The only support for Thunderbird is through this Community forum where unpaid volunteers like me try to help people.

To summarize and to clarify:

You are seeing two main items in the Thunderbird folders: One for your e-mail address, and one called "Local Folders".

Explanation:

"Local Folders" is a standard set of folders in Thunderbird where messages can be saved on your computer. You cannot remove them. You don't have to use them if you don't want.

The set of folders for your e-mail address are either IMAP or POP.

IMAP means that the folders shown are on the e-mail server and the e-mails in those folders are NOT saved on your computer, just the server. A smartphone also accesses e-mail this way. You can copy or move e-mails from your IMAP folders to your "Local Folders" to save them on your computer.

POP means that the folders shown are on your computer and the e-mails in them are on your computer. Thunderbird asks for and receives all e-mails, then tells the server to delete them.

A POP e-mail address folder and sub-folders work the same as "Local Folders".

It sounds like you were previously using POP, and in the settings in Thunderbird, it was told to save your messages in "Local Folders" instead of separately under a set a folders under your e-mail address.

You can have this setup on your new computer the same as your old computer if you want. How it is done will depend on if you are using IMAP or POP for your e-mail now. If you want help doing this, then I will need to know if you are using IMAP or POP.

Providing your Troubleshooting Information here will tell me this.

Troubleshooting Information from Thunderbird: Thunderbird menu: Help: Troubleshooting Information Click the "Copy text to clipboard" button. Paste (Ctrl-V), the text into your response here.

Bruce, Thank you for the above help. I do not know if my old computer uses POP or IMAP but I am going to use the folders as they are for a while. they do take up space on the column so it would be nice to nor have them. it appears that I may be POP? C:\Users\Susan\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\zqen5i9k.default\Mail\pop.earthlink-1.net When I go in to Troubleshooting Information from Thunderbird: Thunderbird menu: Help: Troubleshooting Information Click the "Copy text to clipboard" button. THE Click the "Copy text to clipboard" button DOES NOTHING.

Other questions: I have a new computer. My new Thunderbird is different and I have many questions. Staples Office Supply transferred contents of old computer to the new. Many things are different. 1.Checking the all Thunderbird settings: Thunderbird Mail and Local Folders, were set up at Staples when I bought my new computer with Windows 10. EG: Server Settings on Thunderbird Mail: Check for new, every 10 minutes, is that a good setting? Leave messages on server, is set to 14 days. What is the recommended amount of days?

2.When i go on line, to EarthLink web mail to delete and make space, where can I arrange or set the command for email 2 be deleted? It seems I get a lot of notifications that web mail is almost full. My old computer rarely got these messages. Can i delete from my desk top or shorten the amount of days that they will remain on web mail so that it does not fill up? We travel and do not always have computer access, causing a big build up.

3. What is the difference between Thunderbird choices for Trash "empty" and "empty em"? They do not seem to delete from web mail?

3. I have Internet 2 icons the blue E Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, Under Tools in Thunderbird, the default search engine is Bing. How can I set my computer to have Microsoft Edge be my default?

4. How can I get a single lower case "i" to be a capital "I". I have permanently weak L hand fingers. I have put "I" in my EarthLink spell check but an "i" does not correct to "I".

5. I am getting a lot of junk mail on my new commuter, bad inappropriate spam, I have been clicking the flame then "delete". How do I get rid or block these emails, I did not used to get so many? What happens when I CK the Flame and then delete? Does that block that sender forever?

6. Why do I have web mail storage space occupied in my SENT box? I like having the record of sent emails and do not want to delete them but they take up my web allotment. What happens to my record of sent email on my computer, if I delete from the sent record file on the web mail? Do they remain on my computer?

7. Address book: List/group emails. I like to send notifications to several Lists/groups at a time, I used to be able to forward a notification and choose several Lists/groups, and send out to all, in 1 email. They used to send but now they won't, why? EG : An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: <Hiking Group>: "@" or "." expected after "Hiking". What is the problem?

Please check the message recipient "Hiking Group" and try again.  

8. If i leave the computer, it times out and turns OFF! This did not happen with my old computer. How can I change that setting?

9. Please Help me to set the type size and font style. I like this size and font style that I am using now but when I copy myself, then read the email I sent, it is in another font.. It used to be all the same as this font we are observing now. Why is this, where do I adjust it? When I respond to the above email, it continues in the different size and font (usually the old fashion type writer style font and small)...I do not like that.

10. Size of print when printing a document from email/Thunderbird. When I print 1page from an email, it often prints very large and takes 2 pages. Where and how to adjust that?

Thank you, Bruce. I hope you can help me with all 10 ?s. Susan Golightly

As a Windows computer tech, I can answer all your questions, even the ones that don't have to do with Thunderbird.

This note is to let you and others here know that I will answer all your questions, but it will take time to do so. Plus I'm going on my monthly shopping trip to the nearest city today, so I will tackle this when I return later today.

I started writing instructions for you for the various things you asked for, but then stopped and thought about this more.

When you said "THE Click the "Copy text to clipboard" button DOES NOTHING." I realized that you don't understand what the "clipboard" is, and copy & paste. Plus you didn't try to finish following my instructions, which was to paste ( press Ctrl-V), in your reply on the forum here, which would have done something.

This and other things you say make me conclude that you are not very good with computers. I don't say that to be insulting, just to state a fact and get to the heart of matters. I fear that that you may not understand or follow the instructions correctly that I would spend a long time writing.

I often wish that I can just fix a problem for the person directly, instead of spending lots of time creating instructions that I can only hope that are understood. It takes much less time and stress on both people.

Maybe someone else here might try to take on the task of creating instructions for you for all your issues. Maybe they can explain things better than I can.

Given the range of questions you posed (Windows as well as Thunderbird), and you probably have even more, I suggest you get someone to help you with all of them, even if you have to pay them. In fact, paying a professional to help will probably give better results than a "friend who understands computers better than you do".

Perhaps someone here can offer their services (free or paid), to help you by remotely controlling your computer and talking to you on the phone at the same time. Going through everything you want help with.

BUT ...

This is a free forum that is provided by Mozilla. Even though Mozilla does not provide paid support or one-on-one support for Thunderbird, I believe it would be bad form/behavior for people to publicly offer their paid services through this forum. There may even be an official rule about this, though I haven't seen it.