what did you change the name to?

Have you rebooted your device? (I recommend it)

I changed the name from Personal Growth to Growth Personal (and back again) I've rebooted my computer several times since then, but I still can't reach every folder I've created. I've checked the account settings and everything seems to be okay. This morning when I started Thunderbird, it said that some of the rules pointed towards folders that don't exist. But all the folders are visible in Thunderbird, in the account settings and in the computer folder were Thunderbird is supposed to store all messages.

My guess is the change is still occurring in the IMAP folders. on the server.

Many IMAP server do not know anything about rename. So it is a delete and create situation with a move of everything in the folder having to occur. Sometime this blows out because the server knows nothing of move so it becomes a delete and create process. So while what you do is nothing much. The server might be fiddling while Rome burns for a day or so. If things get progressively better. My guess is probably correct.

I think I don't understand what you mean. The folders I've created don't exist on a server. I've created those folders in Thunderbird and Thunderbird created folders on my computer to store the e-mails in. On my mobile phone, I don't use folders, so I get them all in my inbox. No rules apply there. Although the missing e-mails didn't arrive at my mobile phone either. They seem to be lost. But I don't know if that's what you meant with your answer. Anyway: at this time the problem still occurs... :(

If it's IMAP then it's on the server too. So what Matt said is likely what's happening.

Unless you're talking about things you do in Local Folders, but then that material is outside the IMAP client/server loop and won't be visible to other devices anyway.

My Android devices all use IMAP, or at least their own bastardized version of it, and are perfectly capable of working with subfolders within the IMAP account.

Ok, I've logged into my e-mailserver and found to my surprise (really, I'm flabbergasted, never knew those folders actually existed there!!!) that all the folders and e-mails are still there.

I see I can download individual e-mails from there, but that does not solve the problem that the folders and rules for them in Thunderbird are not usable. Any idea to solve that? I can only download e-mails, not folders...

Thunderbird can be told which folders to work with, or otherwise ignore. This is referred to as "subscription".

Right click the account's name in the left-hand pane, select "Subscribe" in the pop-up menu. Then see if the required folders are ticked for viewing.

I think when you first add an account all of its folders will be subscribed. When folders are added (or possibly when renamed, as outlined by Matt) it may be necessary to manually select them in the Subscribe window.

I looked into it, but all the folders are checked as subscribed. I've renewed the subscription and restarted Thunderbird... no result. The folders are still unavailable. I even tried to subscribe again, by selecting all the folders and click the subscription button one by one. Nothing happends. :(

The problem still isn't solved. Today I've moved all the e-mails from the (sub-) folders to the inbox both in Thunderbird and on the mailserver. After that I deleted all folders, again both in TB and on the mailserver. And I've deleted all the rules in TB.

Then I recreated some folders and subfolders and created some rules again. First it looked perfect, but before anything else I thought I'd check what happend if I closed TB en re-openend it.

Only two of the new made folders were visible. At the subscription section only those two were checked. Again: checking the other folders didn't work. On de mailserver all the (sub) folders were there, and the rules moved the selected emails to the corrsponding folders. But not in TB.

In the account settings, I unchecked the "Show only subscribed folders" in the advanced serversettings. Now I can see all the mainfolders... but not the subfolders...

Somehow the combination imap, subfolders and thunderbird seem to have a conflict of some sort. I'll make mainfolders for the subfolders, hoping that at least will give me the opportunity to seperate my e-mails, without all these problems.

I'm so sad :( A couple of years ago I was exited to get rid of Outlook. I loved Thunderbird. How it worked, the looks, the apps that help you make it yours... But now I'm reluctantly considering the return to Microsoft products... :(

There is not a mail program on the planet tat does not cause issues from time to time.

In this case, is the server your own? if so what mail software are you runningo n it. If not what mail provider are you using.

One thing about IMAP is the restrictions of the server apply to the client. So an new version of server software could impact heavily on what occurs in Thunderbird.

For example. That is the server directory for folders? for gmail this is [gmail] and this varies from implementation to implementation.

How many levels of nested folders does the server support? some it is as little as 1 others allow 3.