose "New Folder", and name the new folder "Inbox".

Then try the message filter setting.

Going back to using Thunderbird with your normal Profile, do you have any folders under "Local Folders"? Like Inbox, Drafts, Templates, Sent, Junk?

OK - I did all that and now it let me select "Inbox" under Local Folders (see attachment, below). Is that OK, and, if so, what do I do next?

In my normal Thunderbird Profile, I only have "Outbox" and "Trash" under "Local Folders".

In my normal Thunderbird Profile, I only have "Outbox" and "Trash" under "Local Folders".

Well, there's your problem. No Inbox under "Local Folders". So create it just like you did in the test profile.

This means that you didn't follow my previous instructions, steps 1,2, & 3, because if you had, the Sent, Drafts and Template folders would have been created under "Local Folders".

It also means that you haven't copied or moved your e-mails from the Yahoo account to the "Local Folders".

Well, actually I did, in fact, set them up exactly as your steps, and the image, indicated. But, for some reason, it didn't "take", perhaps because, when I went to do the filter, I didn't save it because of the problem with the Inbox we've been discussing.

At any rate, I have gone back in, done those again, and set the filter in my regular IMAP version of my profile.

Which should I do now - copy or move my emails from Yahoo to "Local Folders", what's the correct way to do so, and will the procedure you give me do all of my folders simultaneously?

Thank you!

Which should I do now - copy or move my emails from Yahoo to "Local Folders", and will the procedure you give me do all of my folders simultaneously?

If you want to keep the e-mails on the server, then copy the folders and e-mails. If you don't want/care to keep the e-mails on the server, then move the folders and e-mails.

To move, just drag and drop. To copy, hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard before "dropping".

In the normal folder view, select all the e-mails in the Yahoo Inbox, then drag and drop them onto the "Local Folders" Inbox. Do the same for the Sent folder.

For custom folders you created in your Yahoo account, drag and drop them from your Yahoo account right on to "Local Folders".

Bruce A. Johnson said

If you want to keep the e-mails on the server, then copy the folders and e-mails. If you don't want/care to keep the e-mails on the server, then move the folders and e-mails. To move, just drag and drop. To copy, hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard before "dropping". In the normal folder view, select all the e-mails in the Yahoo Inbox, then drag and drop them onto the "Local Folders" Inbox. Do the same for the Sent folder. For custom folders you created in your Yahoo account, drag and drop them from your Yahoo account right on to "Local Folders".

Thanks! Just to verify, so I do this right the first time -

1. You are saying for me to conduct these steps using Thunderbird, not while looking at my Yahoo Webmail account, correct?

2. If so, using Thunderbird, I can move the emails in my Yahoo Inbox and Sent to the Inbox in the "Local Folders" I created a bit ago in my Thunderbird profile, correct?

3. I can also move the special folders I have created and saved emails to in my Yahoo Webmail account to the "Local Folders" location, correct?

Thanks again for your patient assistance.

- Todd

1. Everything is to be done in Thunderbird.

2. Yes. E-mails in the Yahoo Inbox folder to the Local Folders Inbox. E-mails in the Yahoo Sent folder to the Local Folders Sent folder.

3. Any other folders you see in Thunderbird under your Yahoo account, you drag and drop on to "Local Folders". Not to anywhere under Local Folders, but onto the words Local Folders.

OK - I was able to copy all of my emails from the Yahoo Webmail server to my "Local Folders", which, if I understand everything you've been so kind to help me with, means I now have copies of my emails on my computer for safe keeping.

Two last questions -

1. You had me set up some special filtering. Do I leave that intact and operating?

2. Now that I've done this, I am done with using Yahoo's Webmail. I know that my emails will be coming into their server, but I don't want them to stay there. How do I setup Thunderbird to tell the Yahoo Webmail server to delete emails once Thunderbird has downloaded them?

THANKS AGAIN!

The Message Filter I got you to make will continue to move e-mail from the Yahoo Inbox to your Local Folders Inbox, as it is received.

When the move happens, the e-mail is deleted from the Yahoo Inbox. This deletion will be reflected in Yahoo webmail.

Thanks ever so much again, Bruce! You're first class!

One more thing, if I may - I have downloaded the Thunderbird App for my smartphone, and would like to check my email when I am not at my computer. However, Thunderbird on my computer is downloading incoming emails to the Yahoo server, then deleting them from it so that I cannot see them on my phone. How do I tell Thunderbird to only download messages to my computer when I want it to, rather than automatically?

Delete that Message Filter then.

When you want the messages moved from the Yahoo Inbox to your Thunderbird Inbox, do it manually. Drag and drop them.

You can select all of them and move them all at the same time.