You might have the same account in TB set up as POP and IMAP. Open Tools/Account Settings and select Server Settings for the first account. Is the Server Type POP? Is it IMAP for the second account?

Local Folders is mainly for storing messages on the computer that are unaffected by connections to working accounts, or for importing mail from backups.

Hi there, thanks so much for your reply. However, I still don't understand. I use the Gmail server to get my email in TB; I seriously doubt that I deliberately set up two accts. in TB because I wouldn't know how to do that. Although I'm fairly savvy in other areas, email settings on baffle me. Maybe it's some simple explanation I'm missing to help me understand.

In Gmail settings, I have both IMAP and POP enabled. Right now, I get my emails on my phone and 2 laptops, my new HP and my old Dell running Vista, which I want somehow to transfer/migrate/move my older emails to the HP, including all the folders I created on the Dell, then I won't be using the Dell.

Should I be using IMAP or POP in order to continue receiving emails both on my Android phone and the new HP? Should I disable IMAP in Gmail settings? Should I remove the email address that is listed second in TB?

Thanks so much for your help.

You said you had two sets of folders, each with the same email address. Please answer the question in my first reply: what is the Server Type for each account?

If you want to synchronize mail over multiple devices, the account should be set up as IMAP on those devices. Most mobile mail apps will default to IMAP, but desktop mail clients usually require the user to select POP or IMAP during setup.

When I try to see server settings for either acct. this is what I see: “An account with this name already exists. Please enter a different account name.”

I disabled POP in my Gmail settings and this is the message I received: “Sending of password for user londiann@gmail.com did not succeed. Mail server pop.gmail.com responded: Your account is not enabled for POP access. Please visit your Gmail settings page and enable your account for POP access.”

Maybe I should go to a computer repair place and see if someone will explain this to me.

When you disabled POP in Gmail, and then saw the error for pop.gmail.com, that means the first account in TB is a POP gmail account. The reason you can't check account settings, 'an account with this name already exists', is because you left the Account Name as the default, which is the gmail address, and is shared with the second account, which is IMAP. Right-click the first account in the Folder Pane, Settings, and when you see 'please enter a different name', place your cursor in the highlighted Account Name box and change the name.

Once you can access Account Settings, select the second account, the IMAP account, then in Account Actions at the bottom left of Account Settings, select Set as Default. Then, select the first account, the POP account, Account Actions/Remove Account. Before you remove the POP account, if there are any important messages in the folders, copy them to a subfolder of Local Folders.

For the acct. listed first, you said to change the name for the acct. What would I change the name to? Just my first name?

I have a Yahoo email acct., but I don't want to use Yahoo at all.  So, what kind of name should I type in the box. 

I really appreciate your sticking with me on this. Wish I could communicate with you directly, like by phone. Is that possible?

Change it to anything - add a 2 to the end of the current name.

All support for TB and Firefox is provided on this forum - there is no phone, email, chat or one-on-one help available.

If you get stuck and want to create a new profile, Help/Troubleshooting Information, click about:profiles, then 'Create a new profile', then add your gmail account from File/New/Existing Mail Account, and apply the default settings for a gmail IMAP account.

Thank you so much. It worked, I now have only one set of email folders in TB and I get emails on both my phone and computer.

I disabled POP in gmail settings and I enabled IMAP in gmail settings and then sent an email to myself and got it on phone and computer and gmail inbox.

This is what I should have done, right?

Just to clarify, I followed your instructions exactly and set the second acct. as the default and then I removed the first acct.

Thank you again. This was a good way to get this figured out.

londiann said

Thank you so much. It worked, I now have only one set of email folders in TB and I get emails on both my phone and computer. I disabled POP in gmail settings and I enabled IMAP in gmail settings and then sent an email to myself and got it on phone and computer and gmail inbox. This is what I should have done, right?

Yes, it looks like you have everything set up properly. If you access the account from other computers, make sure it's set up as IMAP.

There are some other adjustments for gmail accounts, mentioned here, such as unchecking 'Place a copy in' in Copies & Folders, unsubscribing All Mail, and not using [Gmail]/Trash as your Trash folder.

Thank you, I'll read your response more thoroughly later, but for now, another issue. Deleting emails and having them go into the trash folder. I, foolishly, deleted the trash folder, thinking I could just create a new one, but NOOOOOOOO. I found information about how to do this on Mozilla support, but since I've already deleted the trash folder, the information does me no good. Here's what I found: "If you cannot delete messages in Thunderbird, it may be caused by a corrupted trash folder. Here is how to delete the corrupted trash folder and create a new one:

   First, open your Profile folder:
       At the top right of the Thunderbird window, click the menu button , then select Help, and then Troubleshooting Information. The Troubleshooting Information tab will open.
       Under the Application Basics section, click on Open Folder. A window with your profile files will open. 
   Close Thunderbird.
   Open the Mail (or ImapMail) folder in your file manager (according to whether you are using POP or IMAP with the affected account).
   Open the folder with your incoming mail server name (something like imap.googlemail.com or pop.googlemail.com).
   Select the Trash and Trash.msf files and delete them. In some accounts, these may be named Bin or Deleted.
   Restart Thunderbird.
       If you are using IMAP, a new Trash folder will be automatically created by Thunderbird."

This did not happen. I have no trash folder. Help?

Also, I notice that the little blue "working in the background" circle seems to spin for longer than seems reasonable. Wonder why.

And TB seems a bit slow; and, I don't care for seeing boxes on the screen that show the progress/process of sending an email.

I used Windows Mail on my just retired Dell running Vista and it was great. Too bad I can't use it on the new HP.

BTW, I did try to create a new trash folder right after I initially deleted it, but no go.

For gmail accounts, in the Server Settings section of Account Settings, 'When I delete a message', set it to 'Just mark it as deleted'. If you've lost the Trash folder, right-click the account in the Folder Pane, Subscribe, click Refresh, and check (subscribe) the Trash folder.

The slowness you notice is probably due to antivirus scanning the TB profile folder. Disable that option in your AV by adding the profile folder as an exclusion or exception. This doesn't affect the real-time background scanner.

Windows Live Mail is running here in W10, in case you're interested.

I didn't mark it solved because I wasn't sure I'd be able to respond to you. I did do something that worked. I created a new folder called Deleted Items and using the settings choices I selected to send deleted emails there.

I followed the subscribe and refresh instructions and the trash folder did show up there, but it never showed up, didn't work at all. It's a cool feature though.

I'll do as you suggested re the AV, maybe it will improve the slowness of TB.

Mail.....I really don't care for it much. TB looks a lot more like Windows Mail. The only other thing about TB is that the only choices you have for the font size is...smaller, tiny, larger, extra large, and huge. Or, the little arrow icons for changing the size. What!!?? Never have seen that before. Weird. Again, I so appreciate your help. It's frustrating getting a new computer because of all the changes in the last 10 years that I've had a new computer. I bought my Dell in 2008; it has the best keyboard, mechanical, you don't see those anymore except for gaming I understand. Frustration causes stress, something that really gets me down. You have made using TB easier for me.  :) If I have any other issues, I certainly will write back. So long and thanks again.

No,My 3 email address all have pop mail server As On my Desktop Computer,Under Local Folder,all my emails are down loaded to the inbox & I am trying to set this up the same on my laptop (both operate on Windows 10 Pro) Also,How can I have my emails download to both my desktop & laptop I have check all the settings on my desktop so are they the same on my laptop,but that does not solve anything please assist thank you Darryl.Smith.

smithassoc said

No,My 3 email address all have pop mail server As On my Desktop Computer,Under Local Folder,all my emails are down loaded to the inbox & I am trying to set this up the same on my laptop (both operate on Windows 10 Pro) Also,How can I have my emails download to both my desktop & laptop I have check all the settings on my desktop so are they the same on my laptop,but that does not solve anything please assist thank you Darryl.Smith.

To have the same setup on the laptop, copy the Thunderbird folder from the desktop, delete the Thunderbird folder on the laptop, and replace it with the one from the desktop.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer

If your POP accounts are from gmail, you have to enable 'recent mode' to download to multiple computers. IMAP is generally a better way to access accounts from multiple devices.