Cleaning up TB files: OK to delete these folders?

[ruauu2]

In Profiles>xxxxxxx.default>ImapMail I have eight folders and their associated .msf files.

I currently have five accounts in TB. I'm assuming the extra three folders are from accounts I have since deleted.

¿ Is there any reason to not delete the three folders belonging to old accounts providing I don't want any of the messages in them?

Thanks!

[DanRaisch]

Those directories could be deleted but you should back up the entire profile before doing so, just to be safe. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup

[ruauu2]

`
What is the Local Folders folder for (screenshot below) and is it okay to delete it?
`

[DanRaisch]

See this article -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Local_Folders

[ruauu2]

Thanks for the link - it helped.

One item in the article (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Local_Folders) doesn't make sense to me.

I know that with an IMAP account, the messages are on the server. But I thought they were also on the local machine. I can go into the profile and see the mbox file sizes roughly correspond with the number of messages. And I can open those files and see the messages.

So why does the page say "Conversely, if you use an IMAP e-mail account, mail is stored "remotely" (on the server) rather than being downloaded and stored "locally" (on your own computer)"?

Thank you!

[DanRaisch]

That's because local storage of messages with an IMAP account is optional. There are settings to enable local storage and synchronization of the messages with those on the server or to disable that. Find that option under menu path Tools->Account Settings->Synchronization & Storage->Keep messages for this account on this computer.

That synchronization would store copies of messages in Thunderbird's IMAP folders for the account. They would still be connected to the server so deleting a message in TB would delete the message on the server and vice versa. Messages copied or moved to the Local Folders structure would no longer be connected with the server and could be deleted without any impact on those on the server. Deleting messages on the server would not delete the copies stored in TB's Local Folders.