Confusion about the behavior of "Archive in Local Folders"

[chansey97]

I have many old email accounts (some of them will no longer be used), so I want to download all old messages in these accounts to a local directory for unified management.
My current approach is moving the messages from old accounts to Local Folders.

But I have some Confusion about the behavior of "Archive in Local Folders":
When I Archive a message in Local Folders, the message will go back to original email account ?
Is it a correct behavior?

Is there any way to make thunderbird create Archives folder in Local Folders, just like an ordinary mail account?

I am using IMAP and thunderbird version is 52.60.

Thanks.

[DanRaisch]

For each account, create a specific sub-folder under Local Folders that will be associated with the account. Then point that account's archive functions to the appropriate sub-folder. To do that you'll need to define the archive target folder for each account using menu path Tools->Account Settings->Copies & Folders->Message Archives->Other->select the just created account specific archive sub-folder of Local Folder. Once this set up process is done you can archive message by selecting them in the message list display and then pressing "A" or right clicking on the message in the list and selecting "Archive" from the context menu displayed.

[chansey97]

For each account, create a specific sub-folder under Local Folders that will be associated with the account. Then point that account's archive functions to the appropriate sub-folder.

Thanks DanRaisch.

But this method will still cause the message to return to the original mailbox if I reset the archive functions to the original directory.

For example:
1. I have email-account1@gmail.com and set the archive functions to Local Folders/email-account1/.
2. Then I archive all messages in email-account1.
3. After archiving, I reset the archive functions to email-account1@gmail.com/Archives/.
4. In Local Folders/email-account1/, I click a message and press 'A', the message still return to email-account1@gmail.com.

Is there any way to make the messages in Local Folders/email-account1/ not return to email-account1@gmail.com?
Because some of the accounts will still be used, I only want to archive old messages.

[DanRaisch]

I don't understand why you would revert the archive setting to the gmail account location. Nor do I understand why you would use the "A" to archive a message from the archive location to an active account location. Archiving should be a unidirectional process, from active to archive location.

[chansey97]

Nor do I understand why you would use the "A" to archive a message from the archive location to an active account location. Archiving should be a unidirectional process, from active to archive location.

Because I want to disconnect the link between message and account.

For example:
If I use another account(eg: email-account-achives@gmail.com) instead of Local Folders, everything is OK.

Compare the following two solution:

Solution 1 :
1. I have email-account1@gmail.com and set the archive functions to Local Folders/email-account1/.
2. Then I archive all messages in email-account1@gmail.com.
3. After archiving, I reset the archive functions to email-account1@gmail.com/Archives/.
4. In Local Folders/email-account1/, I click a message and press 'A', the message still return to email-account1@gmail.com.

Solution 2:
1. I have email-account1@gmail.com and set the archive functions to email-account-achives@gmail.com/email-account1/.
2. Then I archive all messages in email-account1@gmail.com.
3. After archiving, I reset the archive functions to email-account1@gmail.com/Archives/.
4. In email-account-achives@gmail.com/email-account1/, I click a message and press 'A', the message will move to email-account-achives@gmail.com/Achives/ (That is OK!)

Solution 2 is what I want.
But why the behavior of Local Folders is not as the same as email-account-achives@gmail.com?

I can use Solution 2 to achieve my purpose. The problem is that many free email accounts have size limit.
(Perhaps the only way is to deploy an own email server?)