Create "Local Folders" without adding a mail account?

[Sniperman]

Hi everyone,

Is it possible to create "Local Folders" in Thunderbird without adding a mail account? I need to be able to view Gmail .mbox files for ex-employees within Thunderbird, and it's a huge pain to have to add my personal Hotmail account temporarily on work machines just to get the aforementioned folders created. Once the folders exist, I remove my Hotmail account and use the ImportExportTool add-on to import the .mbox files. The steps I'm following are listed here:

https://backupify.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... r-computer

An example of the "Local Folders" I speak of:



Much thanks,
-Snipe

[tanstaafl]

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Local_Folders . Local Folders is a pseudo account that normally exists by default. However, you can rename that account, just like you can do for any account. If you look at tools -> account settings -> local folders you should notice it (whatever it might be called) just has "disk space" and "junk settings" underneath it - no "server settings", "copies & folders" etc. like real accounts do.

Use help -> troubleshooting information -> local folders to open windows explorer at your profile. Check that you have a Mail\Local Folders directory.

[Sniperman]

tanstaafl, the problem is that when I opened Thunderbird for the first time the "Folders" pane was completely empty (i.e. no "Local Folders" listed). These folders only appeared after I started adding my personal Hotmail account and then clicked Stop/Cancel. Is there a way to populate the Folders pane with "Local Folders" without going through the motion of adding and removing a mail account that actually exists?

Thanks,
-Snipe

[tanstaafl]

In the past if I created a new profile and aborted the new account wizard without adding an account, Local Folders was listed in the folder pane. That is why I was asking about the physical directory. However, I just tried that using the latest version (38.3.0). The folder pane is empty. Help -> Troubleshooting Information shows that nothing exists (including Local Folders). If I look at the profile the Mail directory doesn't even exist. Local Folders isn't added until I add an account.

It looks like integrating the calendar support has drastically changed things. If you want the old behavior you'd need to use a version before 38. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Go_back_to_an ... hunderbird

[Sniperman]

Bummer, thanks for trying to duplicate the behavior! At this point I'm likely just going to create a B.S. Hotmail account just for this purpose =P.

Much thanks,
-Snipe

[newcxl]

Creating a new Feed account allowed me to access local folders without adding an existing email account.

Preferences > Account settings > Account actions > Add feed account ...

"Local Folders" are now on the sidebar for my profile. I am using Icedove 31.8.0, so maybe this fix wont work for you.

[mgagnonlv]

You have a few possibilities.

1. Use the extension Local Folder
This extension allows you to have more than one set of local folders. It is listed to be compatible with Thunderbird 17-31, and I haven't used it lately so I don't know how it works (or doesn't) with TB 38.


2. Use folder(s) within the Local Folders hierarchy.
Are you using your Hotmail account with POP or IMAP? Because, if you were using it (and all your other email accounts) in IMAP, then your "Local Folders" archive would not be attached to any email account and you would not be asked for a password.

So, in short, do something like this (and it would work whether you have POP or IMAP mail accounts:
– Local Folders
– –> Archive for Gmail Account 1
– .... –> sub-folder 1
– .... –> sub-folder 2
– –> Archive for Gmail Account 2
etc.

[Sniperman]

newcxl, thank you so much! I was able to add a Feed with a b.s. name and then remove it. I now have a populated set of "Local Folders" that I can use to import .mbox files.