Are they pop accounts? in which case they are probably using the global Local Folders account to save mails.

Matt:

Thanks for your response. You asked a good question, because the "missing" accounts are indeed POP accounts.

You may misunderstand me, however, because I'm not missing any individual mails - just the display of the accounts themselves in the left pane of the T-bird window under "Get Messages".

The problem I'm reporting is that while the accounts/e-mail addresses are missing from that pane I can still see and manipulate them in Tools/Account Settings. That's the mystery, Matt. Can you shed any light please?

click on the advanced button in server setting and deselect the use global inbox and they will appear in the folder list. Note that is you reverse that setting any mail in the "account" folder will disappear. going from Local folder will not be an issue as it does not "go away"

Hello Matt:

Hooray! That fixed the problem of the missing accounts. I have run some tests and the setting you mentioned does make the accounts appear and disappear (strange behavior, but it is what it is).

However, what I'm trying to do is get every mail into a Global mailbox, AND then run filters on the global Inbox. I have to do more testing, but It's my working hypothesis that filters are Account specific and MUST be run on the inbox for that account. In other words, you can't set filters for the global mailbox. Am I right about that?

By the way, THANKS for your help. I truly appreciate any input from Mozilla. You raise my faith in the support structure for open-source solutions.

Bob

Filters ARE account specific, and default to "local Folders" when you first get the filter dialog open, the account is displayed first thing in the dialog. So close to the top most miss it the first couple of times. They do not have to be run in the "inbox" if you are using global folders. Although they do only run against mail in Inbox folders and since the latest version. The sent folder, along with a new trigger to run on sending mail.

The second trap in filter is moving the mail and then doing other things with it in the filter. once the move executes, the mail is gone as far as the filter is concerned so nothing after move gets done. So mark as read, tag important and move would work. Move, mark as read, tag important would see the message move but nothing else in that list of actions.

Bobshimizu said

I have run some tests and the setting you mentioned does make the accounts appear and disappear (strange behavior, but it is what it is).

The folder pane is designed to show mail. Having folders from an account that gets no mail because it is using local folders is nothing more than a distraction. Really they get in the way. They account shows up in all the important places for dealing with accounts, just not in the pane for displaying mail folders. Some can not cope with that, but to me it is just a logical extension of the use of a global folder. The apparent disapearance of mail is hoever unfortunate side effect and causes some angst on occasion.

Matt: Once again, thank you. I'm getting a handle on how to work with Thunderbird and your comments have helped a great deal.

I did have problems parsing your English above, but this is an artifact of a busy mind. The Internet has made us all writers, and sometimes we go a bit too quickly for proof-reading.

Thanks, in any case, for your kindness. That shines through, Matt.

Sincerely, Bob