Deleting Empty Folders from Archives Folder

[Budgie3]

My Archives Folder has many subfolders because we had set the archive settings to year and month.
We have now moved all the messages back into the inbox so that the sub folders in the Archives folder are empty of all messages. However when we try to delete an empty folder we get a message [ALREADYEXISTS] Target mailbox already exists.
What is happening here?

If I go to the server and remove the subfolder from the server, what happens to the empty subdirectories in Thunderbird

[Budgie3]

Forgot to tick the box for replies so am following this here.

[tanstaafl]

Try emptying the trash folder.

If you are using a IMAP account when you delete a remote folder using webmail the corresponding folder (and its children) is removed in Thunderbird though if its a special folder mentioned in the accounts settings such as a junk or sent folder Thunderbird might create a empty replacement.

[Budgie3]

Try emptying the trash folder.

If you are using a IMAP account when you delete a remote folder using webmail the corresponding folder (and its children) is removed in Thunderbird though if its a special folder mentioned in the accounts settings such as a junk or sent folder Thunderbird might create a empty replacement.

Hi tanstaafl,
Brilliant as usual so many thanks once more. I was getting nervous working at source (Roundcube) and needed to ask.
That has helped me remove all the redundant empty folders. Please could I ask a supplementary question.
Because the original setup had all the sent messages saved by year and month I have a similar problem. Of course I could run the archive programme in T'Bird now but I would prefer to have all the send messages just saved my year. Is there any easy way to put these messages back into whole year folders?

[tanstaafl]

Everything you can do via the archive command you can do yourself via drag and drop and/or menu commands. However, I suggest you try changing the account settings from monthly to yearly, create the desired year archive folders if they don't exist, drag and drop the contents of the monthly folders into the corresponding year folder and once you confirmed you have successfully moved everything get rid of the empty monthly archives.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Archiving_your_e-mail and https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/archived-messages

[Budgie3]

Everything you can do via the archive command you can do yourself via drag and drop and/or menu commands. However, I suggest you try changing the account settings from monthly to yearly, create the desired year archive folders if they don't exist, drag and drop the contents of the monthly folders into the corresponding year folder and once you confirmed you have successfully moved everything get rid of the empty monthly archives.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Archiving_your_e-mail and https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/archived-messages

I can move messages by drag and drop as you say but I don't recall how I created the subdirectories but have a problem. My archive settings are now by year and retaining directory structure. When I selected the messages which had been saved in Sent by month and selected the first month, selected all messages and archived them that was OK but when I did the same for month 2 expecting them to be added to the first archive folder all I had was month two messages and all month 1 messages have gone. Disappeared!

Any idea how I can recover the 200+ lost messages from year 11 month 01 sent mail?

[tanstaafl]

I was suggesting you either drag and drop or message->move, NOT use the archive command again on already archived messages.

Try using global search to search for all messages sent to somebody you likely sent mail to during that time period, sort by date, find one sent during that time period, and double click on it to open it. Then enable location, account etc. column headers for the folder listing as needed to let you identify where its actually stored. The rest should be in the same folder.

[Budgie3]

I was suggesting you either drag and drop or message->move, NOT use the archive command again on already archived messages.

Try using global search to search for all messages sent to somebody you likely sent mail to during that time period, sort by date, find one sent during that time period, and double click on it to open it. Then enable location, account etc. column headers for the folder listing as needed to let you identify where its actually stored. The rest should be in the same folder.

Hi and thanks but I was not working on archived messages in the "Archives" folder, the one with a "belt" around it on the icon but the yearly directories in Sent folder.
Even so I have lost the messages from T'Bird.
I went to webmail and have found them in the Archives>2011>Sent>2011>01 folder but this does not appear on T'Bird.
Back to drag and drop I fear.

[Budgie3]

Hi I forgot to ask. How do I create the correct folders in the Archives folder?

[tanstaafl]

Select the parent directory, right click on it, and chose "new sub-folder" from the context menu. Repeat as needed.

"I went to webmail and have found them in the Archives>2011>Sent>2011>01 folder but this does not appear on T'Bird."
Right click on the account name in the folder pane, select Subscribe, press Refresh and then chose/select whatever additional folders you want to become visible.