Comments on: Checking IMAP Sub-Folders with Thunderbird

By: Pounraj

Pounraj — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:44:14 +0000

Iam using Thunderbird 3.0. Recently faced same problem of not showing subfolders under Inbox in Thunderbird.

As per suggestions made in this forum I tried changing the “mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new”, to true AND subscribed to the subfolders, which I can see. But on trying to open any of the subfolders.

But, I tried creating a new subfolder by right clicking on inbox. then i chosed to subscribe the folders. It worked and showed by previous subfolder lists under Inbox. Thanks for everyone guidance. Please get in touch if you face similar problem.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:16:27 +0000

Thanks. I started out with Thunderbird on Ubuntu Intrepid, but because I could not get it to update subfolders, I switched to evolution. After finding this “fix”, I switched back to Thunderbird. Evolution was just too slow for me. Thunderbird is much snappier.

By: Raja

Raja — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:30:55 +0000

Thank You. I was looking for this for a long time. Got it working .

By: nimack

nimack — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:40:06 +0000

I followed this, changing the “mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new”, to true AND subscribed to the subfolders, which I can see. But on trying to open any of the subfolders, I get the message that the Inbox/subfolder ‘does not exist’. It does exist, so I wonder if this is because of something I have failed to do in Thunderbird, or a matter of how my institution has set up its Exchange Server.

By: siikah

siikah — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:01:02 +0000

Thanks man. This bug has been annoying me for months!

By: Pelle

Pelle — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:09:24 +0000

Thanks so much for this info. Been looking for an answer for a least a year..

By: Simon Taylor

Simon Taylor — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:03:12 +0000

On a per folder basis in 2.0.0.9 you can right click the folder, choose properties, and check “Check this folder for new messages”.

By: Brandon M.

Brandon M. — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:44:17 +0000

And…This is fixed by Subscribing. Right click on any folder in that Account and hit subscribe. Then Check any folder you would like to keep updated. It does not automatically check subfolders.

By: Brandon M.

Brandon M. — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:38:49 +0000

Not working for me with IMAP, version 2.0.0.14 on WinXP SP2 and MS Exchange Server 2000. These are the steps I took in finding the problem:

Turned on “mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new”, closed, reopened and nothing changed. I tried creating a folder under the directory the same name as a folder that already exists and nothing happened. I tried creating a folder outside the inbox directory and drag it in; I got an error message that said a folder already exists with that name. Then in Thunderbird I created a new folder under my inbox with a unique name. The folder appeared over on the outlook side. I put an email in the new outlook folder and it appeared in Thunderbird.

It appears that Thunderbird just can’t make visible the folders under it’s own inbox that are on the server side other than the inbox itself. This appears to be a bug.

By: Hmm ...

Hmm ... — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:24:17 +0000

Amendment to the post above … I get all mail just dumped into “Inbox” instead of have it structured in subfolders.