POP would feel more familiar to you.

The way to make IMAP behave like that is to move messages from their account into the Local Folders account.

If you have no need for the capabilities of IMAP, specifically being able to work with your email via multiple devices, then go for POP. But bear in mind that Microsoft in particular seem bent on eliminating POP.

I do need to access email from different devices - Android phone and sometimes other PC's. The way I have always managed it is to designate one PC as my main PC and have it download messages and delete from the server. Other devices are set up to leave messages on the server.

Is there a way to automatically send downloaded messages into a local folder? I can't find one. If not, I guess I'd better go back to POP and hope there is a solution when Microsoft pulls the plug,

Message Filters can move a message to any folder. Look under "Tools" in the main menu.

http://www.flossmanuals.net/thunderbird/filters/

I have read the material about filters and it seems like that might be a solution. It looks like they work like rules in Outlook and I'm familiar with those. I'll give it a try, Thanks again for the prompt responses. It might have taken me a while to figure out what filters can do.

thank you.