Global Inbox

Beginning with version 0.8, Thunderbird now has a Global Inbox feature that allows you to have your mail from multiple POP accounts go into a single Inbox, in Local Folders. You can choose to have all or only some of your POP accounts use the Global Inbox, as you wish. Each account that does not use the Global Inbox will have its own set of folders, including its own Inbox, displayed in the folders pane. Accounts that do use the Global Inbox will not have their own folders displayed in the folders pane; instead, all you will see is the single set of folders in Local Folders.

When creating a new account

When you create a new POP mail account in Thunderbird, the Account Wizard will ask if you want to use the Global Inbox for that account. If you do, then make sure that the box for this feature is checked. If you don't, then make sure the box is unchecked.

Changing the Global Inbox setting for an existing account

Go to Tools > Account Settings > Server Settings, click on the Advanced button, and then in the dialog box that pops up click on the "POP" tab.

To set the account to use the Global Inbox, select "Global Inbox (Local Folders Account)" and click OK.

Important: if the account already has messages in the Inbox or other folders, you should copy or move these messages into Local Folders before setting the account to use the Global Inbox. If you don't copy or move the messages into Local Folders and you set the account to use the Global Inbox, the account will no longer be displayed in the folders pane and you will not be able to access those messages unless you go back and undo the Global Inbox setting. Also, if you have set up any filters that filter mail into this account, you should disable/delete them or change the destination folder.

To set the account to not use the Global Inbox, select either "Inbox for this server's account" or "Inbox for different account" and click OK.

Exit Thunderbird and restart before downloading mail into any account whose Inbox/Global Inbox setting you've changed. If you do not exit and restart, messages might continue to download into their "old" locations (e.g., into the individual account Inbox rather than the Global Inbox).