Checking for new messages in other folders - Thunderbird

You can only check for new messages in the Inbox folder on a POP server. You can have Thunderbird check for new messages in any remote folder in a IMAP account but it defaults to only checking the Inbox, forcing you to manually check for new mail in each remote folder by clicking on it. There are two ways to avoid this:

• Go to each remote folder, right-click on it, select Properties, and check the checkmark for "Check this folder for new messages".

• Add the user_pref("mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new", true); preference to prefs.js or user.js . This will make Thunderbird check every remote folder for new mail. The downside is there is no way to exclude a specific folder (such as a junk mail folder). This preference broke around v0.6 and started working again in v1.0.2.

You may want to also check the checkmark for "Tools → Options → Advanced → Show expanded columns in the folder pane" and then click on "Unread" and/or "Total" in the small column control at the upper right corner of the folder pane.

If you do that you could also add the following to the optional userChrome.css file in the chrome directory in the profile to make it easier to see which folders have new mail:

/* Turn the font red and bold if folder has unread mail */
treechildren:-moz-tree-cell-text(hasUnreadMessages-true) {
color: red !important;
}

If you are the admin for the IMAP server you may be able to configure it to check for new mail in all folders and notify the email client using the IDLE command. For example you could do this with a Courier IMAP server by setting IMAP_CHECK_ALL_FOLDERS=1 and IMAP_ENHANCEDIDLE=1 in the IMAPD file and installing the File Alteration Monitor (FAM) package. This would effect every email client using that IMAP server regardless of whether or not the user wanted to check all folders.

See also

• Download messages from other folders

External links

• Sync On Arrival extension