If using IMAP on all computers this means all computer will only display what is on server. So if you start deleting emails off server then you also find them deleted from the imap folders. So

However, if you download full copies and get 'copies' of them into the 'Local Folders' mail account, then you can delete them off the server and still see those emails in Thunderbird - in 'Local Folders' mail account. Obviously if you want identical copies of emails in 'Local Folders' then either you need to repeat the action of copying to 'Local Folders' on all computers before deleting off server OR perform on one computer and then copy paste the profile 'Local Folder' folders between each computer profile.

The message you are getting from the server typically occurs only on yahoo servers for eg: verizon, aol etc. It is random and if this was a setting wrong in Thunderbird then all hell would have occurred with thousands of compaints. Yahoo has loads of server clusters to store accounts and it has been thought that one of them may have an issue, but it's not exactly something you can prove. But, it seems to occur when yahoo servers would like you to delete emails off server, hence the message which would force this. Even I got one of those messages some time back for one of my accounts. I logged on to server/webmail account and deleted a large batch of old emails and low and behold it started working again. So worth trying :)

re :So now I'm trying to re-enable my legacy POP settings When you removed the old pop accounts from Thunderbird,did you then access the profile name folders and also delete the pop account? Thunderbird does not auto delete the pop account files from the profile, so it is likely they are still there. This means you can point the 'new' pop account to look at the old pop account and get a view of all your emails again. How to point new pop account to old pop account:

• Right click on new pop account name in Folder Pane and select 'Settings'
• Select 'Server Settings'

bottom right you will see 'Local directory:'

• make the window wider to see all the info.

It will say some thing like this: C:\Users\User Account \AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\6w5tt99a.default\Mail\mail.servername-1.com Notice it will have a number added to the pop account.

• Click on 'Browse'

It will open showing contents of that mail.servername-1.com folder

• go up directory to the 'Mail' folder to see other pop accounts.

and locate the original pop account which may not have a number eg: C:\Users\User Account \AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\6w5tt99a.default\Mail\mail.servername.com

• select the pop account name folder
• click on 'Select Folder'

Now restart Thunderbird.

Thanks much for the response. Very helpful. Breaking down the bits...

If using IMAP on all computers this means all computer will only display what is on server. So if you start deleting emails off server then you also find them deleted from the imap folders. So However, if you download full copies and get 'copies' of them into the 'Local Folders' mail account, then you can delete them off the server and still see those emails in Thunderbird - in 'Local Folders' mail account. Obviously if you want identical copies of emails in 'Local Folders' then either you need to repeat the action of copying to 'Local Folders' on all computers before deleting off server OR perform on one computer and then copy paste the profile 'Local Folder' folders between each computer profile.

Yep - that's what I was planning on doing if I couldn't get POP to work - just setting up all devices (two PCs and two phones) with IMAP, and then every now and then manually doing a move of older emails to an "archived inbox" folder in Local Folders.

The message you are getting from the server typically occurs only on yahoo servers for eg: verizon, aol etc. It is random and if this was a setting wrong in Thunderbird then all hell would have occurred with thousands of compaints.

Well I'm guessing I'm one of only a few people who have tried to turn off that POP setting (e.g. in attempt to switch to IMAP), and the turned it back on again, and also using the not-as-often-used AOL servers. However....

Yahoo has loads of server clusters to store accounts and it has been thought that one of them may have an issue, but it's not exactly something you can prove. But, it seems to occur when yahoo servers would like you to delete emails off server, hence the message which would force this. Even I got one of those messages some time back for one of my accounts. I logged on to server/webmail account and deleted a large batch of old emails and low and behold it started working again. So worth trying :)

I think that's it! Last night it started working again - my guess is it had switched to a different server from which to fetch the emails, and the other server doesn't have this issue. Seems really odd and coincidental that this would happen for me right when I was tweaking this setting (it was the first time I had ever done it), so I figured it was way too coincidental.

re :So now I'm trying to re-enable my legacy POP settings When you removed the old pop accounts from Thunderbird,did you then access the profile name folders and also delete the pop account? Thunderbird does not auto delete the pop account files from the profile, so it is likely they are still there. This means you can point the 'new' pop account to look at the old pop account and get a view of all your emails again. How to point new pop account to old pop account:

• Right click on new pop account name in Folder Pane and select 'Settings'
• Select 'Server Settings'

bottom right you will see 'Local directory:'

• make the window wider to see all the info.

It will say some thing like this: C:\Users\User Account \AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\6w5tt99a.default\Mail\mail.servername-1.com Notice it will have a number added to the pop account.

• Click on 'Browse'

It will open showing contents of that mail.servername-1.com folder

• go up directory to the 'Mail' folder to see other pop accounts.

and locate the original pop account which may not have a number eg: C:\Users\User Account \AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\6w5tt99a.default\Mail\mail.servername.com

• select the pop account name folder
• click on 'Select Folder'

Now restart Thunderbird.

Thanks - now that I see that it's OK I won't do this - however I have this information saved and will give it a shot if I have problems again.

I may still end up switching to all-IMAP at some point, if I can get *that* problem figured out.

(https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1330505)

Thanks much for the response. Very helpful. Breaking down the bits...

If using IMAP on all computers this means all computer will only display what is on server. So if you start deleting emails off server then you also find them deleted from the imap folders. So However, if you download full copies and get 'copies' of them into the 'Local Folders' mail account, then you can delete them off the server and still see those emails in Thunderbird - in 'Local Folders' mail account. Obviously if you want identical copies of emails in 'Local Folders' then either you need to repeat the action of copying to 'Local Folders' on all computers before deleting off server OR perform on one computer and then copy paste the profile 'Local Folder' folders between each computer profile.

Yep - that's what I was planning on doing if I couldn't get POP to work - just setting up all devices (two PCs and two phones) with IMAP, and then every now and then manually doing a move of older emails to an "archived inbox" folder in Local Folders.

The message you are getting from the server typically occurs only on yahoo servers for eg: verizon, aol etc. It is random and if this was a setting wrong in Thunderbird then all hell would have occurred with thousands of compaints.

Well I'm guessing I'm one of only a few people who have tried to turn off that POP (e.g. in attempt to switch to IMAP), and the turned it back on again, and also using the not-as-often-used AOL servers. However....

Yahoo has loads of server clusters to store accounts and it has been thought that one of them may have an issue, but it's not exactly something you can prove. But, it seems to occur when yahoo servers would like you to delete emails off server, hence the message which would force this. Even I got one of those messages some time back for one of my accounts. I logged on to server/webmail account and deleted a large batch of old emails and low and behold it started working again. So worth trying :)

I think that's it! Last night it started working again - my guess is it had switched to a different server from which to fetch the emails, and the other server does not have this issue. Seems really odd and coincidental that this would happen for me right when I was tweaking this setting (it was the first time I had ever done it), so I figured it was way too coincidental.

re :So now I'm trying to re-enable my legacy POP settings When you removed the old pop accounts from Thunderbird,did you then access the profile name folders and also delete the pop account? Thunderbird does not auto delete the pop account files from the profile, so it is likely they are still there. This means you can point the 'new' pop account to look at the old pop account and get a view of all your emails again. How to point new pop account to old pop account:

• Right click on new pop account name in Folder Pane and select 'Settings'
• Select 'Server Settings'

bottom right you will see 'Local directory:'

• make the window wider to see all the info.

It will say some thing like this: C:\Users\User Account \AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\6w5tt99a.default\Mail\mail.servername-1.com Notice it will have a number added to the pop account.

• Click on 'Browse'

It will open showing contents of that mail.servername-1.com folder

• go up directory to the 'Mail' folder to see other pop accounts.

and locate the original pop account which may not have a number eg: C:\Users\User Account \AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\6w5tt99a.default\Mail\mail.servername.com

• select the pop account name folder
• click on 'Select Folder'

Now restart Thunderbird.

Thanks - now that I see that it's OK I won't do this - however I have this information saved and will give it a shot if I have problems again.

I may still end up switching to all-IMAP at some point, if I can get *that* problem figured out.

(https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1330505)