Hi, If you delete the folders and messages, the chance to be deleted from your hosting provider is high. If you "Remove the account" you are just disconnecting it from Thunderbird without deleting it forever from your email hosting provider.

I hope that helps!

Thank you, I appreciate your input. I could be more clear.

I want to change internet providers which will then close my email account with them.

I am wondering if the emails that are already showing in Thunderbird inbox and sent folders will erase them from Thunderbird once I close the internet provider account. I will keep using Thunderbird but use a different provider.

Thanks again!

To be extra safe, I encourage copying POP folders into new Local Folders folders to explicitly remove them from any account association. For IMAP accounts, I suggest clicking File>work offline>download to ensure that all content is on the PC. Then, copy to Local Folders folders to be safe. You can use the import/export utility, but I tend to use the down-and-dirty approach of exiting TB, and in windows file explorer to copy the message folders from POP or IMAPMAIL folders to the Mail\Local Folders folder, and then restart TB .

I suggest doing this FIRST. If, for example, you close an IMAP account, when you then start thunderbird, the IMAP logic may cause the messages on PC to be deleted.