Inbox, sent, drafts, templates, junk are considered special folders. Folders and subfolders can be created only in local folders group.

Lampros, What you've stated is not true. As I've stated sub-folders can be created in any account (I have several, with corresponding filters transferring select messages to the target folders), but newly created folders only appear after Thunderbird is terminated and restarted. This is a clear flaw in Thunderbird and needs to be rectified.

Hi Please say what version of Thunderbird, and also what mail system you are connecting to. I have Exquilla with a corporate email system, and I notice that the MSExchange online email system fails to sort a new subfolder into sequence until after I log out and log in again. (That is when I am directly logged in via the webmail, not through Thunderbird). So my theory is - If Thunderbird is unable to create a new folder on the server it could be the server that is preventing it, the same as my webmail does. Can you try in your own webmail, create folder, see if it appears and is immediately integrated into the online folder structure? Let us know what happens.

Hi AgnesRM,

I have several email accounts, on AOL and GMAIL. The one that gave me the problems was on AOL, but it seems to me I had the same issue on a GMAIL account. I thought about it being the email provider that's causing the issue, but prior to using Thunderbird, I was using an older version of Outlook, and I didn't have any issues creating sub-folders with Outlook for the same accounts. The issue may have something to do with the way Thunderbird refreshes to receive the new configuration from the email provider. In other words, Thunderbird may not perform an automatic refresh after creating a new folder to get the updated configuration from the provider.

Gosh! AOL mail still exists? Good luck with that. Gmail has a unique way all its own - and does not really have subfolders. Gmail uses "Labels" to group emails like a subfolder system, but it's not really subfolders. I don't use Gmail with Thunderbird myself but someone who does might have some insight on that.

LOL - I hear you, but I've had the AOL accounts for years and haven't had any issues with them. I also use ProtonMail, but currently not as a POP or IMAP. I still suspect it has something to do with the way Thunderbird refreshes, or in this case doesn't do an automatic refresh on folder creation; that's why the subfolder appears after a Thunderbird restart.

Depending on your mail provider, making subdirectories in Inbox may not work well. You might instead try making subdirectories from the root mail account

Wayne Mery,

Thanks for the reply. Actually I've not had any trouble with sub-folders (AOL, or GMAIL), with the exception that after creation they don't appear in Thrunderbird until it's restarted. I transitioned all my email accounts to Thunderbird from an old version of Outlook, where sub-folders for the same email accounts appeared immediately after creation. It just appears the problem could be solved if after sub-folder creation, Thunderbird would simply refresh the target email account.

X.

Sort of fly by note.

AOl is now a part of the Yahoo group of companies and as such if looking for explanations to add things look for the same Yahoo information. where you contradicts, recent experience is yahoo will be the dominant method.

Based on Thunderbird refresh methods, try changing to a non inbox folder and back to the inbox. Changing folders should prompt a query to the server asking for things like folders. If not try changing to local folders and back to the account.

Please report your results as there have been recent changes in IMAP speed things up and this could fall into that gap. Then again what I am thinking of might not have made it to release yet (it is confusing sometimes having three versions on the go at once.)

The process of creating a new sub-folder under an AOL account inbox and then restarting Thunderbird works satisfactorily so I have no intention of changing it.

I currently have accounts with Gmail & AOL, while the new sub-folder creation under AOL requires restarting Thunderbird, a sub-folder created under Gmail does not. However, curiously enough deleting a sub-folder under AOL DOES NOT require a restart. This still suggests that the problem is with Thunderbird not AOL (or Yahoo). X.