Hi crichmon.

If you use GMail and IMAP, I would suggest to set up filters via gmail.com webmail instead of in Thunderbird. It has more benefits, e.g. they'll be run on the mailservers directly, so even without running Thunderbird, the messages will be already filtered as you need.

Thunderbird marks messages after you open them (not after downloading). That's why it's called "read". If you want some messages to be marked as read even without opening them, you can set up a filter for that via gmail.com.

Regards, Michal

Hi Michael,

That is a fine suggestion that might work for some people. However, I thought this was a mozilla support forum, not a google support forum?  :)

Anyways, I've spent a lot of time configuring thunderbird to my liking, similar to the way that I've had configured outlook. Webmail is great, but I tend to lean more towards apps then websites when configuring my email sorting and storage. Especially considering that I have multiple imap email accounts; using a local app instead of webmail just makes more sense to me.

Regardless, can you (or perhaps someone else) post a suggestion that is completely on the thunderbird side?

thanks, crichmon

Thunderbird can be set to apply filter when getting new mail and before junk classification. Isn't that what you want? Action can be set to Mark as read

Doesn't this work?

I probably posted this question too soon. My install of thunderbird has always had the described issues; however, after adding additional email accounts, I also began having the following issue: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1113625

The linked issue is somewhat blocking this particular issue, but my assumption is that fixing the first issue might not fix this second issue.

Anyways... Regarding the settings for when to apply filters, all of my filters are set that way (getting new mail, before junk classification), but I always had to manually click on an option to cause filtering to occur.

Regarding the "mark as read" issue... I'm not referring to a filter's ability to also mark a filtered message as read. I'm asking about thunderbird's ability to mark messages downloaded from an imap/email account as read... on the imap/email server (such as gmail).

Hopefully that clarifies my question. In the mean time, please direct efforts to my first question, since this particular question can't even be solved until my first question is solved: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1113625

In other news, I will attempt to disable all of my installed add-ons and restart Thunderbird to see if that will have any effect.

thanks, crichmon

The answers from this question goes to my gmail-account and they are NOT downloaded when I start TB or every x-minute (account / settings / server settings) They are downloaded at my choice, like when I set focus on inbox. Copies are kept on this pc (account / settings / synchronization & storage) A filter automatically move them to Local folders/ Mozilla support

Nothing fancy in the filter.

one answer at a time, Trebek!  :)

1. I'm not confusing message download from imap/gmail with how filters work. 2. as far as i know, all of my settings are correct, the way i want them. 3. essentially, I believe that my thunderbird mail, settings, etc. files are corrupt. 4. given these probable facts of my situation, how should i proceed? 5. and yes, I'm asking for help in a support forum.

I apologize if I offended you in any way. As English is not my native languish I think this is a misunderstanding My goal was to tell you whats happens with the email I get about answers (from q in Mozilla Support) on my gmail-account. It works as it should, I therefore told you how my settings were.

Why would you? When a message is marked as read in TB it is also marked as read on Gmail-server. (Tested on my TB)

As it doesn't on your pc the "talk" with Gmail is somehow interrupted. What is your Virusprotection and firewall?

start TB in safe mode (Press shift when you launch TB) don't reset anything. Any improvement? If yes, check your add-ons

Start Windows in safe mode with networking

EDIT If that helps your firewall probably prevent it.

No worries.  :)

My antivirus and firewall is Avast.

I've restarted Thunderbird in safe mode, but may have to wait to see if that fixes anything. If not, then I'll restart Thunderbird in safe mode with all add-ons disabled.

If the next step is to start Windows is safe mode, I'm not exactly sure how to do that with Windows 10. The usual way that I've restarted Windows in safe mode doesn't seem to be an option with my install of Windows 10. I'll check the web for answers.

I'll respond again after I try your suggestions; thank you.

By starting in safe mode ALL add-ons are disabled. You don't need to make that permanent by checking that box.

How to get Windows 10 safe mode

Avast- problems

haven't tried adjusting avast too much. tried windows 10 safe mode and thunderbird safe mode with all addons disabled. now email messages on my primary gmail account are automatically marked as read on gmail, but then aren't mapped to the gmail imap inbox in thunderbird. what is going on with thunderbird.

crichmon said

tried windows 10 safe mode and thunderbird safe mode with all addons disabled. now email messages on my primary gmail account are automatically marked as read on gmail,

Under W10 safe-mode? Then You need to look at Avast. Only under both W10 + TB safe-mode? You still need to look at Avast and also look if Avast have an add-on in TB. (guessing)

but then aren't mapped to the gmail imap inbox in thunderbird.

On TB in My gmail-acoount, I have inbox, gmail/spam, gmail/sent_mail, gmail/trash but no gmail/inbox. I keep message (copy) on this PC. And also selected them for offline use. I have deselected any other folder on GMAIL-server. So I wonder what you have?

Just inbox and chat. For some reason, there's a root junk folder (instead of gmail.trash) that all new messages are being moved to,

First you need to check your Gmail-settings what labels you want to show in Imap (see image) Then you have to check where your trash will go in TB Account settings / "account" /server settings

Are messages moved to a folder named JUNK (?) Gmail use to call it SPAM, you must somehow have created that folder. Is it present on the GMAIL-server? Do you have any filters moving messages?

Check your junk settings at Account settings / "account" /junk settings AND also use the button "Global junk preference" as a shortcut to Options / security / junk where you can reset training data if you wish.

EDIT Check GMAIL-server if you use any filters there

i fixed my issue. the answer was: my thunderbird setup files (some or all) had become corrupted in some way. my solution: copy my thunderbird profile to a separate location. perform a hard uninstall of thunderbird (uninstall, remove original folder structures used by thunderbird, remove all registry items used by thunderbird). re-install thunderbird. then copy my profile files to the new profile for thunderbird. thanks for your help. crichmon

The actual solution: I was previously unaware that email accounts can have filters, in addition to local folders. Once I realized that, I fixed all of my issues. Thank you for the help.