Please explain what you are trying to do. Telling a few detailed steps doesn't explain the issue well via a text forum. For example, are you wanting to move an account from one computer to another? The better we understand your situation, the better the chance we'll say something useful. :)

I have a PC with Thunderbird with one Account Name(AN) attached to a Hosted Email Provider(HEP) with my own DNS. I am changing the HEP. I plan to keep my current email name. I had hoped to simply modify the SMTP address information. I have been told this is not possible, that I have to create another AN and copy over my existing file folders. That is where the two questions above come in to play. Although I do not have the SMTP info from the new HEP I went ahead and added the new AN. I was expecting to see the first 6 folders of my current AN but instead there are just the Inbox and Trash. Is that to be expected or have I missed something? The second question relates to getting my original folders over to the new AN. I discovered the right click option mentioned above. I am wondering if that would be a good way to do the copying as opposed to doing it from a backup. It would seem to be a cleaner way to go. I hope this helps.

All I can share is my personal experience. Whenever I set up a new account, I sometimes see just inbox and trash, and other folders appear as I use them, such as the sent folder. If this is a POP account, I would create the new account and exit TB without retrieving messages. Then use windows file explorer to copy the Mail\<accountname>folders to new account folder to ensure contiguous support for the messages.

David,

 Thank you for your input and your time.  Much appreciated.