has any mail been send with ymail?

Change your folder view to ALl instead of the smar view and see if the folders exist in that view. Then we will know if we are chasing folders or smart folder settings.

They all show up in the ALL view. And it is very strange, but the draft I put in YMAil shows up in the DRafts smart folder even though YMAIL is not listed underneath.

No, I have not sent anything directly with YMAIL or the others. I have it and all the others set to not save sent emails when they come from Thunderbird.

The settings are different for each. For YMAIL, there is a Yes/No option to save sent and I have it set to No. So it should not save anything even if I send it directly from YMAIL.

I can live with it the way it is. Nothing should ever be in YMAIL sent and Drafts show even though YMAIL is not actually listed under the smart folder.

I fixed the YMAIL Draft folder so that it shows up under the unified folder. I went to Tools, Account Settings, Synchronization & Storage. Then I unchecked "Keep messages for this account on this computer" and went into the Advanced tab and unchecked everything in "Keep mail folders and messages for offline use". I did this for all my accounts so they would all be configured the same.

The YMAIL sent folder still does not show anyplace when the view is set to Unified but does show when the view is ALL. As I said, I can live with that.

Correction, I can't live with it. Yahoo has removed the option to stop emails from going to the sent folder. So I need to be able to see it.

right click the folder and select properties. Choose the folders it is to search.

Done that so many time I can't count. YMAIL sent just will no show up in unified folders. I'll just have to log on directly occasionally and delete whatever is there.

have you gone into the profile folder and physically deleted the whole smart folders folder?

On the help menu select Troubleshooting information and then click the show folder button it contains.

Close Thunderbird and open the mail folder in explorer. Delete the smart folder folder and then restart Thunderbird.

Thank you very much for trying to help. If you look at my attachment it will show that the folder is subscribed and the sent folder is set to display it. I've noticed that TBird sometimes displays folders that are not selected.

Yes. I've tried that several times. I've even tried editing the YMAIL and smart folder Sent.msf files. I know --- I'm not supposed to do that. I saved EVERTHING before I did it; checked how TBird changed my changes; and restored everything, I've worked with computers for over 45 years. I had the first IBM PC to ship to New Orleans. I've built PC's from component parts. I've programmed in many languages - for the PC I worked mostly with Pascal but also some Basic and DOS & Linux scripts. I've even edited EXE files to change default values. But this one has me stumped.

Are we at crossed purposes with folders.

When I say delete the smart folders. I mean get into the files system. Close Thunderbird and delete the physical folder on disk, not in Thunderbird.

On the help menu click troubleshooting information. Click the show folder button for the profile folder in the troubleshooting tab. Open the folder Mail folder in explorer. Delete the folder "smart mailboxes"

As the folder structure and contents are auto generated deleting them will refresh everything about the smart folders. If something was corrupt it will be replaced.

Open Thunderbird.

Thanks Matt. No cross purposes. I've deleted the physical folder using Windows Explorer. I searched and did that before I did anything else. Then I tried a bunch of things myself. Then I posted my request for help.

I'm reasonably sure there is something wrong with the way Thunderbird creates the smart folder MSF file or the IMAP.yahoo MSF file. It also had something to do with my account settings. I got it all working by changing from keeping everything on my PC to keeping it all on the servers.

IN CASE YOU CARE, I'VE ATTACHED A PICTURE OF MY SETTINGS THAT WORK AND HAVE A RECAP OF EVERYTHING BELOW.

Problem: 1. YMAIL Sent folder shows up in "All" view but does not show up anywhere in "Smart Folder" view. BUT even though it isn't listed anywhere, emails in it do show when I click on the "Sent" unified folder. 2. YMAIL Draft folder shows up in "All" view but in "Smart Folder" view it sometimes shows under YMAIL and sometimes in the smart folder.

Unique Configuration: 1. I have two profiles and choose which one to use when I start T-Bird. 2. Neither profile is in the standard location. The profile with all 3 services is located on a memory stick so I can use it on any PC.

Account Settings: All three (GMAIL, Outlook, & YMAIL) are set the same. 1. Server: Check for email at startup & every 60 minutes. Move deleted messages to Trash on YMAIL & GMAIL. Move to Deleted on Outlook. All have empty trash on exit. 2. Copies & Folders: Put a copy in local Sent. Keep message archives is unchecked. Keep drafts on local drafts. Templates go on local Templates. 3. Junk Settings: Move new Junk to Bulk Mail on YMAIL, Spam on GMAIL, Junk on Outlook, & Junk on Local folders. 4. Synchronization: Kepp messages on this computer is unchecked. Sync all messages regardless of age. Don't delete any messages. 5. Synchronization Advanced: All folders are unchecked in"Choose for offline use". Junk is the only one where T-Bird is set to put/keep email on the server.

Server Properties: All folders are checked to include in global search. Server folder subscription status: 1. YMAIL: Draft, Inbox, Sent, Bulk Mail, Trash 2. GMAIL: Drafts, Inbox, Sent Mail, Spam, Trash, All Mail. 3. Outlook: Drafts, Inbox, Sent, Junk, Deleted. Search online is checked for all unified servers. And all of the above are checked in the corresponding unified folder "choose" settings. The local folders are also checked.

Attempted fixes: 1. Checked subscription & unified folder "choose folders". All were checked. 2. Tried multiple sequense of checking and unchecking subscription and choose folders. None worked. 3. Searched help and used Windows Explorer to delete smart folder. Restarted T-Bird twice. Sometimes it only does part of its fixes on first restart. No change. 4. Backed up and deleted YMAIL Sent.msf folder. T-Bird recreated it smaller than before but did not fix problem. 5. Backed up entire profile and tried editing smart folder Sent.msf. No luck. 6. Restored complete profile. Tried editing IMAP YMAIL Sent.msf. No luck. 7. Retored profile and asked for help. 8. Kept trying and finally got it all working by keeping everything on the servers instead of my PC.

Just an observation. Perhaps the portable version might better suit your needs. then you could put program and data on each USB drive. Buit of a pain updating multiple copies of Thunderbird. But your never without a copy if you have your mail with you.